What is the best Cross strategy when facing maintenance cases? My Vadodara court experience

Generally maintenance cases are filed to get hefty amount of alimony/maintainance from the husband. It is always advisable in such cases the work should be done to reduce maintenance or to dismiss the maintenance case.

But every case is not eligible. Every case is not a perfect for reduction of maintenance. You need to work on the defence part before working on the cross examination. In short you need to do your homework

Recently one client engage me for Vadodara district court for doing the cross examination. the client works abroad. Wife on the other hand claims that she is not working and had two kids.

Prima facie not a good case for reducing maintenance. Ironically husband found that wife was engaged in some business but nothing has come on record till now. He only had online material such as Instagram promotion to prove the same. But these nowhere suggests that wife is generating income from it. He also found out there were two accounts that wife maintains again there is no material on record.

The strategy of cross is based upon such defence. The more you gather material more effective will be the cross examination, otherwise it is a dead or open and shut case. Most of the cases are open and shut and nothing you can do to reduce maintenance , where you have some material which is come on record a small doubt in judge mind is enough. You need to create such a narrative when you do the cross examination.

In Vadodara I felt a challenge of language as primary language in the court room was Gujarati and I only knew Hindi or English although the team was there to support but still I was more comfortable in doing the cross myself. so I requested the court that I can cross in Hindi only, The family court judge was kind enough to allow the same. what happened later surprised me more, while I was doing cross in Hindi the other party also responded in Hindi but the Ld. family court judge translated the cross in Gujarati. Such effort by the Judge is quite rare and motivating. She respected the fact that I have come from Delhi and also discussed some of the practices we follow in Delhi and respected that, like the practice of surprise in which I requested the judge to not to give documents in advance which were confrontational documents as it defeats the element of surprise which is quite rare in that particular court, judge appreciated and respected my own processes. She also understood my line of questioning and yes she did not allowed some of the questions which were irrelevant to the matter or over cross. We lawyers once we get what we want, we get little overexcited to drill more which is never needed, it is at that time a judge who see this from 3rd eye view stops the line of questioning.

My line of questioning revolved around wife capacity to work, some of her ventures, hidden bank accounts these were the primary objectives. First is let the denial comes in, it is always a trap. if wife says she do not have any business or accounts or capacity to work or never worked let it come in. It is obvious on her part to deny and that is the reason we do not give confrontational documents in advance. The element of surprise is core that is covered in 2nd part. once the denial comes in and you see that the cross is not at all in your favour, which motivates wife in overconfidence, you now open your next steps that is confrontation. this strategy also worked many times and in Delhi, 340 was initiated using this. Now what is the strategy?

The strategy is on confrontation. You confront what she has denied with certain documents. You confront the false statements with the proof you have. If she says she do not have account? confront with that account. If she says she has no other qualification? confront her with degree. If she says she does not do that business? confront her with the material. Then the admission starts to pour in, this the base of 340 also.

In Vadodara I first saw denial a little disappointment in 2nd half admission started to come in. The accounts admitted, business admitted and the Judge called for the accounts and further financial details which were concealed from the court. Which are material to bring truth on record.

It is important for you to build a case before starting to cross or a strategy to start the cross examination. Building of the case depends on the facts you have accumalated. Hire a good detective, search social media, involve common relatives, check marketing material, check suspected employers. Don’t say you do not have an idea. If you say so then you are already lost.

The strategy of effective cross lies in the defence and if you don’t know the facts you cannot illicit the truth. the confidence in the cross examination comes once you know your case well and believe that your story is true. Here in Vadodra my client knew his side of truth gathered some material and my job was to illicit truth. I have seen many lawyers do passive cross examination by merely giving suggestions although suggestions are normal and is given end of the cross but what really important is on the line of cross examination and further strategies. The strategy which can only based on the strong defence. The defence on which you have to work upon to win a case, Many people do not work on building a strong case they leave everything on the lawyers as if only lawyers responsibility to win a case. But the effective cross happens when you build a strong defence which can only happen when you gather certain facts and again these facts are material in nature. Once all these facts comes on record wife also knows she has lost the case, judge also knows what decision will come. It is important to predict the fate of a case once everything is built upon.

Adv. Nitish Banka

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