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Cross-Examination
Appellate Law and Practice has “a list of books that will be helpful to modern lawyers that are now in the public domain, and Google has scanned in, in full.”
On a slightly related topic, I was looking for a gift for a young lawyer and remembered that someone gave me
“The Art of Cross Examination” by Francis L. Wellman. when I was starting to practice. I stil have the book and pull it out every now and then to re-read.
Even though it was first published in 1903, it is remarkably fresh and useful. Wellman’s introductory section includes this discussion – and remember this is 1903:
It is often truly said that many of our best lawyers – I am speaking now especially of New York City – are withdrawing from court practice because the nature of the litigation is changing. To such an extent is this change taking place in some localities that the more important commercial cases rarely reach a court decision. Our merchants prefer to compromise their difficulties, or to write off their losses, rather than enter into litigations that must remain dormant in the courts for upward of three years awaiting their turn for a hearing on the overcrowded court calendars. And yet fully ten thousand cases of one kind or another are tried or disposed of yearly in the Borough of Manhattan alone.
Except for the reference to 10,000 cases a year, you would think this was written just recently!
The book has about 250 pages of discussion and analysis of cross-examination techniques and then concludes with cross-examinations from 26 cases. Great stuff. I highly recommend it.
