Impeaching the Expert Witness
The final installment from George Ellard of The Veen Firm on how to cross-examine a witness to impair their credibility.
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Impeaching the Witness with Character Evidence
The third in a series of four blogs from George Ellard from The Veen Firm on how to cross-examine a witness to impair their credibility.
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Impeachment by character evidence is the use of a personal trait to impair credibility. There are essentially four methods to impeach using character evidence: defects in perception, defects in recollection, felony convictions and past misconduct.
Using Prior Inconsistent Statements and Conduct
The second of four blogs on how to cross-examine a witness to impair their credibility from George Ellard of the The Veen Firm.
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Perhaps the most effective and most frequently used form of impairing credibility is proof of a statement or conduct by the witness that is inconsistent with the trial testimony. (Ev. C. § 780(h) (pdf)) The inconsistency need not be a complete contradiction. The test is whether the prior statement is inconsistent in effect with the trial testimony. People v. Spencer (1969) 71 Cal.2d 933 (pdf), 941.
