on her gum. ‘Please don’t say you testify for Mulholland and Chater, the greatest conjur-ers of class actions in the country?’
‘No.’
‘That’s lucky, because I could have put my other foot in it KATHRYN FOX
77
with a comment about the company’s public persona,’ she said, glancing at Barbie giggling with a man old enough to be her grandfather.
‘Is there a problem with my wife?’
Anya felt her cheeks go a deeper shade of red. Oh God, me and my mouth.
‘I’m sorry . I didn’t know. I mean, I’m not sorry for you. I mean –’
Vaughan laughed and touched her arm. ‘No need to apologize, I was kidding. I’ve never been married. I’ve always preferred what a woman has to offer from the neck up. Animated mannequins,’ he said, glancing in Barbie’s direction,
‘don’t hold interest for long.’
Anya was dumbstruck. She breathed a quiet sigh when one of the waiters asked delegates to make their way to the dining room for the introductory session.
Stopping at the first table, she filled a Styrofoam cup with black coffee and grabbed a chocolate-filled croissant from the pastry table. Vaughan watched her with a curious expression.
‘What? Aren’t the condemned allowed a last meal?’ Anya said defensively.
Vaughan let her walk through the door first and whispered,
‘The video session’s not until tomorrow.’
The morning sessions included talks by crown prosecutors and defense lawyers. Anya had seen many of them in court, and had been on the receiving end of their semantic games and caustic tongues. She did have to admit, though, that compared to other witnesses, they treated her with respect on the stand. The police constables were routinely made to look like bumbling idiots for the jury.
Before lunch, the slowest session of any conference, Vaughan Hunter made a presentation entitled, ‘Mind games –
verbal and nonverbal communication in the courtroom.’ His imitation of lawyers’ and witnesses’ body language had the audi-78
MALICIOUS INTENT
ence laughing, although the underlying message was clear.
Juries always sense when someone is uncomfortable, unsure or out of their depth. Arrogance, pretentiousness, overconfidence and underconfidence were fast ways to alienate jurors. Anya wrote the words ‘Competent, sympathetic, authoritative, but be humble’ and wondered if she would ever become confident in a courtroom.
She looked around the room at the people chuckling while they squirmed, a sure sign they recognized themselves in Dr.
Hunter’s role plays. Among the thirty or so participants, she knew a couple of forensic physicians from Melbourne, a professor of pharmacology, a cardiothoracic surgeon, and a ballistics technician from the crime lab. Each was fixed on the speaker. No one in the room dozed, testament to Vaughan Hunter’s ability to hold an audience’s attention after a morning snack of pastries and tepid tea.
‘The final take-home message is never be coerced into giving an opinion out of your area of expertise. Don’t guess. You’ll only dig yourself into a hole and a lawyer with half a brain cell will bury you before you realize it’s happening. Apart from that, have fun on the stand! And good luck tomorrow.’
The room applauded and everyone recessed for lunch.
Anya rose and headed for the door, keen to avoid polite conversation with people she barely knew. She took lunch to her room and decided to miss the last two sessions – one discussing the ethics of expert witnesses and the other covering legalities of subpoenas and medical records. Instead, she thought she’d look at the National Gallery’s exhibition of John Glover’s paintings of colonial Tasmania, and explore Questacon, the hands-on science center by the lake.
She changed into a denim shirt, jeans and sandals and walked the few blocks, past the National Library. Canberra was often described as sterile, but Anya liked its clean, uncluttered feel. Unlike being in Sydney, she didn’t feel
‘No.’
‘That’s lucky, because I could have put my other foot in it KATHRYN FOX
77
with a comment about the company’s public persona,’ she said, glancing at Barbie giggling with a man old enough to be her grandfather.
‘Is there a problem with my wife?’
Anya felt her cheeks go a deeper shade of red. Oh God, me and my mouth.
‘I’m sorry . I didn’t know. I mean, I’m not sorry for you. I mean –’
Vaughan laughed and touched her arm. ‘No need to apologize, I was kidding. I’ve never been married. I’ve always preferred what a woman has to offer from the neck up. Animated mannequins,’ he said, glancing in Barbie’s direction,
‘don’t hold interest for long.’
Anya was dumbstruck. She breathed a quiet sigh when one of the waiters asked delegates to make their way to the dining room for the introductory session.
Stopping at the first table, she filled a Styrofoam cup with black coffee and grabbed a chocolate-filled croissant from the pastry table. Vaughan watched her with a curious expression.
‘What? Aren’t the condemned allowed a last meal?’ Anya said defensively.
Vaughan let her walk through the door first and whispered,
‘The video session’s not until tomorrow.’
The morning sessions included talks by crown prosecutors and defense lawyers. Anya had seen many of them in court, and had been on the receiving end of their semantic games and caustic tongues. She did have to admit, though, that compared to other witnesses, they treated her with respect on the stand. The police constables were routinely made to look like bumbling idiots for the jury.
Before lunch, the slowest session of any conference, Vaughan Hunter made a presentation entitled, ‘Mind games –
verbal and nonverbal communication in the courtroom.’ His imitation of lawyers’ and witnesses’ body language had the audi-78
MALICIOUS INTENT
ence laughing, although the underlying message was clear.
Juries always sense when someone is uncomfortable, unsure or out of their depth. Arrogance, pretentiousness, overconfidence and underconfidence were fast ways to alienate jurors. Anya wrote the words ‘Competent, sympathetic, authoritative, but be humble’ and wondered if she would ever become confident in a courtroom.
She looked around the room at the people chuckling while they squirmed, a sure sign they recognized themselves in Dr.
Hunter’s role plays. Among the thirty or so participants, she knew a couple of forensic physicians from Melbourne, a professor of pharmacology, a cardiothoracic surgeon, and a ballistics technician from the crime lab. Each was fixed on the speaker. No one in the room dozed, testament to Vaughan Hunter’s ability to hold an audience’s attention after a morning snack of pastries and tepid tea.
‘The final take-home message is never be coerced into giving an opinion out of your area of expertise. Don’t guess. You’ll only dig yourself into a hole and a lawyer with half a brain cell will bury you before you realize it’s happening. Apart from that, have fun on the stand! And good luck tomorrow.’
The room applauded and everyone recessed for lunch.
Anya rose and headed for the door, keen to avoid polite conversation with people she barely knew. She took lunch to her room and decided to miss the last two sessions – one discussing the ethics of expert witnesses and the other covering legalities of subpoenas and medical records. Instead, she thought she’d look at the National Gallery’s exhibition of John Glover’s paintings of colonial Tasmania, and explore Questacon, the hands-on science center by the lake.
She changed into a denim shirt, jeans and sandals and walked the few blocks, past the National Library. Canberra was often described as sterile, but Anya liked its clean, uncluttered feel. Unlike being in Sydney, she didn’t feel
Similar Books
