For a short primer on the cross-examination of medical witnesses at trial, see "Preparing and Conducting the Cross-Examination of Defendant's Medical Expert," by Kenan J. Kersten (PDF).
At the beginning of the article, the author provides a useful checklist for deposing the opposing party's medical expert. The portion of the article dealing with cross-examination at trial contains the following tips, with explanation:
- Do not engage in fights you are likely to lose and limit the examination to concessions and acknowledgements you know the witness must make based on your preparation;
- Use the cross-examination of the defense expert to get helpful entries from hospital and medical charts into the record;
- Sometimes, but rarely, aggressively going on the attack can be effective; and,
- Control the difficult-to-control witness.
The short, four-page article is well worth a look.
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