Prepping the CEO: it is important - and hard - to teach some witnesses not to hurt themselves
Article Abstract:
Witnesses should be prepared to follow three rules of thumb when cross-examined, to listen to the question, to answer just the question asked and not offer supplementary material, and to tell the truth. Important witnesses such as chief executive officers are the corporation to judge and jury, and evasive answers or appearing as if trying to hide something could have drastic results. Giving answers which although technically truthful still mislead could also be viewed as devious.
Publication Name: ABA Journal
Subject: Law
ISSN: 0747-0088
Year: 1996
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Straight talk on direct; when done well, examining a witness is like a conversation
Article Abstract:
Every direct examination is a story and should be put together like one. Because lawyers have the tools to guide the witness on direct, they can also shape a story to make it understandable by the jury. They must make the jury see the facts from the client's point of view so they identify with the plaintiff's side of the case. That gets lost in organizing facts around legal issues, as lawyers were taught to do in law school.
Publication Name: ABA Journal
Subject: Law
ISSN: 0747-0088
Year: 1998
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: Preparing witnesses for depositions; the most important trip to the woodshed. Witness profiles: be observant of characteristics that will appeal to jurors or turn them off
- Abstracts: To the rescue; organizing the bar to support solo and small-firm practitioners. Has the parade passed us by? Solo practitioners march on through tough times
- Abstracts: The waiting at the (patent) bar is over - the Supreme Court decides Hilton Davis. Do the means justify the end - a matter of Bond, Bowles, the office and 35 U.S.C. s. 112, paragraph 6
- Abstracts: Chancellor Allen, the business judgment rule, and the shareholders' right to decide. Around the country, parties are litigating the issue of whether a provision of the 1995 Private Securities Litigation Reform Act amending RICO is retroactive
- Abstracts: Rehabilitation; different ways to climb out of a hole. Helping the witness; techniques for keeping witnesses out of trouble