McKenzie Lowery
Model Lesson Plan
Trial Advocacy/Mock Trial Preparation
Direct Examination and Cross Examination
Lesson:
Mock Trial Preparation – Direct and Cross Examinations
Sources:
Trial Advocacy lectures by Profs. Howard and Bailey.
Materials:
White board, white board marker(s), computer with projection equipment.
Students will also need paper and pencils.
Time:
50 minutes.
Goals:
- Engage entire classroom in the lesson.
- Bring students to the front of the room to demonstrate skills for the class.
- Understand the purposes of cross and direct examination:
o Direct examination is done to your “friends.” Your “friend,” the
witness, is the star of the show.
o Cross examination is done to your “enemies.” Your “enemy,” the
witness, is just there to confirm your story. The attorney is the star of
the show.
- Students should be able to conduct direct examination of a witness with
minimal preparation; witness is the storyteller.
- Students should be able to conduct cross after preparation and
familiarization with witness’s story.
- Develop public speaking skills and trial etiquette.
Knowledge and Comprehension Objectives:
- Be able to perform direct and cross examinations.
- Identify leading and non-leading questions.
Skill/Application Objectives:
- Be able to formulate open-ended questions on direct examination
- Be able to formulate leading questions on cross examination.
o This includes identification (and avoidance) of compound questions.
- Understand attorney’s role in each of these examinations – star of the show?
Or background player?
- Understand where the attorney should stand to emphasize his/her role to
the jury.
Attitude Objectives:
- Prepare for trial
- Master trial etiquette
o Proper use of “Your Honor,”
o Establishing a record in court
o Correctly handling objections (in this case, mostly just “leading” on
direct)
- Build confidence in speaking in front of the class.
Methods:
Intro


Introduce basic lesson plan for the day: learning about questioning
witnesses. Distinguish between:
o Direct Examination
 Which is done to witnesses that are on your team, and gives
them an opportunity to tell the jury the story you want them to
hear, and
o Cross Examination
 Which is done to witnesses on the other team, and gives YOU
(the attorney) the opportunity to poke holes in their story.
Play the clip from The Hangover
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4611XAY88M) from 0:00 until 2:13.
Direct Examination (15 minutes)

Pretending that no one in the room has seen the movie the Hangover, how do
we find out what on earth happened the night before the scene we just
watched?
o What sorts of questions would we ask? THESE are the fundamentals
for direct examination. For example:
 WHO
 Who are the men in the video?
 WHAT
 What happened to them!? What is the last thing they
remember?
 WHERE
 Where are they? Where did they get a tiger? Where are
Alan’s pants?!
 WHEN
 When did they black out, if that’s what happened?
 WHY
 Why is there a tiger in the bathroom? Why is there a
chicken walking around? Why are they all unconscious?
HOW
 How did they get the animals up to their room without
being noticed? How did they get so intoxicated?
The above line of questioning might make up just one chapter of the direct
examination.
Before reading the example questions, have students suggest questions
based on who/what/where/when/why/how, and write their questions on
the board. If necessary, read over examples above to ensure students
understand.



Cross Examination (15 minutes)


Explain the purpose of cross examination
o Attorney is the star. They should walk about the well, make
reasonable gestures… command the attention of the jury.
o Get into a rhythm with the witness so they’re doing exactly what you
want them to do.
o Poke holes in the witness’s story.
o Use leading questions to guide the witness.
o Explain compound questions
Mini exercise:
o Have a student, or a co-teacher, stand in front of the class. Go around
the room and have each student ask a leading question about what the
volunteer/co-teacher is wearing. Gently correct compound questions,
and encourage questions that build on the ones that went before
them. Example:
 Student 1) “You’re wearing shoes.” Answer: “Yes.”
 Student 2) “You’re wearing brown shoes.” Answer: “Yes.”
 Student 3) “You’re wearing brown, heeled shoes.” Answer:
“Yes.”
Class Activity (20 minutes)
-
-
Arrange students into pairs. Once they’re paired off, assign half of each team
to be the questioner and half to be the witness. Announce to the class the
following:
o “Your partner just told you that he/she had a CRAZY weekend. All
he/she has said so far is that somehow, he/she wound up in Mexico,
and she thinks she might be the proud new owner of an exotic animal
of some sort.”
Students being questioned will use their imaginations to flesh out the
backstory.
For the first part of the exercise, the questioner is the witness’s best friend.
He/she wants all the details. What kinds of questions will they ask to find
out the story?
-
o Here we look for open-ended questions: How did you get to Mexico?
What were you doing there? Who were you with? What kind of animal
did you buy? Why did you buy it? Etc. Etc.
Give the class eight minutes to work with their partners to ask some
questions. Use two minutes to write their suggestions on the board.
For the second part of the exercise, the questioner is now their partner’s
(angry) parent, and they are CROSS examining the witness, with all the
details they just gathered as a friend. As a parent, they’re confirming all of
the things the witness has done wrong. Here we’re looking for leading
questions, like:
o You got on a plane. You got on a plane alone. You flew to Mexico. You
purchased an endangered rhinoceros. With my credit card.
o Same time allocations for these questions as with direct examination.
Summary
- Briefly summarize the activities
o Emphasize the difference in motivation between when you’re a friend,
and when you’re an angry parent.