Law professors Binder and Price describe a technique for probing that they call the “T—Funnel,” and that we will refer to as a “funnel” pattern of questioning. The “funnel” gets its name from the shape of its questioning pattern. There are four different kinds of questions, and they tend to elicit four different amounts of information:
- Open—ended questions give the client the most room to decide what to answer, e.g. “What happened?” or “Describe everything you saw.”
- Narrow questions limit the scope of the answer being sought, e.g. “When did that happen?” or “What color was the light?”
- Yes or no questions are non—leading questions calling for a yes or no answer, e.g. “Did you see the color of the light?”
- Leading questions suggest the answer the questioner expects, e.g. “You saw the color of the light, didn’t you?”
Once you have identified the area or topic you want to probe for detail, start with a series of open—ended questions representing the open end at the top of the funnel. Then progressively narrow the scope of the information you are seeking, tying off the tip of the funnel with a leading question that confirms your understanding of the answer.
Here is how (hypothetical) housing attorney Linda Garcia might have used a very systematic funnel questioning pattern to probe for detail with Ms. Jones.
Ms. Jones, I would like to go now to the last dispute you listed about your rent with your landlord. I want you to tell me everything you can remember about it. I think this will probably be very important to your case. It was June 1st, isn’t that correct? (leading, confirming question)
Yes. I am pretty sure it was June 1st. It was the beginning of the month. My rent is due on the first of the month. He made a big deal about my always paying him on the first day of the month.
Do you remember what happened on June 1sth? (yes or no question)
Yes, very clearly.
OK. I want you to tell me again what happened on June 1st. I know you told me once, but I want to make sure I haven’t missed anything. (Open ended question)
The landlord came up from his apartment and pounded on my door. I could hear him coming. He was yelling.
What time was this? (narrow question setting the stage for a detailed, chronological structuring of these events)
It was about 9 o’clock at night.
OK. Tell me what happened next. (open ended question)
He pounded on my door and demanded his rent. He sounded drunk to me.
Why do you say he sounded drunk? (smaller open ended question)
He was slurring his words. I had heard him like this before.
What did you do? (narrow question)
I told him it was too late and he had to go back downstairs.
What did he say? (narrow question)
He just kept yelling.
What did he yell? (narrow question)
He said he was going to raise the rent if I was going to complain about the conditions in the apartment.
Did he say anything else? (narrow question)
He said I could leave if I didn’t like the place.
Did he say anything else? (narrow question repeated)
I think that was it.
When he was saying these things to you, were you saying anything to him? (narrow question)
No. The door was closed. I did tell him to go away.
Did you say anything else to him?
No.
So what happened next?
He finally gave up and went back upstairs.
So did anything else happen that night between you and your landlord? (narrow catch—all question)
No.
Did you ever give him his rent for June? (narrow question)
No. He never came back to ask for it. He just sent me the letter I showed you that said he was evicting me.
Were you prepared to pay him June’s rent at that time? (yes or no question)
Well no.
So that was the last time you and the landlord ever discussed the rent? (leading question)
Yes.
To find out more about interviewing:
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