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: Open-ended answer.] The funnel questioning technique is useful in gathering very specific information about the past (using closed-ended questions), which allows for a clear establishment of facts about a situation, or scene-setting. Once the facts have become clear, the interviewer can then begin to ask effective open-ended question that enable more exploration of opinions or issues. #3 Asking probing questions
Probing is a technique that involves asking for more information about a previous statement. For example, if you needed something from a direct report who told you the information wasn’t accessible, you could ask, “what, exactly, makes the information difficult to access?” Probing questions are useful if you need more information to clarify a situation, or if you need to sort out an issue by uncovering layers of details, opinions, or feelings. #4 Asking leading questions
Leading questions are typically closed-ended lines of inquiry that result in the interviewer upholding the interviewee’s opinion. For instance, “when’s the soonest you can get me the report today?” already assumes the report can be ready today, leaving it more difficult for the interviewee to suggest an alternative timeline. Leading questions can be useful to persuade one or more interviewees to a specific point of view or course of action.