Bad Habits to Avoid

• Author: John Hollander
• Pages: 33-46

bad habits to avoid

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chapter three

Bad Habits to Avoid

   are good ways to ask questions, so are there

poor ways to ask questions. Good questions encourage an-

swers that advance the case, while poor questions are those

that confuse witnesses, provoke objections unintention-

ally, and generally fail to advance the case of the examiner.

Examiners confront this situation often. Both the

examiner and the opposition lawyer may ask a question

in a clumsy fashion. If the question is poorly phrased, the

most common (and eective) solution is to rephrase it. If

you are criticized by a judge or even by an opponent in

respect of an imperfect question, apologize modestly. An

apology works wonders, in most cases. No one is perfect,

so learn to recover from a mistake. To paraphrase Hip-

pocrates, do no (more) harm.

If your opponent blunders, an objection may set that

lawyer on the right path. Ask yourself how you would

respond if your opponent were to make that objection

when you blunder.

Consider what makes a question unsuitable: perhaps

it cannot be understood by the witness; it allows the wit-

ness to answer something outside the intended parameters;