Cross Examination

Cross-examination gets a long, technically rigorous chapter that distinguishes supportive cross (eliciting helpful evidence from an adverse witness) from discrediting cross (impeachment). It walks students through preparation, scope, structure, leading-question form, and witness control techniques — including the human-behavior explanation of why witnesses agree to leading questions they would rather resist. Specialty sections cover witnesses with communication issues, evasive witnesses, and reputation witnesses, followed by a thorough impeachment treatment: bias, perceptual deficiencies, memory, inconsistent conduct, criminal record, and the full prior-inconsistent-statement framework with the foundation steps to introduce them. Best suited for an advanced trial advocacy course or a witness-examination intensive.