Rules of Cross Examination

RULES OF CROSS-EXAMINATION

1. The cross-examination is intuitive like music and painting.
2. It is a mental dual between the counsel and the witness.
3. The counsel has to adopt a number of tactics to elicit truth from the witness. Perfection can be achieved by training, practice, and experience.
4. Never take your eyes from that of the witness, keep up the channel of communication from one mind to another during the course of examination.
5. Be mild with the mild, shrewd with the crafty, confiding with the honest, merciful to the young, frail, and fearful: rough to the ruffian and a thunderbolt to the liar.
6. An equivocal question shall be avoided.
7. Be careful when dealing with a witty or refractory witness; do not lose your temper. Anger is always either the precursor or evidence of assured defeat in every intellectual treat.
8. Do not bend your mind upon partial and temporary success; otherwise, defeat is bound to happen in the end.
9. Never undervalue your adversary.
10. Be respectful to the court, kind to your colleagues, civil to your antagonist, but without any compromise on the principle of your duty.
11. Never commence cross-examination without the best preparation relating to your brief, concerning the witness and the point on which he would be called upon to dispose.
12. Always attack the witness under cross-examination at the weakest point.
13. Do not begin with your bad witness; begin with the best.
14. Never attack a witness's character unless you have a record of it.
15. Do not make too much of immaterial discrepancies.
16. Do not examine a witness in a language that is above the level of the witness.
17. Do not cross-examine excessively when the offense is only technical.
18. When the offense is proved to the hilt, try to reduce the gravity of the offense by presenting mitigating circumstances in favor of the accused.
19. If the witness is enthusiastic or exaggerating, allow them to exaggerate the matter until the exaggeration becomes apparently absurd.
20. Do not cross-examine a moderate witness severely.
21. Do not press an unwilling or reticent witness too much.
22. Do not ask for more information from a witness than is necessary in cross-examination.