Cross is more fun, but direct is what wins

Balancing Life and the Law

By Jeffrey J. Kroll

Jeffrey J. Kroll is a partner at Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C. He has achieved settlements and verdicts in a wide range of cases, from trucking accidents to medical malpractice to sports safety cases. He can be reached at jkroll@salvilaw.com.

Posted January 9, 2015 2:37 PM

Cross-examination — trial lawyers’ golden child — is often paired with sarcasm and indignation. Cross-examination is, in part, about parading around the entire courtroom, exchanging menacing stares and fist-pounding on the table. Cross-examination can be used quickly to bludgeon a witness into submission or cause hundreds of paper cuts that are precise and eventually deadly to their previous testimony. Cross-examination occupies our every thought during trial and is the reason we keep a notepad on …

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