The claimant and defendant may themselves be witnesses. They may be the only witnesses. They need not necessarily be witnesses at all. The claimant and defendant may each may compel or persuade other witnesses to attend and give evidence on their behalf. The witnesses must usually have first had knowledge of relevant facts which are in dispute. They must swear as to the truth of what they say. This is their testimony. It is a serious criminal offence knowingly, to\u00a0 give false evidence.<\/p>\n
Where a witness is giving evidence (\u201cbeing examined\u201d) \u00a0by the side who has called him, leading questions may not be asked in respect to disputed matters.\u00a0 He must describe\u00a0 his evidence in his own words.\u00a0 He must give his evidence from his own recollection\u00a0 naturally. He must not consult notes, save with the consent of the court.<\/p>\n
The opposing party may cross examine.\u00a0 Cross examination seeks to undermine the \u00a0veracity, credibility or reliability of the witness\u2019s evidence.\u00a0 Leading questions (which may be answered yes, no) may be asked.<\/p>\n
Each witness is asked questions by the legal representative (of the claimant or defendant) who \u201ccalled\u201d him as a his witness. These questions are designed to elicit that person\u2019s case. \u201cLeading\u201d questions may not be asked about matters in dispute. The witness should give a narrative of facts or matters which they have observed and which they believe to be true.<\/p>\n
The other party\u2019s legal representatives may then challenge the\u00a0 evidence of the witness\u2019s evidence. He may challenge the accuracy of recollection, \u00a0The purpose is to undermine their version of events and to reduce the credibility. \u00a0This is cross examination.<\/p>\n
After each witness is heard the other party\u2019s legal representative person who put the witness frowns rd can include through\u00a0 rtheri\u00a0 representative ask further questions designed to re-establish the matters raised in\u00a0\u00a0cross examination.<\/p>\n\n
\n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Plenary Trial A full plenary trial is the norm in civil litigation. A notice of trial is served by the plaintiff, or by the defendant if the plaintiff defaults in so doing.\u00a0The categories of case in which there is a right to a trial by jury, is relatively narrow, \u00a0being now limited to false imprisonment, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[317],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4549"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4549\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}