What is the test for cross-examining evidence at a civil trial?

67 The rule in Browne v. Dunn is when there is a witness on the stand during a hearing and it is one party's intention to later in the hearing raise evidence that contradicts or impeaches the credibility of the witness, it must give the witness notice of the contrary evidence so that the witness has an opportunity to address it. It is not necessary to cross-examine minor details in the evidence. However, it is necessary to give the opposing witness an opportunity to give evidence on matters of substance that will be contradicted.

68 Neptune has a very sophisticated and detailed computer system where all inventory and orders are tracked throughout the process. Also, for the pay for performance bonus system, the employees are identified in this process as well to be able to determine their productivity and accuracy. If the drivers, truck jockeys or routers are selecting orders, or loading on a regular basis without inputting data and identification numbers into the computer system, the system would be jeopardized. This would be some persuasive evidence that the non-warehouse employees are not performing this work to the extent claimed by the Employer if the rule in Browne v. Dunn was observed and the Employer was unable to refute this evidence. However, the Employer was not given an opportunity to respond to this evidence. The Employer presented its case first in the hearing. It attempted to respond to this evidence by cross-examining the Union witness on the existence of ghost or training numbers which could be used to ensure the computer system was not jeopardized by data not being inputed. However, the Union witness was not aware of any such numbers.