Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
form
Posted By: je froilan m. clerigo
27-May-2008
prepared.
When discussing the outline of the witness' testimony, the lawyer does not
give the witness a copy, however. He recognizes the danger that, during
cross-exam, the witness may be required to produce the outline if he
unwittingly mentions it. If he does produce the outline, it will give the
impression that he was coached.
The lawyer merely discusses with the witness the facts he wishes to
extract from the testimony. For instance, if the witness is an eye-witness,
the lawyer may tell him, "What I will be asking you questions about will
focus mainly on what you saw happened at the time of the event, and my
questions may require some detailed answers. I may also ask you why you
were there at the time, where you were located while the events were
happening, and other questions which will provide the context of your
testimony."
Then - and this is key - he give the witness the topical points of the
testimony, explaining to him its general order, where the probable
beginning, middle and end will be, but always assuring him not to worry
about the particular order as it is not written in stone and may, therefore,
change. The witness must know the topics and the facts that will be taken
up within these topics.
Because of this discussion, he will instinctively recognize these topics as
his direct examination goes along.
It is also important that beforehand, the lawyer must have already
discussed with the witness the role that his testimony will play in the case.
For instance, the lawyer may say "You are an eyewitness to the robbery.
Your testimony is therefore very important because it is you who can identify
who the robbers were. You were there while the robbery was going on, so
you can describe to the judge what the robbers did during and after the
robbery, what was taken from you, and your mental state while the robbery
was going on." This will make the witness aware of the significance of the
topics that the lawyer will ask him during the examination.
The lawyer does not rehearse the witness by going through a written Q &
A with him. This will just make the witness nervous: he knows that when he
takes the stand, only his lawyer will have a copy of the "script" while he will
only have his memory to rely on. He may think he may screw up, forget
something, or answer a question incorrectly.
But, perhaps just to give him a feel of how the questions will be phrased,
the lawyer can ask him a couple of sample questions to answer during the
discussion. But, he has to be reminded that the words of the questions are
not important: the lawyer may ask it in a different way, especially when
there is an objection from the other lawyer. What is important is he
understands the question and he should answer as he understood it, taking
into account the topics that the lawyer discussed with him earlier.