Difference between revisions of "India Criminal Defense Manual - Client Interview"

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===5. Tips and Tricks===
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'''CONFRONTATION'''
  
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Pursuing a direct line of questioning is usually not the most effective way of eliciting the witnesses' true account.  Confronting the witness by pointing out all the contradictions in his account or inconsistencies with other witnesses' accounts can be a very serious mistake.  For example, by asking direct questions about abuse, you may push the witness into a state of denial, which would make it difficult for him to disclose the actual situation afterwards.  Examples:
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* Your nephew told me that you molested him when he was seven years old, is that true?
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* You said that you quit drinking two years ago, but your wife told me that you were drunk this past weekend.  Why did you lie?
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* You're just pretending to read that.  You cannot really read, can you?
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'''DO NOT TALK TOO MUCH!'''
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Inexperienced interviewers tend to talk too much.  During the interview, you should aim to spend 80% of the time listening to the witness and 20% of the interview talking with the witness.
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LISTEN ATTENTIVELY
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Listening intently requires discipline and practice.  Listening, unlike
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hearing, is not automatic.  Listening to a witness answer questions during
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an interview is entirely different from listening to friends chat.  In social
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settings, you are able to multitask while listening to a friend; for example,
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while formulating a response, you might also be observing your
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surroundings or having an internal dialogue that has nothing to do with
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the other person.  During an interview, however, you need to focus on
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listening to your witness with total concentration and must really pay
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attention to what they are saying, instead of formulating the next question,
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looking around the room, or figuring out how the witness' account fits
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into your theory of the case.
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'''LISTEN WITH AN OPEN MIND'''
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Sometimes we only hear what we expect to hear, rather than what was actually said.  If you have already reached certain conclusions about who your witness is and what he will say even before the interview, you will unconsciously filter out information that is not consistent with your preconceived ideas.  If the witness belongs to a certain group, you might make assumptions about him based upon your own impressions of that group.  You might assume that the witness is racist, ignorant, provincial or superstitious.  Once you think you can predict what the witness will say,
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you will not carefully listen to him.  You may also mistakenly form a negative opinion of the person's value as a witness.  If the witness' information does not conform to your understanding of the situation, you might dismiss it as an aberration, thus forfeiting an opportunity to develop an important relationship with the witness, one that could result in testimony helpful to your client's case.
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'''BECOME COMFORTABLE WITH CONTRADICTIONS'''
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You should be aware of and keep track of any contradictions, but do not directly question the witness about these contradictions.  Different people will often describe the same event very differently, and one person may even describe the same event differently with each telling.  Contradictions may actually result from miscommunication.  For example, a witness might tell you that she had never consumed alcoholic beverages, but later tell you how she once went out to drink beer.  Although this might be inconsistent, you may discover that the witness thought that drinking alcohol only meant drinking hard liquor, not beer.
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'''DOUBLE-CHECKING'''
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Communication between any two people is a complicated process that can lead to both trivial and serious misunderstandings.  During an interview, everyone communicates, receives and decodes information, and misunderstandings are liable to occur at every stage of the process.  Since every piece of information is based on any previous information, any miscommunication that is not addressed will have long-term consequences. It is essential that you, the interviewer, confirm that the witness understands your questions and that you understand his answers.  In the following example, the interviewer is checking to see if he and the witness are discussing the same thing, because they each give different meanings to a word:
  
  

Revision as of 15:38, 9 June 2010

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