#Deanehistory 147.
Whilst I was not a barrister of any distinction, Bar School can teach some things that are useful in life (even if, admittedly, not always heeded), like when to shut up.
Whilst I was not a barrister of any distinction, Bar School can teach some things that are useful in life (even if, admittedly, not always heeded), like when to shut up.
A particular fear of an advocate is going “one question too far.” You’ve got what you need, you’ve landed some doubt – take it & move on. Don’t, no matter how good that “one more thing” might seem to be, give in to temptation & ask a question to which you don’t know the answer…
Here is a particularly good example of the "question too far" – from cross-examination being conducted by the Australian barrister Don Campbell QC in a personal injury case. (Campbell would go on to tell the story against himself.)
Campbell:How would you describe the pain?
Witness: It would have been like a red hot iron placed on the sole of the foot.
Campbell:Well, just what would you know about a red hot iron placed on the sole of the foot?
Witness:I was a prisoner of war in Changi.
Witness: It would have been like a red hot iron placed on the sole of the foot.
Campbell:Well, just what would you know about a red hot iron placed on the sole of the foot?
Witness:I was a prisoner of war in Changi.
It’s such a remarkable comparison for someone to make to make that simply leaving the question unasked would have left jurors pondering it and wondering quite whether the witness was quite all there, without it needing to have been aired. Instead… ouch.
Such mistakes can happen to the best of us – and Campbell was that. So was the witness in his case that day.
Changi was a notoriously brutal Japanese prisoner of war camp in World War II, and the witness was Dr Edward “Weary” Dunlop, who became famous after the war for his leadership in captivity and the help he gave to the other prisoners.
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