adverse witness
1
8.7
- noun
- /ˈæd.vɜrs ˈwɪt.nəs/
- Formal
:
testigo adverso
- The second level of exclusion analysis in sexual abuse cases is whether a defendant may be excluded during the examination and cross-examination of adverse witnesses at trial.
Examples
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And it says you can lead hostile or adverse witnesses anytime.
Academic text (2009) -
Brodsky asked Judge Edward Burmila to declare that Smith was an "adverse witness."
Blog text (20) -
But then Marcus Garcia, a recent law school graduate, raised his hand and said, "The purpose of cross-examination is to let the advocate employ the essential legal, tactical, and verbal skills that will virtually disembowel the mendacious adverse witness right in the middle of trial."
Academic text (2009) -
In the court case, the defense attorney had to prepare for the challenge of questioning an adverse witness who might provide damaging testimony.
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During the trial, the prosecutor called an adverse witness whose statements contradicted her earlier testimony.
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The lawyer felt confident as she began her interrogation of the adverse witness, who had previously made unfavorable remarks about the defendant.
Synonyms
7
7.3
A witness expected to speak against the side that called them and questioned by the other lawyer
How Unfavorable
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly built from 'adverse' (unfavorable) + 'witness' (person who testifies), so a B1 learner who knows both words will understand it refers to a witness whose testimony or stance is unfavorable. There are specific legal procedural nuances to the term, but these do not obscure the core compositional meaning.
Etymology
Adverse witness comes from the words adverse (meaning 'against' or 'unfavorable') and witness (a person who saw or heard something). It creates the image of someone a lawyer calls who then speaks 'against' that lawyer's side, so the lawyer may be allowed special rules like asking 'leading questions'.