This study examines defense attorney elicitation strategies in People v. Tien (1986), a case involving two Vietnamese immigrants unjustly accused of felonious assault in a small Michigan community. Going into the trial, the complainant had the stronger case. Skillful elicitation of testimony by the defense attorney empowered the defendants, who were clearly the underdogs, to testify in an entirely credible manner in spite of their linguistic, cultural, and legal disadvantages. A functional typology of six supportive speech acts is developed as part of this analysis: prompt, bolster, buttress, statement eliciting an account of events, statement eliciting an evaluation of events, and statement eliciting an interpretation of events. © 1989 Howard School of Communications.

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