It’s good for you if you never got into any criminal case. For those who ever saw a trial — in person or in movies, cross examination is one part that completes a criminal case. For this reason, lawyers and law students search for the best books on cross examination.
Skill and training on cross examination can make or break your career as a lawyer. Learning has always been a great investment in terms of time, effort, and money in any career. You can learn cross examination from the senior lawyer of your firm or read some of the best books ever written for cross examination that we have researched and reviewed for you.
5 Best Books on Cross Examination
1 – Cross-Examination Handbook: Persuasion, Strategies, and Techniques
This book certainly should be known as the Bible of Cross Examination. The writers — Clark, Dekle, and Bailey have done the heavy lifting, accumulating the best tactics and methods for any litigation lawyer or junior at a law chamber.
First of all, don’t be misled by this book’s name. This book explains more than just how to examine a witness by asking great questions about who is standing on the witness box — that includes the fundamentals of creating a case based on the theories and transforming it into a narrative that will resonate with a judge. Everything about cross-examination is discussed in this book. This book breaks the topics down into smaller pieces, showing how to distinguish the purpose of cross-examination, planning questions, and performing it effectively before a judge. Each and every method is explained with real-life instances from scholars like F. Lee Bailey, and Abraham Lincoln, through reproductions of some of their most prominent cases.
To conclude, when you will start to read this book you will not be able to put it down. You will be amazed by the information given in this book. There is a line in this book that says don’t you ever ask a question to which you know the answer! That is just brilliant. This book will give you the confidence and courage to start and end a cross-examination. This book will teach you to represent a different narrative before the court, that one barrister wants to portray.
Inside this book
- Best tactics and methods of cross examination
- Fundamentals of creating a case
- Planning of cross examination questions
- Presentation of different narrative
2- MacCarthy on Cross Examination
Cross-Examination is one of those skills that many lawyers consider as art. Specifically what to ask a witness or how to manage a difficult witness on the witness box? This book is an excellent guide for any lawyer who wants to intensify his or her cross-examination skills.
In this book, you will discover how to look great on cross-examination, even when the witness is not participating. You will also read how to control and effectively reduce the witness’s involvement, without looking, examining, extracting, and humiliating. This book is loaded with illustrative cross-examinations from actual events. This book can be your key to using these proven methods in your own work. Three things that are awesome in this book are ― looking great, telling a narrative, and using small statements. These three things can help you to take control of your cross-examinations and achieve the results you want.
Moreover, some say the book and methods explained in this book were to some extent revolutionary. An influential cross-examination represents a narrative through short supporting statements that is what is explained in this book.
Inside this book
- How to look great on cross-examination
- What to do when the witness is not participating
- Covers actual events
- How to take control of your cross-examinations
3- Winning at Cross-Examination: A Modern Approach for Depositions and Trials
Influencing a cross-examination is a commanding aspect of litigation. This book contains effective trial techniques and it is a compelling read for any lawyer interested in the efficient examination of a witness. It does not matter whether you are an experienced trial lawyer or a fresh lawyer just out of law school, this book will help you in re-analyzing and review how you build the point of your case and apply strategic thinking as you apply the ideas to each stage of the trial. Most importantly, the writer Shane Read presents practical insights into what makes an efficient cross-examination of a witness using famous cases to highlight the best methods. The book gives a guideline for case building and witness cross-examination with practical takeaways and enjoyable stories.
However, the book is a wealth of well-displayed knowledge, accessible and attractive to those with insufficient legal knowledge as well as more experienced lawyers. The texts are well organized, with important points made clearly and restated at the conclusion of each chapter. The writer unquestionably shows how the book’s many examples can work as templates for the reader’s own practice. The author of this book does an excellent job of tearing down the cross-examination scripts into their segmented parts and explaining how each piece gives to the lawyer’s overall suit and how each question works.
In this book
- Effective trial techniques
- How you will build the point of your case
- How to apply strategic thinking
- Famous cases
4 – The Art of Cross-Examination
This book includes many aspects of the art of cross-examination of a witness. It covers the practice of the examination, falsified testimony, the flow of cross-examination, silent cross-examination, risks, and judgments on uses and misuses of the process. This book will be very helpful for you if you are a law student, trial lawyer, prosecution lawyer, or work in any part of the legal profession.
This book basically tried to say — If all witnesses had the courage and capacity to come forward and carefully follow the letter as well as the sense of the oath, to tell the truth, the hold truth, and nothing but only the truth, and if all lawyers on either side had the required experience, combined with fairness and intelligence, and were likewise sworn to develop the whole truth and nothing but the truth, of course, there would be no opportunity for cross-examination, and the occupation of the cross-examiner would be gone. But as yet no replacement has ever been found for cross-examination as a means of leaving the truth from falsehood, and of reducing excessive statements to their true dimensions.
Furthermore, this book is an interesting read. It contains practical and technical advice for the lawyers whether practicing in the US or UK. The writer has been practicing law for a very long time, his explanation of the art of cross-examination, could in fact be reflective of the courtroom of today.
In this book
- Best tactics and methods of cross examination
- How to take control of your cross-examinations
- Cases Samples
- How to apply critical thinking
5 – McElhaney’s Trial Notebook
This book is excellent. You will be able to follow the advice about making indexes of preparatory hearing transcripts which came in handy in a pretrial conference setting. It contains the whole process of making a cross-examination and the indexes will help you enormously with the preparation of cross-examination, opening, and closing statements.
This book has some of the best lawyering advice that You will ever get. A few of the topics are super essential such as the cross-examination suggestions. We would recommend this book to any young lawyer or law student. The pieces of this book are concise, readable and relatable to all sections of trial practice.
Furthermore, this book can be considered a great book for anyone fascinated in learning about litigation. It will work for beginners as well as experienced practitioners.
In this book
- Pretrial dialogue setting
- Whole process of making a cross-examination
- How to become the controller of your cross-examinations
- Effective trial techniques
6 – Your Witness: Lessons on Cross-Examination by Steven F. Molo
This is a fantastic book and a must-read for trial enthusiasts. The writers — Steven Molo and James R. Figliulo, who are famous attorneys themselves, have gathered and edited some 50 stories from the best of the Chicago bar focused around a single theme. That is, how to take an efficient cross-examination. Reading this book is like having a discussion over dinner with 50 experienced trial lawyers and listening in as they tell you the stories.
The lessons in this book revealed different areas from questioning the received knowledge about cross-examination to courtroom practices, and to how to be a principled practitioner.
The many drops of wisdom in this book are tailored in layers of easy-to-understand read that keep the pages flipping at a fast rate. This book is a perfect read for legal practitioners, trial lawyers, and anyone who enjoys good old-fashioned storytelling.
In this book
- How to use trial techniques
- How to build the point of your case
- How to ask questions to the witness
- 50 Famous cases
Every litigation lawyer has to go through this one thing called cross examination in order either to find the truth or to represent a fact that he wants to present before a judge or jury. The above-listed books are the carefully picked best books for cross examination available in the market. Reading one or two books from the list will enrich your knowledge of cross-examination and make you an expert litigation attorney.