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Click here to find out moreA former complex litigation judge suggests winning strategies for cross examination. Judge Thomas Moukawsher explains effective preparation for cross examination, including the importance of knowing when not to cross examine a witness, how to draft questions that can only lead to the answer you need, how to tame a hostile witness, cross examination of your own witness or client, when and how to use documents and demonstrative exhibits, and how to tailor cross examination differently for courtside trials versus jury trials.
Judge Thomas Moukawsher is a Connecticut Superior Court judge (retired) whose career focused on litigating complex cases. He is the author of the Common Flaw, Needless Complexity in the Courts and 50 Ways to Reduce it from Brandeis University Press in 2023. Before taking the bench, Judge Moukawsher litigated complex employee benefit cases in federal courts across the country for 20 years, serving as chairman of the ABA Committee on Employee Benefits and co-author of BNA’s Employee Benefits Law. As a judge he handled complex civil commercial cases for six years and was also assigned for two years as the presiding judge of complex family law cases. Today, in addition to speaking engagements, Judge Moukawsher is a regular opinion contributor at Newsweek, and has provided commentary for CNN, NewsNation, the Hill, USA Today, Salon and others.