The Mathews journal. (Mathews C.H. [Court House]) 1903-1937, 1912-08-15
NAGGING The WITNESS

| Court is over and there are many
| things which might be said in criti-
| ciSm of the way things were done, but
| the one which stands out above and
! beyond all others is the wide license
given to lawyers in examination
! NOW we do not propose to be a
Judge of what is wrong in this line
nor would we dare TO advise any one
as to how it should be done, but there
are a few little things which we fell
| lows who do not know so much can
not help but notice.
Let us give an example to illustrate
what we mean. Here is a man come
into court whose only desire is TO tell
the truth and nothing else but that.
He is put on the stand and asked TO
tell all he knows about certain things
and he proceeds to do so. When he
has told it he is turned over to the
other side and the lawyer begins a
series of questions.
Now the witness is not versed in re-
partee as is our friend the lawyer He
cannot keep up the clip of answering
the questions as swiftly as they are
asked. He is not used to talking TO
more than one man at a time and he
is naturally excited. The style of the
lawyer is always such that the man
feels that he (the lawyer) does not be-
iieVe what he (the witneSS) is saving
and this has a tendency to excite him
more. The same question is asked in a
dozen different forms and after awhile
the witness becomes worried and in
answering the same question he gets
the answer mixed and puts one word
before the other and then we see a lot
OF affectation on the part of this wise
man who has aggravated an honest
man until he is hardly conscious of
what he has said, and If he does ham
pen TO make a slip which in reality
amounts to nothing he is then held up
TO ridicule by lawyer who in lots of
70 Of
II seems that the only idea some
lawyers have is to see how many diff
ferent ways they can ask the same
question.
This is having an evil effect on the
people over the country and men have
gotten to the point where they will
not so to the courthouse to testify
about anything if they can avoid it.
This makes il hard for a man to es-
tablish any kind of case, whether it
IS Just or not. 1t is not right and a
lot or 1t should be stopped, or the
time VIII come when witnesses will
lie TO keep out of the court.
OF course, there are times when a
preJudiced witness will get on the
stand and swear to the hurt of some
one or will not tell the truth and
when this is the case he should be
exposed, and that without DELAY or
mercy, but it does not mean that an !
honest man ought to be quizzed until
he becomes worried out of his senses !
just that a lawyer may cast reflec-
ton upon his integrity.
Frequently this thing arises on ac- |
count of the lawyers ignorance. For
instance when man is testifying |
concerning things about his profess |
sion and some lawyer cannot under
stand the terms he uses, he will make |
q 1901 of himself in an attempt to |
tangle some one in his statement The |
wide scope given q lawyer in these /
cases always puts him at a decided |
al Nantage, and he has the last word |
and he seldom fails to take advan- |
tage of the opportunity.
Now, we cannot give a remedy. but |
there is need of one and il should |
be forthcoming in order to protect
the people from these sharp fellows
who are not sharp. but only monthly
Chatham Enterprise