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Because in truth Kentucky is just nothing more than a garbage state and a skid mark on the underpants of America. Would you like to know why? Sure you would.The problem with Kentucky is that its always been a bottom feeder state not only during my life but also my parents lives and that of my grandmother who would be 100 years old now if she were still living. It can be debated that it became an economic, social and political cesspool after the end of the Civil War when a group of former Confederates took over the state government and also much of the state so they got control of the Kentucky House, Senate and eventually governorship as well as many of the 120 counties in Kentucky. So in essence they were able to stage a somewhat peaceful coup against the existing state government and its officers.Kentucky, whatever it may have been back in the earlier times of this country, when it was one of the most prosperous states changed. Kentucky at one time was one of the most prosperous states because of large scale agriculture and industry forming in places like Cincinnati region along with Louisville and various other smaller communities up and down the river. Louisville was coming into its own by the time of the Civil War and was larger than basically another Southern city with the exception of New Orleans. Charleston only had 40,000 people in 1860……Louisville had 68,000 and New Orleans was the biggest at 168,000. Memphis was wracked by various ills such as smallpox, cholera, dysentery. Jackson was a small town as was most of the rural South. Kentucky could have did much better than it chose to do. Even up until the Great Depression started in 1929, Louisville was one of the top cities in the South whereas now its just an afterthought and only really considered because of the Kentucky famous horse race that Churchill Downs Inc. incorporated the name as the Kentucky Derby.Louisville was an early Ohio Valley industrial center along with Cincinnati and Pittsburgh along with a few other smaller communities along the river. By the depression which hit Louisville very hard during the 1930s the city declined both in stature but also population of course jobs. A whole lot Louisville based small businesses and industrial concerns went belly up during this time period. Also, in 1937 Louisville and communities in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, etc suffered from the Great Flood of 1937. That also weakened the economic base of Louisville. Another problem in Kentucky was always the propensity of Kentucky based businesses to pay extremely low wages especially during the late 1800s up until World War II. Employment was also based on who you know versus your skill set and what you know at that time. There was Louisville saying about keeping people in the family and that was largely true. The same type of kinship did exist in Kentucky for quite some time as well.By the 1940s, Kentucky was in its start of recovering from the Great Depression but one thing that didn’t recover in Kentucky was the overall quality of the economy, largely low wages even in places like Louisville, Owensboro, Lexington, Bowling Green, Eastern coalfields, etc. In fact starting in 1939……Kentucky has ranked 44th or worse out of the 50 states in personal per capita income every years in a 81 year span. Not in one instance from 1939 until present in 2020 has Kentucky ever ranked above 44th in the nation in personal income.Companies like Ford, General Electric and others helped the Kentucky economy over the past 75 years in that they and others paid above substandard wages and benefits which improved the lot for many in the areas around Kentucky cities as well as some other industries that paid well in places like Louisville and Lexington. The coal fields still had unionization for decades and that did help some with pay and benefits but a lot of people in Kentucky simply couldn’t land jobs at the above aforementioned employers.Another problem with Kentucky is that they have a horrid educational system to the point that Kentucky ranks 47th in the United States in educational attainment. Meaning that Kentucky doesn’t value post secondary education in the college realm in huge parts of Kentucky as well as doesn’t value overall education as such. In recent years despite attempts at educational reform, Kentucky schools regularly ranked from 41st to 45th in K to 12th grade education. University quality of education in Kentucky ranked 41st in the country out of all of the colleges and universities in Kentucky. Not to mention the average pay for many Kentucky teachers is quite low by comparison to its Northern neighbors in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, etc. Kentucky simply doesn’t value education and henceforth it remains in the bottom 5 or 10 states in just about every category.Such affairs lead to higher levels of corruption in local and state government because everyone is on the take because of less funding and less money so public corruption thrives in Kentucky along with poverty, toothlessness, medical problems, depression, suicide, diabetes, heart disease, smoking deaths and many other socioeconomic categories. The corruption in some Kentucky counties is so bad that the state and federal government has to keep a close eye on the local politicians and local chieftains that run the 120 different Kentucky counties. Imagine a state no bigger than Kentucky maybe 150 miles North to South and 450 miles east to west with 120 counties. Most of which could be consolidated into a bigger county but that would cut the power of the local individual chieftains that try to have more power than elected state officials and representatives. For example, see one Kim Davis. We could also look at corruption in Kentucky both Democrat and Republican and through also things like Operation Boptrot in the 1990s. Including several Kentucky governors with corruption issues see Wallace Wilkinson, Ernie Fletcher, Paul Patton and others.Another reason why you find such cheap real estate in Kentucky is the mentality of the local population in much of Kentucky. Why would most outsiders from the cities or suburbs want to relocate into Kentucky when you’ve got to deal with people who have limited and very limited economic, education and social prospects. Including a whole lot of people in rural Kentucky that have double digit IQ levels and we’re not talking about 90 plus. You’re dealing with some of least educated and least well intention people in America. A higher rural crime rate as Kentucky is becoming one of the highest crime states with a higher percentage of its population incarcerated to the point that state officials in the last several years have been trying policy considerations to change this. However, the only thing they were able to do was release large numbers of Kentucky born and bred offenders into the general public and let them try to rehabilitate themselves yet largely end up failing or committing more and more offenses.Another problem in Kentucky is that the state because of its fiscal profligacy and stupidity along with bad economics, low wage jobs and high unemployment is largely broke. Broke to the point that it is the 3rd worst state for retiree pension funding to the point that only California with 40 million people and Illinois with 12 million are more broke in the funding of their public pension systems. Add in the fact that Kentucky roads and schools are so underfunded that the American Society of Civil Engineers gives Kentucky a D for infrastructure and that it will be cost hundreds of billions of dollars just in the next decade to make Kentucky roads and bridges up to a C level instead of D level infrastructure.This has been brought up at the state level and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet during the past decade yet no one knows how to get the funding and the manpower and skills to get the job done. Furthermore, Kentucky doesn’t have the ability to make more funding available due to its mismanaged state and mismanaged state and local governments. To the point that Kentucky would have to borrow huge amounts from a broken federal government in order to pay for the road surfaces and obsolete bridges that it currently possesses in most of the state. Or if you prefer call it the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Add in the fact that Kentucky already has a relatively high state income tax of 5.8 to 6.0 percent dependent on income and yet a state of 4.5 million people still can’t pay its bills.One more thing I might add about the sad state of Kentucky is that in a recent year the Commonwealth of Kentucky government released data that pointed out that nearly one sixth of Kentucky residents were functionally illiterate in that they couldn’t do basic things like fill out applications, government forms, do basic tasks, etc. The number of those is well over 600,000 Kentuckians who are functionally illiterate. In some areas of Appalachian Kentucky in the eastern one third of the state as many as 30 percent of the local population is functionally illiterate. What does this mean to you and me? More poverty, more social welfare programs, less job creation, more crime, more domestic violence, more social issues such as alcohol and drug abuse and more payouts to Kentucky government for running a profligate and incompetent state. Furthermore, it might be added that for every dollar that Kentucky sends in taxes to the United States Treasury that it gets $2.61 for every dollar paid in. Which means that other states often characterized as high tax states such as New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, California and others is paying Kentucky’s own burden.It might also mention that the poverty rate in Kentucky is 18.3 percent ranking it 47th in the US for poverty one of the worst states only above states such as Mississippi, West Virginia and others.One might also mention that despite having Senator Mitch McConnell for 36 years now Kentucky remains one of the poorest states at 47th in per capita income, 47th in median family income, 47th in total income, 47th in educational attainment, 50th in health outcomes ranking dead last, worst run state by Governing Magazine, 1st in child abuse many years, 1st in elder abuse, and worst protections for animals to prevent abuse. Add in the horrid state of Kentucky schools where 12th grade students only function as literate in English literature and writing skills at around 54 percent being proficient. The math scores in Kentucky are even worse being that only 40 percent of Kentucky 10th graders are proficient at grade level in Mathematics skills and also that Kentucky ranks only at 36 percent for science proficiency at 10th grade.So in essence these things are why Kentucky has a low quality of life along with poor schools, poverty everywhere, drug abuse and alcohol abuse through the roof and a dependency culture everywhere that requires huge outlays of money from the federal government and US taxpayers and especially those in prosperous states that pay more than their share into the federal piggy bank.The problem with Kentucky is a vicious cycle of generations of poor education, generations of stupidity being practiced, low wage jobs if they have jobs, low income areas, drug abuse, alcohol abuse and having a population that disdains education and economic and social progress. Kentuckians would rather live in a pig sty than improve themselves largely through education, common sense and bringing up their state to a better level in the United States.I know I will get criticism for saying this about Kentucky but at this point I haven’t cared for the better part of the last decade so its just interesting watch Kentucky continue to evolve into a lesser and less place because its population largely hates and cannot be bothered with getting something more than a 3rd rate high school education and having the educational of an 8th grade dropout when half of the schools in Kentucky and half of the kids can’t even function at or exceeding a 12th grade level of education which is simply easy for most intelligent people.Kentuckians also have a thin skin when it comes to criticism of their state and society and I’ve had plenty of detractors and even threat makers over the years talk about what they would do to me. All because the Hee Haw mentality state and its people won’t grow up and address the issues that makes their state an exceedingly horrid place to live.By the way I lived in Kentucky for a grand total of five years and I live close enough to there to visit passing through time to time and it hasn’t changed since I left. Of course, we’ll get the Hee Haw mentality folks from Kentucky to try to tell me different but I’ve lived there and the quality of life in many places in Kentucky is less than be desired. Unless you’re fabulously wealthy or upper class you’re being fooled and in that case if you’re wealthy then it can be tolerable when you don’t have to do daily chores with the general Kentucky population who seem to often be exceedingly mentally slow and mentally deficient in so many ways. Not to mention a serious lack of common sense in Kentucky.In closing, unless you’ve lived in a backwards rural area in farm country or hill country Kentucky largely won’t be for you and not only that but the rural state of Kentucky also has horrible healthcare in rural areas and the best hospitals are in Nashville, TN, around Louisville and Lexington or Cincinnati, OH or Evansville, IN. The rest of it is really that bad.

Because in truth Kentucky is just nothing more than a garbage state and a skid mark on the underpants of America. Would you like to know why? Sure you would.The problem with Kentucky is that its always been a bottom feeder state not only during my life but also my parents lives and that of my grandmother who would be 100 years old now if she were still living. It can be debated that it became an economic, social and political cesspool after the end of the Civil War when a group of former Confederates took over the state government and also much of the state so they got control of the Kentucky House, Senate and eventually governorship as well as many of the 120 counties in Kentucky. So in essence they were able to stage a somewhat peaceful coup against the existing state government and its officers.Kentucky, whatever it may have been back in the earlier times of this country, when it was one of the most prosperous states changed. Kentucky at one time was one of the most prosperous states because of large scale agriculture and industry forming in places like Cincinnati region along with Louisville and various other smaller communities up and down the river. Louisville was coming into its own by the time of the Civil War and was larger than basically another Southern city with the exception of New Orleans. Charleston only had 40,000 people in 1860……Louisville had 68,000 and New Orleans was the biggest at 168,000. Memphis was wracked by various ills such as smallpox, cholera, dysentery. Jackson was a small town as was most of the rural South. Kentucky could have did much better than it chose to do. Even up until the Great Depression started in 1929, Louisville was one of the top cities in the South whereas now its just an afterthought and only really considered because of the Kentucky famous horse race that Churchill Downs Inc. incorporated the name as the Kentucky Derby.Louisville was an early Ohio Valley industrial center along with Cincinnati and Pittsburgh along with a few other smaller communities along the river. By the depression which hit Louisville very hard during the 1930s the city declined both in stature but also population of course jobs. A whole lot Louisville based small businesses and industrial concerns went belly up during this time period. Also, in 1937 Louisville and communities in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, etc suffered from the Great Flood of 1937. That also weakened the economic base of Louisville. Another problem in Kentucky was always the propensity of Kentucky based businesses to pay extremely low wages especially during the late 1800s up until World War II. Employment was also based on who you know versus your skill set and what you know at that time. There was Louisville saying about keeping people in the family and that was largely true. The same type of kinship did exist in Kentucky for quite some time as well.By the 1940s, Kentucky was in its start of recovering from the Great Depression but one thing that didn’t recover in Kentucky was the overall quality of the economy, largely low wages even in places like Louisville, Owensboro, Lexington, Bowling Green, Eastern coalfields, etc. In fact starting in 1939……Kentucky has ranked 44th or worse out of the 50 states in personal per capita income every years in a 81 year span. Not in one instance from 1939 until present in 2020 has Kentucky ever ranked above 44th in the nation in personal income.Companies like Ford, General Electric and others helped the Kentucky economy over the past 75 years in that they and others paid above substandard wages and benefits which improved the lot for many in the areas around Kentucky cities as well as some other industries that paid well in places like Louisville and Lexington. The coal fields still had unionization for decades and that did help some with pay and benefits but a lot of people in Kentucky simply couldn’t land jobs at the above aforementioned employers.Another problem with Kentucky is that they have a horrid educational system to the point that Kentucky ranks 47th in the United States in educational attainment. Meaning that Kentucky doesn’t value post secondary education in the college realm in huge parts of Kentucky as well as doesn’t value overall education as such. In recent years despite attempts at educational reform, Kentucky schools regularly ranked from 41st to 45th in K to 12th grade education. University quality of education in Kentucky ranked 41st in the country out of all of the colleges and universities in Kentucky. Not to mention the average pay for many Kentucky teachers is quite low by comparison to its Northern neighbors in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, etc. Kentucky simply doesn’t value education and henceforth it remains in the bottom 5 or 10 states in just about every category.Such affairs lead to higher levels of corruption in local and state government because everyone is on the take because of less funding and less money so public corruption thrives in Kentucky along with poverty, toothlessness, medical problems, depression, suicide, diabetes, heart disease, smoking deaths and many other socioeconomic categories. The corruption in some Kentucky counties is so bad that the state and federal government has to keep a close eye on the local politicians and local chieftains that run the 120 different Kentucky counties. Imagine a state no bigger than Kentucky maybe 150 miles North to South and 450 miles east to west with 120 counties. Most of which could be consolidated into a bigger county but that would cut the power of the local individual chieftains that try to have more power than elected state officials and representatives. For example, see one Kim Davis. We could also look at corruption in Kentucky both Democrat and Republican and through also things like Operation Boptrot in the 1990s. Including several Kentucky governors with corruption issues see Wallace Wilkinson, Ernie Fletcher, Paul Patton and others.Another reason why you find such cheap real estate in Kentucky is the mentality of the local population in much of Kentucky. Why would most outsiders from the cities or suburbs want to relocate into Kentucky when you’ve got to deal with people who have limited and very limited economic, education and social prospects. Including a whole lot of people in rural Kentucky that have double digit IQ levels and we’re not talking about 90 plus. You’re dealing with some of least educated and least well intention people in America. A higher rural crime rate as Kentucky is becoming one of the highest crime states with a higher percentage of its population incarcerated to the point that state officials in the last several years have been trying policy considerations to change this. However, the only thing they were able to do was release large numbers of Kentucky born and bred offenders into the general public and let them try to rehabilitate themselves yet largely end up failing or committing more and more offenses.Another problem in Kentucky is that the state because of its fiscal profligacy and stupidity along with bad economics, low wage jobs and high unemployment is largely broke. Broke to the point that it is the 3rd worst state for retiree pension funding to the point that only California with 40 million people and Illinois with 12 million are more broke in the funding of their public pension systems. Add in the fact that Kentucky roads and schools are so underfunded that the American Society of Civil Engineers gives Kentucky a D for infrastructure and that it will be cost hundreds of billions of dollars just in the next decade to make Kentucky roads and bridges up to a C level instead of D level infrastructure.This has been brought up at the state level and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet during the past decade yet no one knows how to get the funding and the manpower and skills to get the job done. Furthermore, Kentucky doesn’t have the ability to make more funding available due to its mismanaged state and mismanaged state and local governments. To the point that Kentucky would have to borrow huge amounts from a broken federal government in order to pay for the road surfaces and obsolete bridges that it currently possesses in most of the state. Or if you prefer call it the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Add in the fact that Kentucky already has a relatively high state income tax of 5.8 to 6.0 percent dependent on income and yet a state of 4.5 million people still can’t pay its bills.One more thing I might add about the sad state of Kentucky is that in a recent year the Commonwealth of Kentucky government released data that pointed out that nearly one sixth of Kentucky residents were functionally illiterate in that they couldn’t do basic things like fill out applications, government forms, do basic tasks, etc. The number of those is well over 600,000 Kentuckians who are functionally illiterate. In some areas of Appalachian Kentucky in the eastern one third of the state as many as 30 percent of the local population is functionally illiterate. What does this mean to you and me? More poverty, more social welfare programs, less job creation, more crime, more domestic violence, more social issues such as alcohol and drug abuse and more payouts to Kentucky government for running a profligate and incompetent state. Furthermore, it might be added that for every dollar that Kentucky sends in taxes to the United States Treasury that it gets $2.61 for every dollar paid in. Which means that other states often characterized as high tax states such as New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, California and others is paying Kentucky’s own burden.It might also mention that the poverty rate in Kentucky is 18.3 percent ranking it 47th in the US for poverty one of the worst states only above states such as Mississippi, West Virginia and others.One might also mention that despite having Senator Mitch McConnell for 36 years now Kentucky remains one of the poorest states at 47th in per capita income, 47th in median family income, 47th in total income, 47th in educational attainment, 50th in health outcomes ranking dead last, worst run state by Governing Magazine, 1st in child abuse many years, 1st in elder abuse, and worst protections for animals to prevent abuse. Add in the horrid state of Kentucky schools where 12th grade students only function as literate in English literature and writing skills at around 54 percent being proficient. The math scores in Kentucky are even worse being that only 40 percent of Kentucky 10th graders are proficient at grade level in Mathematics skills and also that Kentucky ranks only at 36 percent for science proficiency at 10th grade.So in essence these things are why Kentucky has a low quality of life along with poor schools, poverty everywhere, drug abuse and alcohol abuse through the roof and a dependency culture everywhere that requires huge outlays of money from the federal government and US taxpayers and especially those in prosperous states that pay more than their share into the federal piggy bank.The problem with Kentucky is a vicious cycle of generations of poor education, generations of stupidity being practiced, low wage jobs if they have jobs, low income areas, drug abuse, alcohol abuse and having a population that disdains education and economic and social progress. Kentuckians would rather live in a pig sty than improve themselves largely through education, common sense and bringing up their state to a better level in the United States.I know I will get criticism for saying this about Kentucky but at this point I haven’t cared for the better part of the last decade so its just interesting watch Kentucky continue to evolve into a lesser and less place because its population largely hates and cannot be bothered with getting something more than a 3rd rate high school education and having the educational of an 8th grade dropout when half of the schools in Kentucky and half of the kids can’t even function at or exceeding a 12th grade level of education which is simply easy for most intelligent people.Kentuckians also have a thin skin when it comes to criticism of their state and society and I’ve had plenty of detractors and even threat makers over the years talk about what they would do to me. All because the Hee Haw mentality state and its people won’t grow up and address the issues that makes their state an exceedingly horrid place to live.By the way I lived in Kentucky for a grand total of five years and I live close enough to there to visit passing through time to time and it hasn’t changed since I left. Of course, we’ll get the Hee Haw mentality folks from Kentucky to try to tell me different but I’ve lived there and the quality of life in many places in Kentucky is less than be desired. Unless you’re fabulously wealthy or upper class you’re being fooled and in that case if you’re wealthy then it can be tolerable when you don’t have to do daily chores with the general Kentucky population who seem to often be exceedingly mentally slow and mentally deficient in so many ways. Not to mention a serious lack of common sense in Kentucky.In closing, unless you’ve lived in a backwards rural area in farm country or hill country Kentucky largely won’t be for you and not only that but the rural state of Kentucky also has horrible healthcare in rural areas and the best hospitals are in Nashville, TN, around Louisville and Lexington or Cincinnati, OH or Evansville, IN. The rest of it is really that bad.

Either a prosecutor or a defense attorney may ask the court to consider a person a hostile witness if they are not testifying favorably. It essentially means that the witness you call to testify is not on your side, i.e., is 'hostile' to your client's position. Nevertheless, you want to call that witness to testify in your case (in which you're trying to prove your case, not disprove the other side's) for other reasons, i.e., to fill in some facts that need to be stated for you to satisfy your burden of putting into evidence all of the facts necessary to demonstrate your entitlement to bring the claims your client has asserted. If the Judge accepts your assertion that the witness is hostile to your case, you are permitted to 'lead' the witness with questions like, 'isn't it true that the light was red when you first observed the blue car?' If the witness is not 'hostile' the lawyer is not permitted to 'lead' the witness, i.e., to suggest the answer to the question. All you're allowed to do is to ask open-ended questions like 'where were you on the 20th of March? Who, if anyone else, was also there?' Treating a witness as hostile is a mechanism to cross examine the witness when there are circumstances that dictate this. Here are 2 such circumstances:When you have called a witness in your own case in chief but they are an unfavorable witness or an 'adverse witness,' you may treat the witness as hostile and cross examine the witness. You technically do not have to request permission from the Judge but it is always good form and respectful if you do request such permission.When you have called a witness and are performing direct examination of this witness (because you believed they would testify as a favorable witness) but they start changing their story and are not cooperating, you may request permission to treat the witness as an adverse witness (aka 'hostile'). This allows the attorney to cross examine the witness.-Corri D. Fetman, Esq.Corri Fetman & Associates, Ltd.www.cfalawfirm.comUnder the rules of evidence, you are not supposed to ask leading questions of your own witness because leading questions suggest the answer. In other words, you can spoon feed answers to your witnesses, and that's not what the courts want. They want you to ask open ended questions so the witness can testify based on what they know instead of what the attorney tells them.For example, if you call a witness to testify that the light was red when the other side crashed into your client, the attorney cannot ask:"Isn't it true that the light was red?"Instead, they should ask 'What color was the light?' This way the witness answers based on their own experience.For the first question, the other side's attorney would object to the question as "leading."However, if the witness is 'hostile' for whatever reason then you may ask the court to declare the witness as hostile so you can ask leading questions, even if the attorney called the witness. Without such a showing, it is presumed that your own witnesses are not 'hostile', so opposing attorneys will object to your questions as leading.Usually, a 'hostile' witness is one that won't answer your questions, shows a bias against you, or other similar reasons. I once had a hostile witness in a criminal case where I was a prosecutor, and the witness was a cooperating criminal. He wouldn't answer my questions directly so I asked the judge to declare him a hostile witness.Here is Federal Rule of Evidence 611:http://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/fre/rule_611-MATTHEW S. JAMESJames DefenseThe essence of the question is asking the court to recognize that the lawyer has called a witness to the stand on direct examination that is hostile to the claim or defense. Normally, a lawyer is given very little latitude when questioning witnesses favorable to her positions in the case. The lawyer is not supposed to ask a question that suggests the desired answer. Lawyers call these 'leading questions.' Think of them this way, a leading question essentially allows the lawyer to testify through the witness by designing questions that can only be answered in a yes/no format. Questions that begin with 'Isn't it true that...' or that in themselves are statements not asking for open explanation are leading questions. If I as a trial lawyer called the witness to the stand there is a normal presumption that the witness is favorable to me, therefore I cannot ask leading questions.When the lawyer asks the court to treat the witness as hostile, the lawyer is asking permission to lead the witness to make specific points from a witness that normally does not want those points made. Normally, unless the witness is actually an opponent in the litigation or a hired expert witness for an opponent, the court will not allow the witness to be treated as a hostile witness until the witness exhibits hostility to the sponsoring lawyers positions in testimony with non-leading, open ended questioning.-Lin McCrawMcCrawGanttBoard Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal SpecializationIf I am representing my client and call a witness, I generally expect that witness to support my case. Sometimes a witness will have information that is NOT supportive. Since I've called the witness, I may ask the court to name the witness as 'hostile.' That allows me to use the tools of cross-examination which are not generally allowed in direct testimony.-J. Kim Wright, J.D.Member, NC Bar1989 Graduate of University of Florida Lawhttp://www.cuttingedgelaw.com/The phrase appears in movies and television more so than in real life. However what it really means is that the lawyer is seeking the ability to ask 'leading' questions of the witness. A 'leading' question is one that suggests the answer desired by the lawyer. Examples include 'You never actually saw Bill that night, did you?' or 'You never reported the incident to management, did you?' Leading questions allow the lawyer to control the dialogue more easily so that the jury hears the testimony in such a way that is the lawyer's choosing while making it harder for the witness to avoid answering the question.Generally a lawyer cannot ask leading questions of witnesses unless the witness is on cross-examination or is being clearly evasive in the witness' answers (i.e. 'hostile'). So the lawyer is asking the judge to make the determination that the witness is being clearly evasive so as to allow the lawyer to ask leading questions. Certain witnesses are assumed to be 'hostile' and therefore it isn't necessary to ask for permission to ask leading questions. These can include opposing parties, people employed by opposing parties or otherwise under the influence or control of opposing parties.-John H. Barkley, Esq.Attorney at LawShustak & Partners, P.C.Certain questioning techniques are allowed when a witness is consideredhostile, which would otherwise be objectionable. The best example - alawyer can ask the witness questions that are leading in nature, which wouldotherwise not be allowed. A judge will grant such permission if the witness is not answering questions properly, being evasive or otherwise difficult.-Lance E. MuellerMueller, S.C.Generally speaking the phrase 'permission to treat a witness as hostile' is a cue to both the judge and the jury that a witness is not cooperating with the judicial process and/or is not being honest with their answers. An attorney can ask questions to a hostile witness that they would not be able to ask a friendly witness, so the allowance can broaden the manner of interrogation.-Matthew Reischer, Esqhttp://www.LegalAdvice.comNormally when a lawyer calls a witness they are only allowed to conduct direct examination. So for example, a question might be 'What time did you leave the store?' After a lawyer finishes questioning a witness the other side gets to cross examine the witnesses. In cross examination you can ask leading questions. A leading question might be 'Isn't it true that you left the store at 4:30?' The advantage to a leading question is that the lawyer is providing the information to the court through the witness.When a lawyer calls a witness who is non-cooperative or refuses to answer questions, they can, at the discretion of the judge, be considered hostile. When a witness is determined to be hostile the lawyer on 'direct' can then use leading questions to facilitate their testimony.This technique is used if you require the testimony of the adverse party,or someone close to them (parent, spouse, employee, etc.) in order to make a critical point in a case. A lawyer has to be careful though, because judges don't always grant the request. Then you are stuck trying to 'pull' what you need from direct questions, and then the other lawyer gets to lead what might be a very friendly witness to them.I have tried civil, criminal and family court cases involving direct and cross examination of witnesses, and dealt with the 'permission to treat the witness as hostile' question in a multi-day trial just a few weeks ago.-James R. Snell, Jr.Attorney at LawLexington, South Carolinawww.snelllaw.comThis is when a lawyer asks a Judge permission to ask a witness, usually his own, leading questions (You saw my client sign the contract, correct?) on direct examination. Leading questions usually are only asked during cross examination. A hostile witness is someone who's testimony is contrary to the facts and law the lawyer seeks to present, therefore the lawyer must now impeach the testimony of the witness. A witness on cross examination is presumed to be hostile, so the lawyer does not need to seek the court's permission to treat the witness as hostile.-Andrellos MitchellAttorney & Counselor at LawLaw Office of Andrellos MitchellThe short answer is that it means the lawyer is asking the judge if the lawyer may insert a ring through the witness's nose and lead the witness wherever the lawyer leads.Now, why might that lawyer need that permission and why might the judge grant it? Well, broadly speaking, there are two rules that lawyers must follow at trial concerning the manner in which lawyers question witnesses. On direct examination, a lawyer generally may not 'lead the witness.' On cross-examination, the lawyer may do so, and generally will use nothing but leading questions.Direct examination is the type of examination that, generally speaking, occurs when a lawyer is putting on his client's case-in-chief and calls a witness to the stand to testify. The lawyer must not lead the witness during questioning on direct examination. A leading question is one that suggests the answer, such as, 'You left the bar at about 10:00 p.m. on that night, correct?' 'Yes.' But if the lawyer has the witness on direct examination, the lawyer may not lead. Instead, the lawyer has to resort to who, what, why, when, and how questions, or 'Please explain to the jury . . .' or 'Please tell the Court . . .' So, back to our example about the guy leaving the bar, on direct examination the question becomes, 'Now, on the night of the accident, Mr. Client, about what time did you leave the bar?'On cross examination, which occurs when the lawyer is questioning a witness called or clearly associated with an adverse party, the lawyer is permitted to lead the witness. Cross examination is great fun for trial lawyers, because in essence, they get to do the testifying. In theory, the lawyer just puts the words in the witness's mouth, and ideally all the witness says is yes or no. And as a result, the lawyer has much greater control over the course of the testimony. Well-coached witnesses will fight you, but there are other techniques for dealing with that problem. By contrast, direct examination involves much less control by the lawyer and can be more challenging for that reason.So what's with this permission-to-treat-witness-as-hostile question? Well, on occasion a lawyer may have to call a witness in his client's case-in-chief who is just not all that fond of the lawyer's client. Now, if that witnesses is someone clearly identified with an adverse party in the case-let's say plaintiff calls to the stand in her case-in-chief an employee of the corporate defendant-then the lawyer may get to call the witness 'under cross-examination.' In that instance, the lawyer can start with leading questions right out of the gate, from the first question. But let's suppose the witness I have to call is a former employee of my client and for reasons totally unrelated to this case, that ex-employee is just not a real fan of my client anymore. The judge probably will not permit me to call the witness in my client's case-in-chief 'on cross examination' right out of the box. Instead, I may have to begin the questioning as if on direct examination with my usual non-leading, who, what, where, when, and why questions. If, however, the witness starts going off on my client, clearly demonstrating hostility and damaging my oh-so-well-crafted story for the jury, then I turn to the judge and say, 'Your Honor, may I have permission to treat the witness as hostile?' And if the judge grants that permission, I may now start using leading questions to get the witness to where I want to go.-Charles PenotThe Law Offices of Charles Penot, PLLCWhen a lawyer asks permission to treat a witness as hostile, they are doing that so that they can 'lead' the witness. When an attorney calls a witness and questions him or her, that is called a direct examination and the attorney must ask open-ended questions rather than leading questions. This is a more amiable conversation than a cross-examination, during which leading questions are asked (wherein the answer is implied). Unfortunately, sometimes a witness that may be helpful to your case does not want to cooperate and therefore, your client will be better protected if you can ask leading questions (it's also easier to elicit the answer you want). The attorney must request permission to treat the witness as hostile so that the leading questions are not objectionable.-Shari-Lynn Cuomo Shore, Esq.Wolf & Shore, LLCwww.wolfandshorelaw.comWhen a lawyer asks to treat a witness as hostile they are asking the Judge for permission to question the witness in a certain way. Traditionally when a lawyer calls a witness in their case in chief (i.e. the plaintiff's lawyer calls the defendant as a witness on the plaintiff's behalf), the witness may not be favorable to the parties case (i.e. the defendant doesn't want to testify on the plaintiff's behalf). When you are calling your own witness that is determined to be hostile you may do certain things such as ask leading questions 'Weren't you there on that night' instead of 'Where were you on this night'. It basically involves starting the question off assuming the answer or using questions that solicit yes and no answers. The goal of leading questions is to solicit information the witness is otherwise going to be elusive in providing when asking open ended or less direct questions.Attorney's usually have an unfettered right to ask leading questions on cross-examination, so if the plaintiff's lawyer calls the defendant as a witness, when the defendant's attorney is cross examining her at that time, the defendant's attorney may automatically (subject to each state's rules) use leading questions.-Tiffany S. FrancAttorneyhttp://www.pklaw.com/Generally, a witness must ask open-ended questions when examining their own witnesses and can only cross-examine (i.e., ask leading questions) when questioning witnesses called by an opposing party. However, sometimes a lawyer needs to call as a witness someone who is not cooperative and acting hostile to the lawyer and his client. If that happens, the lawyer can ask the judge for 'permission to treat the witness as hostile.' If the judge agrees, the lawyer can then ask leading questions. A judge will review both the witness's manner on the stand and any interest adverse to the lawyer and his client. So, most frequently, a lawyer tries to question his witnesses with open-ended questions and seeks permission to treat as hostile after the witness demonstrates hostility and un-cooperativeness. Nevertheless, sometimes a lawyer can ask before even questioning if it is clear that the witness will be adverse. If not granted, he can request again if the witness is, in fact, hostile to the initial questions.-Thomas J. Simeone, Esq.Simeone & Miller, LLPwww.SimeoneMiller.comThe meaning or purpose of asking the court for leave to treat a witness as hostile is that the attorney is seeking leave to ask leading questions (which are generally not allowed on direct examination of a witness that the attorney has called to testify) and to possibly impeach or discredit the witness with his/her prior statements or conduct.It is generally used when a witness who is either thought to be neutral, or even un-helpful to the attorney's client in some respect, has to be called because they can offer some key piece of evidence that cannot be introduced otherwise.-John R. O'Brien, AttorneyChicago, IllinoisLicensed in Illinois since 1978An adverse or hostile witness is a witness whose trial testimony, on DIRECT examination, is "adverse" or "hostile" to the lawyer questioning the witness. For example, a lawyer calls the complainant at trial when the lawyer represents the defendant who supposedly victimized the complainant. The lawyer can ask that the complainant be designated "hostile" because the complainant is adverse to the defense position. Allowing the witness to be designated hostile allows the lawyer to then ask LEADING questions. A leading question calls for a "yes" or "no" answer. The direct examination then proceeds in a leading manner (as if the witness is being cross-examined).-Neal Davis is a criminal defense attorney in Houston, Texas and founder of the Neal Davis Law Firm, PLLC. Neal is board certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in criminal law and has garnered national recognition for defending cases before the US Supreme Court and Texas courts.www.houstoncriminaldefenselawyers.comYou are asking the judge to allow you to ask the witness leading questions, which have presumptive elements about them and may even suggest the answer.Some witnesses are adverse by nature - party opponents for instance. They are hostile witnesses by nature and will usually erect vague and ambiguous answers to your questions. They can drag the case on with such antics. Who, what, when, where and why are not leading. "Isn't it true?" is a leading question and allowed during cross examination or if the court allows leading questions on direct examination of a hostile witness.-Dr. Shawn Council, Esquire, LPDAttorney at LawDoctorate of Law & Policywww.shawncouncil.comAn angry witness is stewing on the witness stand poised to pounce at any moment on our hero - the social pariah of a lawyer who is taking on corrupt government, big business, or vile criminals. As our hero fires off several rounds of questions, he's outmatched by the cunning of the witness. Until suddenly, our hero screams out, 'Permission to treat the witness as hostile?' The judge readily grants the motion and a high stakes drama unfolds which eventually leads to the witness's shocking confession before a stunned jury.But permission to treat a witness as hostile isn't usually all that exciting. The rules of evidence allow attorneys to use leading questions in cross examination against the opposing counsel's witness. A leading question is a question that implies the answer and usually involves a yes or no question. For example, these types of questions might start with 'Isn't it true you...."Usually, these types of questions are improper with one's own witnesses. The jury needs to hear testimony from the witness, not the lawyer. So, a lawyer should ask his own witness open ended questions such as who, what, where, when, why, and how. The idea behind the rules is that the opposing counsel's witnesses may be biased or untruthful and leading questions are a tool to fully examine the accuracy of a witness's statement, whereas one's own witnesses must be free to explain what he or she witnessed and not influenced by an attorney trying to win a case. And yet there are times when the attorney's own witness is evasive or prone to be hostile by virtue of the circumstances of the case. In those times, a court may grant latitude to use leading questions because the attorney's own witness is not much different from that of opposing counsel. This is a very common tool when witnesses recant prior testimony.While this fun declaration is usually not as exciting as it's portrayed in the media, it's a very useful tool to the skilled lawyer to get to the bottom of the matter.-Mark Heath, criminal defense attorney,http://www.jacksonwhitelaw.com/Please see the following articles for more information about jobs related to criminal law:Matt Murphy, Senior Deputy District Attorney, Orange County, CaliforniaHow to Become a District AttorneyConsidering a Career as a District Attorney?The Life and Career of Attorney Nancy Grace, Who Turned Lawyer after the Murder of Her Fiance.Top 39 Tips for New Litigation Associates and Trial Lawyers: How to Be a Good Litigation AttorneyJob Opportunities in Criminal LawJury Consultants Continue to be in Hot DemandThe Life and Career of Marcia Clark Criminal Defense AttorneyA Television show for military related crimes by former pilot turned Lawyer : Lt. Cmdr. "Harm" Rabb. Jr.Please see the following articles for more information about jobs related to criminal law:Make a career change as Public DefenderThe Rocky Balboa of Criminal Defense Law: Joseph TacopinaThe Life and Career of Tony Serra: Criminal Defense LawyerDefending the Mob: Chicago Criminal Defense Attorney Rick HalprinTop 39 Tips for New Litigation Associates and Trial Lawyers: How to Be a Good Litigation AttorneyJob Opportunities in Criminal LawJury Consultants Continue to be in Hot DemandA Television Show for Military Related Crimes by Former Pilot Turned Lawyer: Lt. Cmdr. "Harm" Rabb. 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