Common Trial Objections

 

COMMON TRIAL OBJECTIONS

"Objection, your Honor, the question is ambiguous." A question is ambiguous if : It may be misunderstood by the witness. It is objectionable on the ground that it may take on more than one meaning.

"Objection, your Honor, the question is argumentative." A question is argumentative if : It is asked for the urose of ersuading the jury or the judge, rather than to elicit information. It calls for an argument in answer to an argument contained in the question. It calls for no new facts, but merely asks the witness to concede to inferences drawn b by y the e!aminer from roved or assumed facts.

"Objection, your Honor, the question has been asked an and d answered." A question may be objetionab!e on t"e groun# t"at he witness has already answered a substantially similar question asked by the same attorney on the same subject matter.

"Objections, your Honor, the question assumes facts not in evidence." A question assumes fats not in evi#ene if : It resumes unroved facts to be true. #!amle: "$hen did you sto beating your wife%" his question assumes that the erson has beaten his wife.

"Objection, your Honor, the question is comound." A question is objetionab!e on t"e groun# t"at it is om$oun# if : It joins two or more questions ordinarily joined with the word "or" or the word "and."

"Objection, your Honor, the question is too general." A question is too genera!% broa#% or in#efinite% if : It ermits the witness to resond with testimony which may be irrelevant or otherwise inadmissible. #ach question should limit the witness to a secific answer on a secific subject.

"Objection, your Honor, the question is hearsay." hearsay." A question is "earsay if : It invites the witness to offer an out&of&court statement to rove the truth of some matter in court. here are many e!cetions to the hearsay rule.

 

A question is irre!evant if : It invites or causes the witness to give evidence not related to the facts of the case at hand.

"Objection, your Honor, the question is leading." A question is !ea#ing if : It is one that suggests to the witness the answer the e!amining arty desires. However, this tye of question is allowed on cross&e!amination of a witness.

"Objection, your Honor, the question mis&states the evidence." A question misstates t"e evi#ene if : It misstates or misquotes the testimony of a witness or any other evidence roduced at a hearing or at a trial.

"Objection, your Honor, the question calls for a narrative answer." A question a!!s for a &narrative ans'er& if : It invites the witness to narrate a series of occurrences, which may roduce irrelevant or otherwise inadmissible testimony. testimony.

'uestion and (nswer interrogation interrogation is the standard format. It allows oosing ccounsel ounsel to object to imroer questions. "Objection, your Honor, the question calls for seculation."  seculation."  A question is s$eu!ative if : It invites or causes the witness to seculate or answer on the basis of conjecture.

(an#!ing Tria! Objetions  by )osh *amson *amson on  on +etember -, -//

 0o matter how many motions you file, or how well reared you are during  during trial, trial, objectionable testimony will come u. his testimony could be rejudicial to your client, esecially in front of

 

a jury, so it is imerative that you know how to roerly object during a trial. I see attorneys flounder with objection arguments on a regular basis, which makes them look weak in front of a  judge or jury, even if their objection is sot on.

T"e )orm $hen inadmissible testimony comes out, or is about to come out, you should object. hat sentence, in theory, sounds very simle. 1et 1et I can2t go more than a week or two without seeing an attorney sit at counsel table and just start making an argument to e!clude the evidence. If you2re going to object, you should stand, say 3Objection your honor4 and give the basis for your objection. $hile some courtrooms allow lawyers to sit while e!amining witnesses, you should never sit when addressing the court. hat2s what an objection is, a statement to the court. his means the objection should be directed at the judge, and never oosing counsel. $hen an objection is aroriate, you have to do it quickly. In a jury trial, a failure to object in time could mean that the cat is out of the bag. (lthough most aellate courts believe in the curative owers of a judge2s instructions, instructions, I always say it2s better better to be safe than sorry. hat means you have to reali5e an objection is necessary, rise, and state the objection all within one or  two seconds. It2s easy to stand u and make a very teid objection because you aren2t sure if you2re correct. *iting the roer rule isn2t the whole here. $hen you stand to make your objection, say it with as much confidence as youball cangame muster. 6oth the judge and jury will be more likely to agree with you if you sound like you know what you2re talking about. In other words, when necessary: fake it till you make it.

T"e Substane trial,, he substance of your objection hinges on the setting. In an administrative hearing or  bench trial you should stand, say 3Objection your honor4 and follow u with a brief e!lanation. 7or e!amle: Attorney *: hen what did the eye witness say% +itness: $ell, he told us8 Attorney ,: Objection your honor, the witness is about to testify to hearsay. It2 It2ss an eye witness and not a arty oonent, o onent, and there2s been no foundation for any e!cetions.

hat2s it. 9ess than thirty words and this attorney2s attorney2s objection is roerly reserved on the record, and she has given the judge enough e!lanation to work with. 0ow the judge can either rule immediately or let oosing counsel argue the objection. (t that oint, you have to rely on your knowledge of the rules of evidence, along with the judge2s, to flesh out the objection. In a jury setting you need to take a slightly different aroach. It is wholly inaroriate to make an e!tended objection argument in front of the jury. On televisi television, on, we often see attorneys make long&winded objections and in doing so, resent inadmissible evidence to the jury. hat kind of imroer behavior in the courtroom can quickly hurt your reutation, reutation, not to mention your client2s case. case. uring a jury trial, your objections need to be more succinct and not reveal any facts or argue any law. o o make an objection, just stand and say 3Objection your honor, hearsay.4

 

he 7ederal ;ules of #vidence  #vidence require that require that you lace the reasons for your objection on the record. (nything (nything more than the grounds for your objection is both unnece unnecessary ssary and imroer. Once you get out the grounds for the objection, ask to aroach and have all the legal argument conducted outside the hearing of the jury.

T"e Ot"er Si#e Of course, if one side is objecting to testimony, testimony, the other side is attemting to admit the testimony.. his means you have testimony hav e to be ready to resond to objections when they come u. 1ou should be able to redict a lot of the objections based on the questions you will ask and the rearation you2ve done. Have resonses ready, or be reared to move on to another witness rearation you2ve question. $hen resonding to an objection, you should sound just as confident as the objecting attorney. (lso, if the objecting attorney does not ask to aroach, you should do that in a jury trial. 7inally, always have a backu final question. 0othing looks worse than sitting down from an e!amination on a sustained question. It looks like oosing counsel got you to sto asking questions altogether. +ure, you may have missed out on your great final 5inger, but have something else u your sleeve. ?>/-@=A

agged as:  as: evidence, evidence, objections, objections, trial trial   his is a !ist of objetions in (merican law law::B/C Droer reasons for objecting to a question asked of a witness include: •

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 Ambiguous, confusing , misleading , vague  Ambiguous, vague,, unintelligible unintelligible:: the question is not clear and  recise enough for the witness to roerly answer   Arguing the law law:: counsel is instructing the jury on the law.  Argumentative  Argumentative:: the question makes an argument rather than asking a question  Asked and answered : when the same the same attorney continues attorney continues to ask the same question and they have already received an answer. Esually seen after direct, but not always.  Asks the jury to prejudge the evidence: evidence: the jury cannot romise to vote a certain way, even if certain facts are roved.  Asking a question which is not related to an intelligent intelligent exercise of a peremptory a peremptory challenge or challenge  or challenge for cause: cause: if oosing counsel asks such a question during  during voir dire