Legal experts from New Zealand are in Tonga for a short workshop, providing local lawyers with skills and tips in the art of cross-examination. The workshop starts today, 12 February, and ends on Friday.

“Cross-examination” during trials in the courts, means to ask detailed questions of someone in order to discover if the person has been telling the truth.

Local lawyers will execute their skills in legal scenarios where they will represent either the plaintiff, an offender, or a police officer. Law students and other members of the law fraternity will be acting as witnesses.

Marie Dyhrberg KC and her team will observe and provide guidance, and also give guidance for local lawyers on how to prepare cross examination.

"In the Pacific we do come and give the workshops and I hope we give some valuable guidance because we do it back home for lawyers and it's beneficial. And we are committed to actually coming here, because we give the lawyers here what we hope is some sort of benefit of our experience," Marie Dyhrberg KC said in a press conference on 11 February, at the Supreme Court in Nuku'alofa.

They also brought papers authored by experts on the art of cross-examination for participants to read.

Marie Dyhrberg KC Barrister, a leading criminal lawyer in New Zealand, has previously provided similar workshops in Vanuatu and Samoa. She brings to Tonga a team of judges who have sat on the High Court and District Court in New Zealand.

She is accompanied by Judge Charles Blackie QSO VRD, Justice Pamela Andrews CNZM, and Judge Anna Johns.

Joining them are Ish Jayanandan and Han Na Kim, both Barristers, who engage in trial work in the Court of Appeal, High Court and District Court jurisdictions in New Zealand.

Envoy for the visitng group is a former Acting Attorney-General of Tonga, ‘Aminiasi Kefu, a Senior Crown Counsel involved in prosecuting crime in the Manukau region of Tamaki Makaurau.

The group stated that while the primary focus of the workshop is on the tricky art of cross-examination, they will also work on the difficult task of leading evidence.

“The advantage of this workshop is that it enable a ‘learn by doing’ opportunity in an environment where skills can be tried and tested with no impact on a client.”

The workshop is open to lawyers from both the private bar and the prosecution services, both Crown and Police. The workshop runs for two  and a half days.