The world inside a courtroom is much different that what you see behind the camera, lights and make-up of television and film. The reality of legal cases is not so glamorous, and depending on the personal injury attorney you select, the speeches and arguments not so polished and professional.
At Murphy & Prachthauser, we believe in being good lawyers who help people, and we are proud to provide educational materials to help you if you ever find yourself involved in an accident or injury legal case.
With that in mind, here are seven things your personal injury attorney should never do in a cross-examination:
- Be rude, sarcastic and confrontational to the witness. That lets the jury know that the witness has harmed you and that you have no good material with which to cross-examine the witness. This shows the jury that you are scared and you are frustrated.
- Bury your best material in the middle of a lengthy boring cross-examination. Better late than never!
- Ask compound, complex questions using complicated legal vocabulary. Who cares if they understand you – they are not nearly as smart as you are.
- Nit-pick and bring out terribly minor inconsistencies between a lengthy deposition transcript and the witness’ courtroom testimony.
- Read your questions to the witness and don’t bother to listen to the answers.
- Don’t practice your cross-examination — just wing it — know that the jury loves to hear you talk.
- Don’t show the material you are using to the jury. Ignore the fact that some of us are visual learners, some emotional, some auditory.
After reading the 7 things your attorney should never do, just know that there are many experienced, qualified and knowledgeable personal injury attorneys who can help you, while still being respectful to the jury, the judge and the witnesses. You might be interested in our recent blog post: 4 Things To Expect In A Consultation With A Personal Injury Attorney.
At Murphy & Prachthauser we practice personal injury law the way it should be practiced – motivated and equipped to do our best for you. We take pride in being good lawyers who help people.
If you have a case you would like to speak to a lawyer about, please contact us to schedule a free case consultation and get an experienced team of lawyers working on your behalf.