Page:The Art of Cross-Examination.djvu/83



these days when it is impossible to know everything, but it becomes necessary for success in any avocation to know something of everything and everything of something, the expert is more and more called upon as a witness both in civil and criminal cases. In these times of specialists, their services are often needed to aid the jury in their investigations of questions of fact relating to subjects with which the ordinary man is not acquainted.

The cross-examination of various experts, whether medical, handwriting, real estate, or other specialists, is a subject of growing importance, but it is intended in this chapter merely to make some suggestions, and to give a few illustrations of certain methods that may be adopted with more or less success in the examination of this class of witnesses.

It has become a matter of common observation that not only can the honest opinions of different experts be obtained upon opposite sides of the same question, but also that dishonest opinions may be obtained upon different sides of the same question.