Mastering the Courtroom Attorney in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Effective Cross-Examination?

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Cross-examination is more of an art than a science and you’ve got to learn by doing and young lawyers need the experience, number one. But the art is in reading the witness and playing to the witness’ weaknesses. Every cross-examination is going to be different. For example, do I want this witness to argue with me? Do I want the witness to quibble over every question I ask do I want to give him that rope? Do I want the witness to lie to me? Will I do more damage by attacking this witness than not? You’ve got to be able to recognize that as you go and probably the biggest mistake that young lawyers make is they’ll have a set of prepared questions or an outline and they don’t want to deviate from that outline. A lot of times just because a question is on your outline doesn’t mean you should ask it and conversely, if a question’s not there you’ve got to realize when you’ve got to adapt and ask one. So learning on the fly, listening to the witness, reading the witness that’s the art of cross-examination and like I say, you need to learn that by doing and young lawyers today don’t get a lot experience doing that because a lot of cases just aren’t tried.

Minneapolis, MN litigator David Olsen talks about what makes the most effective cross-examination.

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