Whatever You Do, Don’t Guess the Answer
Video Transcribed: How do you answer questions in court? My name is Brian L. Jackson. I’m a Tulsa dad’s rights lawyer here at Dads.Law where fathers are not disposable. I want to talk to you real quickly about dealing with different types of questions in court.
First, let’s talk about direct. If you’re a witness on direct examination, you’ll be asked a lot of open-ended questions. Now, what I always advise my clients to do is when they hear the question, take the time to listen to the question, count to 10 in their head before they start answering, and really think about what was actually asked. You should only give information that was asked for and that you’ve perceived with your five senses and that you have a fair amount of certitude about. You do not guess. If you don’t know the answer, you don’t know the answer and that’s exactly what you’re going to say. You do not tell the court what someone else told you in most instances and you don’t volunteer information.
If you’re on cross, most of the time you’re going to get yes or no questions which mean you should be giving a yes or no answer. Again, don’t speculate. If you don’t know the answer, you’d say, “I don’t know.” You don’t try to volunteer information and although you’re going to feel the urge to, definitely don’t try to explain. If your attorney feels like it needs an explanation, they will deal with it on redirect. Let them worry about the effect it’s having, not you.
Your job as a witness is not to try to worry about the effect your testimony is having. That’s what lawyers are for and that’s why they’re there to ask questions. Your job is just to tell the truth. And that’s the final thing I’ll say is always, always, always, always, always tell the truth even if you think it’s damaging. Don’t lie and don’t play stupid if you know the answer to a question. Just answer honestly, and let your attorney deal with it.
If you have questions about that for an Oklahoma family law attorney, I would encourage you to go to Dads.Law where fathers are not disposable.
