15.41 - 1. Control Through Questions

• Jurisdiction: New York

1. Control Through Questions

The dynamics of witness control require that the witness be made to feel that he must respond to the examiner’s questions in the way the question mandates. The form of the question is the most important control method and, as previously noted, most cross-examinations should be conducted with tight, short, single-fact, simple, specific, leading questions in plain language that clearly require a “yes” or “no” answer. While occasionally it is good practice to break the monotony with an open-ended question in a noncontroversial, safe area where the witness knows that the answer is known and has been previously documented, one open-ended question too many can turn an otherwise effective cross-examination into an exercise in suicide.

The cross-examiner should exert control with the form of the...