by Thokozile Gurganious

Created on: August 04, 2009

In a courtroom, usually, after the attorneys finish their opening statements, in which they tell the jurors what the evidence will prove, then the staging of the evidence starts. The presentation of evidence is mainly done by calling witnesses to testify on client's behalf. The party calling the witnesses gets the chance to do what is called direct examination or examination in chief. Direct examination is the "initial questioning of a witness by the party that called the witness. Direct examination consists of questions asked in a direct form, that is, a form which does not suggest the answer, such as "Where were you on July 18th?" Direct examination is conducted of witnesses who are friendly to the questioner." The main aim of direct examination is to elicit evidence favorable to the party that called the witness testifying.

After the direct examination, the opposing party then gets a chance to ask the witness questions in cross-examination. Cross-examination is "the opportunity to question any witness, including your opponent, who testifies against you on direct examination." Cross-examination serves the purpose "to try to show how that witness's testimony should not be given the authority for which it was elicited. Television is a wonderful medium for showing how cross-examination is used to discredit, weaken, impeach, and undermine testimony, but a good attorney will also often use this time to simultaneously curry favorable opinions from the witness toward that attorney's client's position." Terance Moran in his book says that "cross examination is to test the truth and accuracy of the matter being asserted by the witness. It may have as its aim a desire to show a witness as unreliable, biased, uncertain or simply not to be believed. A witness may be discredited, and at the very least cross-examination offers an opportunity to display to a court that the matters revealed in examination in chief are not accepted unchallenged, nor in all their particulars. This part of the proceedings has broad objectives. The cross examiner must put his case to the witness. That is, he must question on those points on which accounts diverge. Cross-examination may elicit extra, and to the defense, useful facts, and it may discredit the evidence previously given in examination in chief." In a nutshell, it is in cross-examination that lawyers get a chance to discredit a witness. Here are some strategies that lawyers may use to discredit witnesses:

1. The use of leading

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