Hostile witness
Antagonistic or contrary witness / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the 1968 film directed by Ray Milland, see Hostile Witness.
A hostile witness, also known as an adverse witness or an unfavorable witness, is a witness at trial whose testimony on direct examination is either openly antagonistic or appears to be contrary to the legal position of the party who called the witness. This concept is used in the legal proceedings in the United States, and analogues of it exist in other legal systems in Western countries.
The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and Australia and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (January 2022) |