Alabama Personal Injury Trial Part Three – Direct Examination
Direct examination is when we put our own client or own witness on the stand and ask questions. Sometimes this is an overlooked part of the trial on the part of lawyers because cross-examination is typically viewed as more exciting; but this is a critical part of the trial.
Direct examination is distinguished from cross-examination in that there are no leading questions allowed. A leading question is one which suggests the answer to the witness. Direct examination questions typically are who, what, when, why, and how questions. It is important for us as lawyers to not try to become the star of the show but instead to let the jury see and evaluate and experience that our client is testifying to. If our client is talking about the pain that resulted from the truck crashing into their car, then we want the jury to be focused on that and to not pay attention to us. If a client is talking about the difficulties that the injury has left him with, we want the jury putting themselves in the shoes of our client and experiencing that. The best way for this to happen is for the jury to hear it from the client, in her own words, with her own emotions.
There is a great deal of preparation which must be undertaken in order to prepare you for a direct examination certainly expect our clients to give us as much time as we need with them, so that they can testify truthfully as to what happened and not be nervous, unclear or focused on the process of testifying instead of focused on the substance.
We want our witnesses and our clients to focus on the substance of what happened and be able to communicate that clearly to the jury so that the jury can use that in making its decision as to who should win the case and how much in damages should be awarded to our client.
In our next blog post, will look at Cross-Examination.
