THE ART OF CROSS EXAMINATION

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Cross Examination-: Cross examination is a part of the trial process in which the witness called by the one’s opponent is examined.

AN INTRODUCTION TO CROSS-EXAMINATION

Purposes of Cross-Examination

The first decision to make is whether you should even cross-examine a witness.

In order to make that decision, you must know what you want to accomplish by cross examining a witness. Authorities on trial practice, following are the factors which are to be considered-:

1 . Did the witness hurt your case by the testimony given on direct Examination? If so, can you minimize or repair the damage on cross-examination?

2. Can you obtain testimony on cross-examination to help your case?

3 . Can you obtain testimony on cross-examination that will hurt your Adversary’s case?

4. Do you need the witness to establish an evidentiary foundation to admit a document or other exhibit in evidence?

5. Can you discredit the testimony given on direct examination? In other words, can you demonstrate inconsistencies in the testimony given on direct examination? Can you demonstrate that the testimony given on direct examination conflicts with the testimony of other witnesses?2

6. Can you discredit the witness? For example, can you show that the witness is biased? Prejudiced in favor of your adversary and/or against your client? Has a motive to lie? Is personally, financially, or otherwise interested in the outcome of the litigation? Was not in a position to see or hear the event that he/she testified about on direct examination?

7. Can the cross-examination be used to enhance or destroy the credibility of other witnesses?

8. Is the witness so important that you should undertake some sort of crossexamination to fulfill the expectations of the case?

Unless the answer to one or more of these questions is “yes,” you would be well advised not to cross-examine the witness.

you state “No questions.” The judge  may even understand that you have no questions for the witness because the testimony given on direct examination was not important.

Guidelines for the Cross-Examination

Cross-examination almost always ventures into dangerous territory. The reason for this is that the witness is usually adverse or hostile to your client’s position.

Therefore, you must control the witness and, more particularly, the witness’ testimony. This can be accomplished by following certain guidelines during the cross-examination.

1. Do not ask a question unless you are reasonably certain that you already know the answer. (Some would say do not ask the question unless you are certain you know the answer). Cross-examination is not the time to discover new facts. It is not the time to be curious. Remember, curiosity killed the cat. It may likewise kill your case.

2. Treat the witness fairly. You should not be hostile, especially if you want to gain concessions from the witness, including that he/she may have been mistaken in his/her testimony on direct examination.

3. Use leading questions. A leading question suggests the answer, which is usually “yes” or “no.”

4. Never ask open-ended questions—questions that ask “how” or “why” or that require the witness to explain. These types of questions can lead to disaster. Never allow a witness to explain anything on cross-examination.

5. Listen to the answers. Do not mechanically ask one question after another without listening to the witness’ answers. The answers may contain the favorable testimony that you are seeking to obtain in the crossexamination. When this happens, you have accomplished your task and you should consider ending your cross-examination. On the other hand, if

you do not listen to the answers you may not hear damaging testimony

that should be addressed.

6. Do not allow the witness to repeat (and therefore reinforce in the mind of the judge) the testimony given on direct examination. There is no reason to

ask a question that allows the witness to repeat his testimony. The odds

are very small that the witness will testify differently on cross examination. You know the testimony given on direct examination, the

witness knows the testimony, the judge knows the testimony. So just dive

into your cross-examination.

7. Keep your questions “short and sweet” and in plain English. Your goal is to obtain one fact with each question. Ideally, each question should be posed as a declaratory statement of a single fact calling for affirmation by the witness. This will make the cross-examination much more manageable for you, prevent objections from your adversary (for example,that you are asking compound questions), and allow the judge to more easily follow and understand your cross-examination.

8. Ask the important questions at the beginning and end of your cross-examination. People, including jurors, remember best what they hear first and last. Conclude your cross-examination on a high note—your strongest point.

9. Your cross-examination should be brief. Remember, you are trying to

“score points” to be used in your closing argument. In a lengthy crossexamination, your strongest points will be lost and the less significant points will be forgotten by the judge.

10. Control the witness’ answers. The best way to control the witness’ answers is to ask simple and clear questions. By doing so, you will not give the witness an opportunity to provide harmful testimony. If your question calls for a “yes” or “no” answer and the witness provides additional testimony that is harmful to your case, you should ask the court to strike the testimony as being nonresponsive to your question. Although you cannot “unring a bell,” the judge eventually will understand that the5 witness’ conduct is improper. If the witness answers a question other than the one you asked, ask it again, and yet again if necessary.

11. Do not ask one question too many. Remember the purpose of crossexamination—you are trying to obtain favorable testimony so it can be used in your closing argument. You need not ask the ultimate question that will drive your point home to the judge. Instead, your cross-examination should only suggest the point to the judge. Your closing argument will Drive the point home. Remember Irving Younger’s line from his famous lecture on cross-examinations: “Sit down!”

The use of these guidelines will allow you to be in control of the crossexamination. By being in control, you will be in a better position to obtain the testimony to fulfill the purposes of your cross-examination.

Scope of Cross-Examination

The evidence rules provide that “[c]ross-examination should be limited to the subject matter of the direct examination and matters affecting the credibility of the witness. The court may, in the exercise of discretion, permit inquiry into additional matters as if on direct examination.credibility need not be based on evidence adduced at trial. As a result, you will always be entitled to establish, for example, that the witness is biased or prejudiced, has a motive

to lie, is interested in the outcome of the case or has made a prior inconsistent statement. These areas of impeachment will be briefly examined shortly. In addition to the subject matter of the direct examination and matters affecting the credibility of the witness, the cross-examination may also delve into “additional matters”, subject to the court’s discretion. This means that a witness who “opens the door” to additional matters during the cross-examination may be questioned on the matters as if they were discussed during the direct examination. Moreover, as a practical matter, at the “end” of your cross-examination, you may ask the court for permission to examine the witness on matters not covered on direct examination rather than later calling the person back to the stand as your witness. Challenging the Reliability of the Testimony

At this point, you should have an understanding, or at least an appreciation, of the purposes, guidelines and scope of cross-examination. Now we will examine several specific areas of cross-examination, including challenging the reliability of the witness’ testimony and impeaching the credibility of the witness by demonstrating bias, interest, prejudice, motive, and prior inconsistent statements. Assuming that you proceed with cross-examination, you must, if at all possible, challenge the reliability of the witness’ testimony. This area of cross-examination involves examining the witness on what he/she saw, heard, remembers and is able to describe about an event. It seeks to discredit the witness’ testimony. For example, on direct examination a witness may testify about the cause of an accident (what he/she saw or heard). On cross-examination, you should seek to obtain testimony that the accident occurred quickly and unexpectantly, that the witness was not in a good position to see the accident, etc. The cross-examination should plant a seed in the minds of the judge that the accident may not have happened as described by the witness on direct examination. You should also establish that the witness has forgotten details of the event and/or is unable to accurately testify about an event. This will cause the judge to question the accuracy or reliability of the witness’ testimony on direct examination. For example, on direct examination the witness may have testified about the distances between vehicles before an accident. On cross-examination, you should seek to establish that the witness’ testimony about the distances is not accurate or reliable.

Impeachment

Impeachment means discrediting the witness. In other words, attacking the credibility of a witness. The goal is to demonstrate that the witness and/or the witness’ testimony on direct examination should not be believed. There are various methods of impeachment, including bias, interest, motive, prejudice and prior inconsistent

Law Relating to Cyber Squatting

As the scope of Internet is expanding day by day and more and more businesses are moving on the internet. sites like www.ebay.com, www.facebook.com, www.gmail.com etc. Have earned lot of reputation and are identifiable by their domain name then by any other trademark. While trademark is for physical world, domain names are the trademarks in the virtual domain. However Indian trade mark law does not recognizes domain name as trademarks, But still domain name work as a trademark, they are equally vulnerable to get infringed, diluted by the use of any other similar domain name.

Cybersquatting-This is a practice done by those people who are intending  to infringe the already used domain names specially those domain names which have a goodwill and reputation, they use the unused space in the domain name space and just register  a domain name which is deceptively similar to the reputed domain name and then they resell the deceptively similar domain name to either those persons who want to en cash upon the goodwill and reputation of the well known domain names, or to the reputed sites themselves to protect their good will they buy those domain name at an inflated price.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center deals with domain name disputes under the new Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy applicable to generic top-level domain names adopted by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) on August 26, 1999. The WIPO Center’s Domain Name Dispute Resolution service has been established specifically to administer domain name disputes with the availability of electronic case filing facilities and a well developed case administration system.

Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy was formed by the recommendation of (WIPO) and it is thereby formed to facilitate the dispute resolution due to use of domain name in bad faith.

i.                    If the use of an Impugned Domain is infringing upon the reputation or the goodwill of any other domain name then the impugned domain can be blocked by the body.

ii.                  If the Impugned domain is made to make profit from reselling because of its infringing nature, the body keeps a check on these practices.

iii.                The UDNDRP keeps a check on non bon fide use of trade name.

iv.                 It keeps a check on those domain names which causes confusion in the people.

The first case of cybersquatting was of WWF where the respondent had allegedly made a site www.worldwrestlingfederation.com and offered it to sell it to WWF at high dividend, WWF filed the suit against the respondent and found out that the alleged domain name is perhaps made in bad faith and hence was infringing upon the reputation and goodwill of the respondent. So the forum ordered to transfer the impugned domain name to WWF.

In India the first case of cyber squatting was of Yahoo Inc. V. Aakash Arora & Anr. Whereby the registered a deceptively similar domain name yahooindia.com, it was found banking upon the reputation and goodwill of yahoo.com

The Bombay High Court in Rediff Communication v. Cyberbooth & Anr AIR 2000 Bom. observed that the value and importance of a domain name is like a corporate asset of a company. In this case the defendant had registered a domain name radiff.com which was similar to rediff.com. The court gave a decision in favor of the plaintiff.

In another case the defendant registered a number of domain names bearing the name Tata. It was held by the court that domain names are not only addresses but trademarks of companies and that they are equally important. (Tata Sons Ltd v. Monu Kasuri & others 2001 PTC 432)

In  Satyam Infoway Ltd. v Sifynet Solutions 2004 (6) SCC 145  domain names www.siffynet.com and www.siffynet.net was found to be deceptively similar and Infringing upon the reputation of satyam, In this case The Supreme Court held that “domain names are business identifiers, serving to identify and distinguish the business itself or its goods and services and to specify its corresponding online location.” The court also observed that domain name has all the characteristics of a trademark and an action of Passing off can be found where domain names are involved. The decision was in favor of the plaintiff.

Conclusion

With the initiative of the WIPO and Indian laws now with synchronization with the WIPO, it is now a clear law that cybersquatting is now being treated at par with the trademark infringement, because merits on which the cybersquatting cases are decided are at par with that of trademark infringement .However still as the arena of cyber space is increasing day by day and with innovative features like cloud computing and businesses largely operating online, Even various business transactions are being handled from domain addresses than from physical addresses. There is a need to setup a specialized forum in the country to handle domain name related disputes. There must also be a specialized mechanism to dispose off these domain related disputes in the lines of UDNDRP.

Supreme Court on Auctioning of Natural Resources

“A Duly publicised auction conducted fairly and impartially is perhaps the best method for discharging this burden and the methods like first come first served when used for alienation of natural resources/public property are likely to be misused by unscruplous people who are only interested in garnering maximum financial benefit and have no respect for the constitutional ethos and values.”

G.S.Singhvi J, in Centre for Public Interest Litigation v. Union of India (2012) 3 SCC 1, para 96