Listen to the whole question before you attempt to reply: then answer only what is asked. Make yourself understood.
Don’t assume that the jury know all about the case.
Speak audibly, slowly, deliberately, with an eye on the recording clerk’s pen.
Say exactly what you mean.
Cultivate the power of expression and of repression.
Be candid, courteous, dignified, and withal good humoured; avoid appearing to be suspicious.
Your personal disposition will count more with a jury than your professional position; they will note looks, doubts, hesitations, confidence, calmness, consideration, or precipitancy.
Use simple and popular terms, otherwise you may be regarded as speaking “either oracles or jargon.” Reserve technicalities for cross-examination. The jury will think they understand “alcoholic disease of the ...,” “bad disorder,” “black and blue,” “black-eye,” “blood clot,” “blood poisoning,” “bowel,” “brain fever,” “bruise,” “buoyant lungs,” “cancer,” “consumptive spots,” “coverings of the brain,” “death stiffening,” “great vessel of the heart,” “gullet,” “gut,” “hardened liver,” “hardening of valves,” “inflammation or congestion of the ...,” “overloaded with fat,” “shrunken kidneys,” “skull-cap,” “stroke,” “swallow,” “sweet-bread,” “windpipes.”
Don’t worry about the technical rules of evidence; in the Coroner’s Court they are seldom applied strictly.
Insist on answering double-barrelled questions “Yes AND No” if necessary.