3 Must Ask Questions to Help You Level Up Your Witness Interviews

Are you struggling with feeling confident about the witness interviews that you conduct?

If so, you're not alone.

That's because the majority of people who conduct witness interviews, whether it's legal professionals or HR professionals for litigation investigations or for workplace internal investigations, aren't trained in how to conduct witness interviews.

In this video, I'm going to go through 3 questions that you should ask in every single witness interview. and why these 3 questions can really help you to level up your witness interviews.

Hey, I'm Mike Corwin.

I spent 30 years conducting witness interviews for attorneys in civil and criminal litigation cases as well as internal investigations for employers.

During that time, I conducted approximately 12,000 witness interviews, and I've developed a really systematic approach to being able to conduct those interviews effectively.

I've got a great guide,  6 steps to More Effective Witness Interviews that you can download by clicking on the link below. 

When it comes to conducting witness interviews, the most important question you can ask is what made you realize something was happening.

Now, you'll notice that's a very general question, and that's because by and large witness interviews need to go from wider to more specific.

But the reason that question is so important is you need to understand where within the timeline of a situation that the witness became involved.

You know, if it's an auto accident case, did the witness actually see the accident?

Or did the witness come on the scene after the accident occurred?

If it's a workplace type investigation, was this witness aware of things going on over a period of time, or is it more of a snapshot?

Your main purpose is to get them to tell you where they stepped into the process, where they came into the process, so that you have a better understanding of what they've actually witnessed.

Now, not every witness has to be an eyewitness, they may have additional information for you, but you as the person conducting the investigation, whether it's for litigation, or for internal investigations.

You need to know where that person came in.

The next question that's really critical to ask, and you have to ask this, and every single interview that you conduct, the reason for asking this question is to take the interview from the more general to the more specific.

And that's because most people that you interview, their natural inclination is not detail.

It's really about going and giving you a broader brush of what happened.

So that 2nd question that you need to ask in every single witness interview is how so?

And by asking that question, you're trying to get the witness to elaborate, to go back through what the witness has already told you, and to go more in depth, more detailed, and that's going to give you more information to work with, it's also going to help you just in case there's areas that you weren't anticipating, that you can then pull that thread and follow that a new thread.

From asking that question.

So when you say how so, the witness is then going to go, oh, okay, let me backtrack for a second, and they're going to explain to you in more detail what it is that made them say what they already said.

So if you think about it, you're doing your interview, you're going along and you say, that person says to you, I knew that they were going to have an accident.

You say, how so?

And then they'll say, well, I saw that person accelerate through the red light into the intersection.

You know, that's a very basic example, but that shows why that's such a powerful question and how you can get them to elaborate.

The 3rd question that's also really critical is at towards the end of your witness interview, you want to say to them, is there anything else that we haven't talked about that you think I should know about?

That's because no matter who you are, no matter how thorough you are in your interview processes, you're going to miss things.

You're also going to trigger new thoughts and new recollections for a witness during the course of the interview.

That's what happens.

So matter of fact, that question, how so is great for triggering, um, recollections that they had kind of brushed aside or pushed back.

And so doing that, when you say, is there anything else that you think we should cover that we haven't covered, that really opens the door to them elaborating further and to taking the interview, possibly in a new direction that you didn't think about?

One of the really critical things about a witness interview is, this is your area to ask questions about things that maybe you wouldn't want to come out.

Let's say in a trial, right?

If you're an attorney, you're taught not to ask questions that you don't already know the answers to.

But during your witness interview, that is the time and the place to ask those questions.

Information is a tool, and that tool is to help you make decisions.

Information is neither good nor bad, right?

It's just letting you know what directions you may need to go, and it's letting you know what potentially other folks could find out.

Now, in an internal investigation, witnesses tend to be very guarded, right?

They're worried about a paycheck.

They don't want to get somebody else in trouble.

By asking this question, you're getting them to kind of come around to something that they, they kind of think you need to know about, but they don't want to, to bring it up at 1st and just to see where you're willing to go.

But if you miss something, they can then turn to you and say, um, I don't know if this is important or not, but here's what I remember about something or were you aware about this or or one day when I was coming in.

I saw this.

That type of thing.

You want to open the door to it.

Now, keep in mind after you ask these questions, you want to shut up.

You want to let them do the talking, and when they finish, you don't want to race in and fill that gap.

Let them sit in silence for a minute because again, they may add some more information to it.

So you want to go ahead and let them talk.

And if need be, just remain silent in case they have more to fill in.

Anyway, this is just a quick video to help you with 3 very powerful questions to ask in every single witness interview, regardless of whether it's for litigation or for internal investigation.

And don't forget, I've got a great guide, 6 Steps to More Effective Witness Interviews that you can download by clicking on the link below.