Some Lawsuits I have Met and Some of the Lessons to be Learned from Them

Abstract

Abuse of Witnesses During Cross-examination RECENTLY, a colleague whom I have known for about thirty years, wrote me as follows: “I have just passed through a most harrowing and tormenting experience and turn to you for advice and solace. “I was called into court this morning to testify as an expert witness by the attorney for a man whom I had attended in consultation with his attending physician, following an automobile accident. Our patient was suing for damages resulting from the accident in which he was injured. “After answering the questions put to me by the patient's attorney, I was cross-examined by the bull dog who represents the insurance company, the defendants in the case. I call him a ‘bull dog’ because he resembles one more than anything I can think of. He did not ask me much of anything of importance about what I had testified, but began to attack my character, my knowledge of medicine and surgery, my reputation, and in fact almost everything about me except the legitimacy of my birth. When he had finished I was a nervous wreck. “I have appeared as an expert witness only a few times and had come to be of the opinion that I liked the rôle; but if one must expect to be subjected to that sort of treatment, I am about ready to call off all future appearances in that capacity and hold up my hand and swear, ‘Never again.’ “Let me have some of your sage advice regarding this at your convenience or save it until we meet at Atlantic City, if you prefer.” I replied (in part): “........ If you expect sympathy and condolence from me relative to the abuse you received as told in your recent letter, you are in for a big disappointment because I believe that the expert witness who permits his feelings to become ruffled by the apparent impudence and insults of a cross-examiner is not deserving of sympathy and should never pose as an expert witness at all. “I will say, however, that the attorney who called you to testify should have come to your rescue if the cross-examination and the attacks made upon you were unusual and beyond reason and as bad as you seem to think they were. That was his bounden duty and he was either satisfied with the way you were handling the situation or remiss in not protecting you. “Of course you could have appealed to the judge at any time, if you had felt so inclined. But that, in my opinion, would have appeared as an acknowledgment that you ‘could not take it’ and might have acted as an incentive and further stimulant to your ‘bull dog’ to continue his irritation and pestering. “As I look at it, any physician who undertakes to appear as an expert witness should know that it is and will be the part of many of the opposing attorneys to use every possible means to make him out a liar, a knave, or a fool, or a combination of all these, during cross-examination.