Daniel Small is a Partner for Holland & Knight's
Boston office.
Our next series of columns will address the subject of
cross-examination. Dan Small recently returned from his second trip
to Uzbekistan, talking with judges and lawyers there about the
adversarial system.
We'll give Dan the floor to share some thoughts.
"Why have cross-examination?" It seems an odd
question, given our justice system's longstanding and
fundamental reliance on the process. Yet before we discuss the
"how" of cross-examination, let's consider the
"why."
This process that we take for granted in court is, after all,
somewhat unnatural: You would not subject a friend or co-worker to
intense grilling before deciding whether to believe something he
told you. Why do so here?
