Title: 5 essential questioning techniques for legal professionals - One Legal
Headings: 5 essential questioning techniques for legal professionals
5 essential questioning techniques for legal professionals
#1 Open-ended versus closed-ended questioning
#2 Funnel questioning
#3 Asking probing questions
#4 Asking leading questions
#5 Asking rhetorical questions

Content: #1 Open-ended versus closed-ended questioning
Open-ended questions typically elicit more information, while closed-ended questions can be answered with one word or phrase. For instance, “Tell me what happened that night” is an open-ended question that might lead to your gathering plentiful information from the interviewee, whereas “where was the party” is a closed-ended question that can be answered directly with the address of the event, with no other detail. Use open-ended questions when you want to initiate a conversation, find out more information about a situation, or explore the interviewee’s opinions more deeply. Use closed-ended questions to find out or confirm very specific details (e.g. the location example above), or to validate your understanding of a situation (e.g. “based on our conversation, my understanding is that we want to move forward with the proposal. Is that right?”). #2 Funnel questioning
Funnel questioning involves an intentional sequence of inquiry that typically consists of a long line of closed-ended questions, which, when answered, can allow for more open-ended questions later on. For instance, if you wanted to learn about a car accident your client was involved in, you might choose to use a line of questioning similar to the one below: Q: About how many other people were in the car with you? A: