Skeleton argumentsWitnesses:evidenceSkeleton argumentsFinal determination of application
15.22As noted above (para 15.15), Pilot PD 4B/PD 13B envisages that the parties will each provide skeleton arguments in advance of the final hearing. The courts have repeatedly emphasised that skeleton arguments should be just that – ie skeletal. In the course of a judgment given in the Court of Appeal, but of equal relevance to proceedings before the Court of Protection, Mummery LJ emphasised that:
… skeleton arguments should not be prepared as verbatim scripts to be read out in public or as footnoted theses to be read in private. Good skeleton arguments are tools with practical uses: an agenda for the hearing, a summary of the main points, propositions and arguments to be developed orally, a useful way of noting citations and references, a convenient place for making cross references, a time-saving means of avoiding unnecessary dictation to the court and laborious and pointless note-taking by the court.
1See Raja v Van Hoogstraten (No 9) [2009] 1 WLR 1143 at para 126 per Mummery LJ.