(Untitled)

[dramaqueen_23]

Dear hardcormier, other legal professional or people who watch a lot of courtroom drama,

What does it mean to treat a witness as hostile?

Curiously yours,

DQ23

Comments

[jits]

From wikipedia!:

In United States law, a hostile witness is a witness in a trial who testifies for the opposing party or a witness who offers adverse testimony to the calling party during direct examination.

A witness called by the opposing party is presumed hostile. A witness called by the direct examiner can be declared hostile by a judge, at the request of the examiner, when the witness' testimony is openly antagonistic or clearly prejudiced to the opposing party.

A party examining a hostile witness may question the witness as if in cross-examination, thus permitting the use of leading questions. A hostile witness is sometimes known as an adverse witness.

[hardcormier]

Jits is pretty much correct. To expand, the issue is that when performing an examination-in-chief (i.e. examining a witness that you have called to the stand) you are not supposed to influence their testimony. This means no leading questions but also that you can't try to discredit or "impeach" your own witness by attacking their testimony, reliability or character. The reason for this is that it is presumed that you are calling the witness to give testimony that will help your case as opposed to the other side's witnesses who you are expected to try and impeach through cross-examination