Conversation and Cross-Examination

by JLS
for the GC

from

http://web.bham.ac.uk/forensic/IAFL03/abstracts.html

S. Hale, "Power and control in the courtroom"

"In the courtroom, there are clearly powerful and
powerless participants: lawyers are granted the institutional
power to ask the questions and set the agenda, whereas witnesses
are expected to adopt submissive role and to answer only the
questions asked of them."

"Lawyers use a number of strategies to ensure that they control, not only the questions asked, but also the answers proffered."

"The use of specific question types, repetition and modality are some of these strategies."

"However, even though the powerful participants have such legitimised institutional power to control the discourse of the powerless participants, my study has found that lawyers do not exercise that court given power throughout the whole of the proceedings."

"In other words, the seemingly powerless participants can at times control the situation and become powerful."

"My study has also found that strategies used by lawyers to control witnesses do not always achieve the expected outcomes."

"This paper will present the results of a data based study which has shown the factors that lead to lawyers' loss of control in the courtroom."

"These factors include:"

"(1) the number of questions required to obtain a desired answer,"

"(2) the number of topics introduced by witnesses,

"(3) narrative answers provided by witnesses,"

"(4) questions posed by witnesses,"

"(5) counsel excluded from the exchange by the interpreter and the witness holding discussions in the other language,"

"(6) counsel resorting to the use of the third person when speaking through an interpreter," and

"(7) interruptions to counsel's questions by (a) the witness, (b) the interpreter, (c) the magistrate and (d) the counsel for the other side, including objections."