SUCCINCT, HONEST TESTIMONY

As a supervisor, it is your responsibility to periodically evaluate your employees’ testimony. While watching one of your employees testify, you observed that he precisely and succinctly answered each question put to him. However, the questions posed by the attorneys were phrased in such a way that pertinent testimony was not heard by the jury. When you pointed this out to your employee, his response was that he listened carefully to what was being asked and answered everything honestly and completely without adding information not asked for. He added that it’s not his problem if the attorneys don’t know what to ask.

Although a pretrial conference is ideal, it does not always occur. And consider this issue if tthe witness is working for the defense attorney and does not have the opportunity for a pretrial interview with the prosecution. I think that the witness should try to answer the questions fully and if the question does not help him(her) to fully explain the meaning of the evidence, then the answer should be expanded upon. Now, having said that, there are  times that an attorney will object that the answer is beyond the question. But at least the witness will have let the court know that there is a more indepth answer to be given.

There are testimony techniques that help the expert to fully explain him(her)self.