Be Careful in Cross-Examiniation

The Verdict is a 1982 American legal classic film directed by Sidney Lumet and written by David Mamet. The film stars Paul Newman as a down-on-his-luck alcoholic lawyer who accepts a medical malpractice case involving a young woman improperly given general anesthesia during childbirth at a hospital, after which she choked on her vomit and was left comatose.

Galvin notices the admitting nurse, Kaitlin Costello, filled out a form that included the question, “When did you last eat?”

In the courtroom, Costello testifies she wrote the patient ate a full meal one hour before being admitted, contradicting the patient record, which states a nine-hour interval. Below is the cross-examination….