Playwright: Suzie Miller
Format: One-woman play
Subject: Criminal justice, sexual assault law, class, and moral reversal
Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.5/5)
For law students, the prima facie script is the difference between an A and a B. Judges in competitions often ask: "Counsel, please state your prima facie elements." Without a memorized script, you lose credibility instantly.
1. A Masterclass in Dramatic Irony Miller’s script is structurally brilliant. The first 45 minutes are almost uncomfortable in their gleeful cynicism. Tessa mocks “weeping witnesses,” coaches juries on how to spot “inconsistent” victims, and celebrates every acquittal. When the assault happens (offstage, but described in visceral detail), every clever line she ever spoke becomes a knife turned inward. The script doesn’t just show hypocrisy—it weaponizes it. prima facie script
2. Legal Precision without Pedantry Miller, a former human rights and criminal defense lawyer, writes courtroom procedure with authentic bite. Terms like hearsay, burden of proof, and reverse onus aren’t jargon; they are emotional obstacles. The climax—where Tessa realizes that her own case would fail under the very rules she championed—is a gut-punch of logical and moral collapse.
3. The Monologue Form as Confinement Unlike many one-person shows that feel like TED Talks, Prima Facie uses the solo format to mirror isolation. There are no other actors because, after the assault, Tessa has no one. Her mother, her boss, the police, the jury—they are all voices she must conjure alone. The script’s rapid shifts between cross-examination, internal monologue, and direct address create a feverish, trapped energy.
4. The Final Ten Pages (No Spoilers) The ending is not a neat victory. Miller refuses the fantasy of a perfect legal remedy. Instead, Tessa finds a loophole not in law but in language—changing the question from “What did you do?” to “What happened to you?” The final monologue, where she speaks directly to “any woman in a room alone with a man,” is raw, angry, and hauntingly unresolved. It earns its catharsis without lying. Review: Prima Facie – A Devastating Cross-Examination of
If you need to draft a prima facie script for a brief or oral argument, follow this five-step template.
In legal contexts, prima facie (Latin for "at first sight") refers to a case that is sufficient to establish a fact or raise a presumption unless disproven by contrary evidence. If we extend this metaphor to storytelling and cognition, every human interaction, historical event, or scientific inquiry begins with a "prima facie script"—an initial narrative drafted from the first available evidence. This essay argues that while the prima facie script is an unavoidable cognitive shortcut, its danger lies in our tendency to mistake it for a final draft, rather than treating it as a provisional hypothesis awaiting revision.
An AI can scan discovery documents and output: The Script’s Strengths 1
"Prima facie script for fraud found: (1) Misrepresentation identified in email dated 10/2 – Yes; (2) Knowledge of falsity – Yes (contradictory memo); (3) Intent to induce reliance – Yes; (4) Justifiable reliance – pending; (5) Damages – $2.3M."
This does not replace lawyers, but it allows firms to run 100 prima facie scripts per hour. The lawyer’s job becomes editing the AI’s script for strategy and nuance.