AH0875 - Commissioners’ Hearing: Examination of Witnesses: Purposes of cross examination

The purposes of cross examination are:

• to bring out any facts essential to your case which are within the knowledge of that witness and which may not have been brought out in the examination in chief
• to elucidate or elaborate on what was brought out in the witness's examination in chief
• to put your case to the witness
• to try to shake the witness's evidence or weaken its effect.

Putting your case

Put to the witness all the facts which you contend and which are at variance with his evidence. Do not make a general challenge but challenge each item you do not accept. If you do not challenge a witness on evidence which you dispute, then strictly speaking you should not be allowed to address the Commissioners on that part of your case. The aim of the rule is to ensure that a witness has the opportunity of dealing with the challenge to his/her evidence in his/her own word. This gives the Commissioners the opportunity of seeing and hearing how the witness does so before they are addressed on the weight they should attach to the evidence of the witness. While the Commissioners may still accept the evidence despite your challenge, they will certainly accept it if you do not challenge it.

Shaking the evidence

It is unusual to get witnesses to change their stories substantially. For example, an appellant who has consistently claimed to have held £10,000 in cash at a certain date is unlikely to agree that there was less than that amount, but the circumstances throwing doubt on the claim must be put to the appellant in cross-examination so that the claim is `challenged'. The Commissioners are entitled to accept evidence which is not challenged in cross- examination.