Preparing for Giving Evidence in Court

Preparing for Giving Evidence in Court

Introduction

Many expert witnesses feel apprehensive about giving evidence in court or tribunals. It is a personal and professional challenge to deliver high-quality and coherent expert evidence. It is also a challenge that every professional should seek to meet with confidence, determination and enthusiasm.

The more experienced witnesses become, the more strategies they are able to develop to cope with the experience. There is, however, no guarantee that coping strategies that even an experienced expert develops are appropriate or even useful to fulfilling the role of an expert witness. Some strategies adopted by expert witnesses are extremely unhelpful and damaging to the overall case.

Course Content:

• Psychological approach of the witness:
  • The seven fundamental concerns of giving evidence.
• Appearing in court or tribunals:
  • Attitudes to the Judge & Counsel.
• Preparation for giving evidence:
  • Creating a matrix of evidence
  • Answering questions.
• Challenges to expert evidence:
  • Questioning strategies
  • Structure of cross-examination
  • Emotional strategies.
• Emotional skills for giving oral evidence:
  • Setting up effectively
  • Establishing rapport
  • Breaking-open lines of communication
  • Qualifications to answers.

Speakers:

Lynden Alexander

Lynden Alexander is a communication skills consultant who has worked extensively leading consultancies across the professions. He offers training in presentation skills, writing skills and inter-personal communication skills. He leads the forensic report writing programme at Professional Solutions - a leading litigation support company - where he has trained more than 4000 expert witnesses in expert report writing and courtroom presentation skills. He also designs and delivers integrated communication skills training programmes for a number of consultancies.

He has a first-class honours degree in English from London University, is a qualified practitioner in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (with an emphasis on advanced learning skills) and has ten years experience working with visualisation techniques. Before working in the field of learning and development, he was a Eurobond and Equity Derivatives trader in the City of London.