WITNESSES IN COURT

Taranaki Daily News, 29 April 1930, Page 11

WITNESSES IN COURT

“AT MERCY OF LAWYERS.”

CROSS-EXAMINATION METHODS.

An interesting account of the origin of modern legal procedure was give]} by ' Mr. C. H. Weston, Crown Prosecutor in New Plymouth, in a paper upon "Nisi Prius,” at the annual conference of the New Zealand Law Society at Auckland, The past century appeared to have made little difference in procedure. Judges, counsel, litigants and witnesses played the same parts in very much the same way. That keen weapon of the advocate, cross-examination, subsisted; of equal danger, unfortunately, to truthful and untruthful witnesses. “We still stand the witness in a box in strange surroundings and give him over to the mercy of keen intellects who have spent most of their lives putting questions to unfortunate people in similar circumstances, and wo expect him to give ft true and correct account of what he has seen and heard,” Mr. Weston said. "The witness who is there with the intention of lying deserves no consideration,” continued Mr. Weston. “The danger is with the truthful witness. It is the experience of many advocates that they tie up their briefs with an uneasy feeling that truthful witnesses have not been able to convey to the Court what is really in their minds. Einbar* rassnient exhibited under a searching cross-examination is not to 'be relied on as proof of falsehood. The novelty of the situation or constitutional nervousness may frequently cause it. In the manner of cross-examination there ha# been much-needed improvement. The Old Bailey style has disappeared and in its place has come what is just as deadly a method, clothed with courtesy and patience.”