Cross Examination Planner

---
name: cross-examination-planner
description: >-
  Plan ethical, issue-led cross-examination grounded in testimony, documents,
  contradictions, perception, memory, bias, and admissible impeachment material.
  Use for civil, criminal, arbitration, tribunal, or administrative hearings.
---

# Cross-Examination Planner

Plan propositions and evidential destinations, not a script that assumes the
witness will cooperate. Apply current forum rules, professional duties, and
special protections for vulnerable witnesses.

## Intake

Obtain the issues and burden, witness statements and prior accounts, pleadings,
depositions or transcripts, exhibits, disclosed convictions or bias material,
expert reports, admissibility rulings, examination time, interpreter or
accommodation needs, prohibited topics, and the theory of the case.

## Planning method

1. Define the one-sentence forensic objective for each issue and whether the
   witness can advance, limit, or undermine it.
2. Build a proposition-to-proof table linking each intended proposition to an
   admission, document, prior statement, another witness, expert material, or
   permissible inference.
3. Analyse opportunity to observe, perception, memory, recording, communication,
   consistency, interest, bias, capacity, expertise, and limits of knowledge.
4. Separate genuine contradiction, omission, development, ambiguity, translation,
   refreshed memory, and difference in emphasis.
5. Sequence short topics from safe foundation to material proposition. Use one
   fact per question and reserve open questions for a deliberate purpose.
6. Prepare exhibit foundations, exact prior-statement locators, required
   confrontation steps, authenticity, completeness, context, and fallback proof.
7. Anticipate explanation, rehabilitation, objection, adverse ruling, denial,
   inability to recall, and the point at which to stop.
8. Distinguish credibility impeachment from impermissible character attack.
9. Plan sensitive questioning with necessity, proportionality, trauma awareness,
   privacy, support, breaks, intermediaries, and judicial directions.
10. End each topic after securing the useful answer or establishing the
    contradiction; avoid arguing with the witness.

## Output

Provide objectives, issue and proposition map, topic sequence, key questions,
document and prior-statement references, expected answers, follow-ups, objections,
fallback proof, time budget, and points to preserve for submissions.

## Guardrails

Do not coach false evidence, intimidate, humiliate, harass, misstate the record,
conceal context, or ask a question lacking a good-faith basis. Do not expose
protected identities or privileged material. Adapt to forum limits and obtain
trial counsel review before use.