A hostile witness is a witness in a trial who testifies for the opposing party or a witness who offers adverse testimony to the calling party during direct examination.
A witness called by the opposing party is presumed hostile. A witness called by the direct examiner can be declared hostile by a judge, at the request of the examiner, when the witness' testimony is openly antagonistic or clearly prejudiced to the opposing party.
A party examining a hostile witness may question the witness as if in cross-examination, thus permitting the use of leading questions. A hostile witness is sometimes known as an adverse witness or an unfavorable witness.
Famous quotes containing the words hostile and/or witness:
“We feign pity when we want to demonstrate our ascendancy over feelings of hostility: but usually in vain. Whenever we notice this, there is an accompanying surge in those hostile sensations.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“The yearning for an afterlife is the opposite of selfish: it is love and praise for the world that we are privileged, in this complex interval of light, to witness and experience.”
—John Updike (b. 1932)