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Do you know why at cross-examination at trial an attorney will never ask a question to which
they don’t know the answer? Would you like to learn the answer to this? It’s some great
information. Come join me as I share with you that information. Hi. I’m Gerry Oginski.
I’m a New York medical malpractice and personal injury trial attorney practicing law here
in the state of New York. When questioning a witness during cross-examination, you will
typically find that an attorney will not ask a question to which they do not know the answer
to. The whole purpose of cross-examination is to get the witness to agree or disagree
with the statements that the attorney is making. I either want them to say yes or no or true
or false or they agree or don’t agree. Now why do I do that? I don’t want to give the
witness an opportunity to explain. I don’t want to give the witness the opportunity to
go ahead and give a long-winded explanation. By asking a question to which you do not know
the answer to you have no idea what the witness is going to say. That answer could shock you,
that answer could blow you out of the water, that answer could destroy your case. And you’re
not going to have the ability to change any of that if you ask the question to which you
do not know the answer. There is one real exception here. The one time an attorney can
ask a question to which they do not know the answer. It’s when they simply don’t care
what the answer is. If that’s the situation, then it doesn’t matter if they ask a question
to which they don’t know the answer. But you’ll find that most experienced trial
attorneys will never ask a question on cross-examination to which they do not know the answer to. So
why do I share this information with you? I share it with you just to give you an insight
and an understanding into what goes on into the trial process here in the state of New
York. This is just one trial tactic that we use when cross-examining the witness. Now
chances are you have questions and concerns about your own particular matter and if your
matter happened here in New York and you have legal questions, what I encourage you to do
is pick up the phone and call me. I can answer your legal questions. I do this every single
day and I welcome your call. You can reach me at 516-487-8207 or by email at lawmed10@yahoo.com.
I’m Gerry Oginski, here in New York. Thanks so much for watching.