The “Writing Better Judgments 1/2023” Course was held on 9th - 11th March 2023 (Thursday-Saturday) at The Saujana Hotel Kuala Lumpur. The course objective was to introduce the concepts which aim to improve ability as a writer of judgments to write reasons that are clear, concise, comprehensive, coherent and convincing (‘5Cs’).

This three-day course consisted of 11 sessions namely “Why Good Judgments Matter?”, “Issues Based Approach to Judgment Writing: The Conceptual Framework”, “The First Page and Creating Headings”, “First Breakout Group Session: Individual Feedback Session and Exercise on Re-writing the First Page and Creating Headings”, “Challenges of Judgment Writing” / “The Structural Construct of an Issues Based Judgment”, “The Road to Judgment”, “Workshop on Practical Issue Identification”, “Second Breakout Group Session: Workshop – Review of the Re-written First Page and List of Headings”, “Issues Based Approach Judgment Writing in Criminal Cases (Section 39B of The Dangerous Drugs Act 1952)”, “Managing Procrastination and Competing Priorities” and “Third Breakout Group Session: Workshop – Review of The Re-written Submitted Judgment”.

Each participant was given a task to rewrite a sample of judgment ground based on the suggested principles in this course and then submitted the judgement to the facilitators of their respective groups. The participants were divided into four groups consisting of six members per group. The participants of each group were guided by three facilitators who are Judges from Federal Court and the Court of Appeal.

A total of 24 participants consisting of six High Court Judges and 18 Judicial Commissioners participated in the course. The facilitators of this course were The Right Honourable Tan Sri Datuk Amar Abang Iskandar bin Abang Hashim, President of the Court of Appeal, Malaysia; The Right Honourable Dato’ Abdul Rahman bin Sebli, Chief Judge of the High Court in Sabah and Sarawak; The Honourable Datuk Vernon Ong Lam Kiat, Federal Court Judge cum the Chairman of the Training Committee of Malaysian Judicial Academy; The Honourable Dato’ Zabariah binti Mohd. Yusof, Federal Court Judge; The Honourable Dato’ Sri Hasnah binti Dato' Mohammed Hashim, Federal Court Judge; The Honourable Dato’ Mary Lim Thiam Suan, Federal Court Judge; The Honourable Datuk Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal, Federal Court Judge; The Honourable Dato’ Nordin bin Hassan, Federal Court Judge; The Honourable Datuk Abdul Karim bin Abdul Jalil, Judge of the Court of Appeal; The Honourable Datuk Hanipah binti Farikullah, Judge of the Court of Appeal; The Honourable Datuk Seri Kamaludin bin Md Said, Judge of the Court of Appeal; The Honourable Dato’ Has Zanah binti Mehat, Judge of the Court of Appeal; The Honourable Dato’ Lee Swee Seng, Judge of the Court of Appeal; The Honourable Datuk Hajah Azizah binti Haji Nawawi, Judge of the Court of Appeal; The Honourable Datuk Vazeer Alam bin Mydin Meera, Judge of the Court of Appeal; The Honourable Datuk Ravinthran a/l N. Paramaguru, Judge of the Court of Appeal; and The Honourable Dato’ Gunalan a/l Muniandy, Judge of the Court of Appeal.