The best way to control the runaway witness.

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]The single best witness control technique to control the runaway witness is something that I have heard the senior prosecutors when I was a prosecutor, all the lecturers at defense bar things, Larry Posner and Roger Dodd who wrote the best book on cross-examination at LexisNexis. They all said the identical thing about controlling the runaway witness. It's the highest percentage play that you can make and it is this. It is slowing the question down and shortening the question repeatedly, repeatedly as much as you need. Now, you have to ask a good question to begin with. You have to keep it to one fact per question.

[00:00:37]The car was going right.

[00:00:40]Wasn't it? Well, your client's a piece of and he was driving everywhere and I couldn't tell which way they were going because this and this and just and and all that and people go crazy.

[00:00:51]Okay, sir. My question, it was going right. I shortened it.

[00:00:56]I slowed it down. And what that does to a smart witness is say, "Aha, now I'm appearing to be a in front of this jury." If they're smart, they get it and if they don't, who cares because the jury sees it anyway. Well, I don't know and you blah blah blah so this and that and chicken fat and I don't know and you're you know, I'm the victim here and I don't know why I have to put up with any of this. Sir, my question is was it going right? And eventually, the jury gets frustrated with them and the witness kind of, you know, eventually they sort of get with it. But that's the single best technique to control the runaway witness is slowing it down, shortening it and just the only thing you change is my question is this.

[00:01:38]That's the highest percentage play.

[00:01:39]Doesn't work every time, but you don't have to go to a lot of your fancier reverse layup techniques unless you try this one first.