Comments on: Begging the question

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:43:44 +0000

I find that ‘unfair dismissal’ causes particular problems. It looks perfectly straightforward, but both ‘unfair’ and ‘dismissal’ have deeply technical meanings. People assume they know what it means, only to get ambushed by the technicalities.

Perhaps it should be replaced with ‘iniustus diffinio’, which would at least make it clear there were hidden dragons.

By: Timothy Pitt-Payne

Timothy Pitt-Payne — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:06:48 +0000

The general rule is a good one. The trap, however, is that what seems to be an ordinary English word or phrase may turn out to have a technical meaning.

There’s a useful glossary, accessible through the resources section of this website. It would be a good idea for anyone who is appearing in Tribunal to read through the contents of the glossary, before they do their first hearing.

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 10:51:32 +0000

Both of these are examples of a general rule: Don't use a technical word unless you mean it technically

By: Timothy Pitt-Payne

Timothy Pitt-Payne — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 10:34:54 +0000

There is a related problem with “that’s a leading question”.

For lawyers, a leading question is a question that steers a witness to give a particular answer. The usual rule is that you shouldn’t ask leading questions of your own witness except on factual issues that are not in dispute.

However, non-lawyers often say “that’s a leading question” when they mean something like, “that’s a very important question and it hasn’t yet been satisfactorily answered”.

If you are going to talk about leading questions in the Tribunal, make sure that you are using the expression in the technical, legal sense, or you’ll cause confusion.