The Art of Cross-Examination
by Francis L. Wellman
5/5
Touchstone 480 pages April 15, 1997
First published in 1903 and continuously in print ever since, Francis Wellman's classic is the foundational text on cross-examination in Anglo-American trial practice. Wellman, a former New York prosecutor, collected the great cross-examinations of his era and analyzed what made them work.
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Jim's Review
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Wellman wrote this in 1903 and trial lawyers still read it in 2026 for a reason. The mechanics of cross-examination — the leading question, the controlled retreat, the trap baited three questions earlier — have not changed. The illustrations from Choate, Russell, and Wellman's own cases are still the templates. Some of the prose is Edwardian, and a few of the strategies don't survive modern evidence rules. Read it anyway. The chapter on the cross of a perjured witness is a master class. Five worms. The genre's founding document, and still the best.
Jim's Weekly Worm Hole
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