Trial Techniques – The Art of Cross-Examination – Part VII

Rule No. 3 of 12: The successful cross-examiner avoids the appearance of pettiness, nit-picking or unfairness to the witness.
Even though we practice in an adversarial system, there is no necessity to be adversarial with the cross-examination of each and every witness. Righteous indignation needs to be saved for appropriate occasions where the witness is clearly lying or needs to be exposed for some form of aggravated misconduct. Counsel must reserve outrage and indignation for the proper case.
If trial counsel is unfair to any witness or is otherwise petty, the jury may subliminally hold this against counsel and by definition counsel’s client. Thus, the third rule of successful cross-examination is to be fair but firm in the cross-examination of all witnesses and where appropriate, adversarial, provided the case justifies it.