BULLYING COUNSEL .

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2464, 10 February 1881, Page 4

BULLYING COUNSEL .

The following opinions of the late Lord Chief Justice Cockhurn on the manner in which witnesses are often treated by bullying barristers, may be read with advantage by some members of the legal profession :—;*‘ I deeply deplore that members of the Bar so frequently put, unnecessarily, questions affecting the private life of witnesses, which are only justifiable when they affect the credibility of a witness. I have watched closely the administration of justice in France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Italy, and a little in Spain, as well as in the United States, in Canada, and in Ireland, and in no place have seen witnesses so badgered, brow-beaten, and in every way so brutally treated as in England. The way in which we treat our witnesses is a national disgrace, and seriously obstructs instead of aiding the ends of justice. In England, the most honorable and conscientious men loathe the witness box. Men and women of all ranks shrink with horror from subjecting themselves to the wanton insult and bullying, misnamed cross-examina tion, in our English Courts. Watch the tremor that passes the frames of man}' persons as they enter the witness box. 1 remember to have seen so distinguished a man as the late Sir Benjamin Brodie shiver us he entered the witness box. 1 daresay his apprehension amounted to exquisite torture. Witnesses are just us necessary for the administration of justice as judges or jurymen, and are entitled to be treated with the same consideration, and their affairs and private lives ought to be held as sacred from the gaze of the public as those of the judges and jurymen. I venture to think that it is the duty of a judge to allow no questions to be put to a witness unless such as are clearly pertinent to the issue before the Court, except where the credibility of the witness is deliberately challenged by the counsel ; and that the credibility of a witness should not be wantonly challenged on slight grounds.”