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Author: Gerry Oginski
Your client has accused a prominent doctor of malpractice. Her case goes to trial, and your first witness is the well-respected doctor. How do you cross-examine him?
1. Learn as much medicine as possible that's involved in the case.
You have to be a mini-expert on the medicine before
2. Ask only leading direct questions.
You must keep a tight leash on any witness whom you cross-examine. If you ask an open-ended question ("Tell us why the patient bled to death Doctor...") you will suffer the dire consequences of a 10 minute lecture to the jury by this medical witness. Big mistake. You don't want the jury to see how educated and wonderful this physician is. You want them to see how he answers YOUR questions.
"You operated on Mrs. Jones 1 year ago?"
"You perforated her aorta while examining her nose?"
"The patient bled to death as a result of that puncture, correct?"
"Good medical practice dictates that when doing this procedure you should stay away from the aorta, correct?"
"The aorta is not in the surgical field, right?"
Do not ask "So how is it that you ruptured the aorta while doing this procedure?" (That's an open ended question.) Instead ask "Did you expect to puncutre the aorta during this procedure?" "What steps did you take to make sure the puncture did not occur?" ...and on it goes.
3. Do not ask a question when you don't know the answer!
During the course of a lawsuit you will have plenty of opportunity to learn everything about what happened. In New York, this is called the discovery
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