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“Lawyer, why didn’t you ask the other party plenty questions during cross-examination when the court asked you to? Her lawyer spent over one hour asking her questions. Will this not affect our case, sir?” This was the first thing the curious client said to me after the virtual proceedings. The question was very much expected, as I never envisioned myself asking just four questions out of my proposed eleven possible questions during cross-examination while preparing for the trial. The level of happiness an aggrieved person enjoys when they see their lawyer “dealing” with the other party while standing in the witness box cannot be quantified. Most clients even see this exercise as a metric to measure the lawyer’s competence. However, remember that clients would not be happy to discover that their case got weakened due to the irrelevant questions asked by the lawyer representing them. “Coming to cross-examination, the advocate should realise that it is not just a routine or necessary ritual. If there is no purpose, and nothing to be gained by asking any particular question, then that question should not be asked. There is never a cause contested in a trial Court, the result of which is not mainly dependent upon the skill with which the advocate conducts his cross-examination.” — Oputa JSC, In the Eyes of the Law, Owerri, Friends Law Publishers Ltd, 1992. Y.O. Emiola, Esq. 9th November, 2026