Cross-Examination Favorites
March 31, 2005
Effective cross-examination requires experience. I have suggested that twenty-five jury trials represent a minimum measure of the experience that is necessary. Twenty five jury trials, of course, take time. How can experience be accelerated? There is something you can do to condense the process of acquiring the necessary eperience. Even if you have the experience, I think it can be helpful, even to an older, mature trial lawyer to do as much.
In one word, read. I don't mean read law. There is too much law as it is. Most of it better left unread. But there is a small library of books about trial lawyers, trial judges, and trials. Most of these books are contemptible as literature, but I recomment them as sources of vicarious experience.
Irving Younger, "The Art of Cross-Examination" at 32 (ABA 1975). Please leave your favorite books or websites that deal with cross-examination, or trial tactics in general, in the comments section.