Direct Examinations

Description + Quick Tips to get you started on Direct!

A direct examination is a story. In court, both teams must be storytellers, to give their version of events and sway the room to their side. All the brilliant, dramatic, well-timed objections and legal arguments won't do you any good if you don't get the facts out, and a direct is where that magic happens!During direct examination, a lawyer questions their own witness. This is where, despite your best instincts as a showy power attorney (as I'm sure you are), the lawyer needs to step back, almost blend into the background, and let the witness do the talking. There are three things to quickly get your direct trial-ready:

ONE - NO LEADING QUESTIONS

You know the ones: if it can be answered with a simple 'yes' or 'no', it's leading. The lawyer isn't supposed to testify and have the witness just rubber stamp their statements; the witness needs to speak: emotionally, calmly, like they're just another member of the jury, to appeal to the room. Try asking questions like:

• What relationship do you have the victim?

• Where were you the night of the incident?

• How did these actions impact you?

All eyes should be on the witness: what they've been through, what they're about, and what they have to say.

TWO - HONESTY IS THE BEST OFFENSE

There will always be facts you don't like - otherwise the thing wouldn't have ever gone to trial! Your witness will have drawbacks, avenues of attack, weaknesses for the other side to exploit. That's the fun of a trial. Those facts need to come out in the direct exam - it's always better to bring them up in a friendly environment, where the witness gets space to explain themselves and make themselves look better, than to have our learned friends on the opposing side hammer them with it on cross exam.

THREE - ACT IT UP

Mock trials, just like real ones, are as much about legal wrangling as they're about human connection. No one likes lawyers, especially drab, uninspiring ones spewing legalese. A direct examination is the perfect time for an emotional finale. Get costumes, makeup, fake a black eye, draw a Purple Heart with construction paper and a love of veterans! Anything to get the witness in character and ready to seem like a paragon of trustworthiness to the jury.Of course, at Evocation, we have a ton more, morally ambiguous but dastardly exciting tricks for direct exams! Hopefully this is enough to get you started, and may your objections be sustained and your opposing witnesses be impeached!