Do lawyers bend the rules when questioning witnesses by asking impermissible questions just to get the jury thinking about them?

By Jennifer Ellis, Legal Ethics Attorney in PA, USA (I am not your lawyer. Not legal advice.) via Quora.

Good lawyers? No. Bad lawyers, maybe. Often, if a lawyer does this, it is because they don't actually know what they are allowed to ask and what they are not allowed to ask. 

Here's the thing about being a lawyer. Your reputation is very important. If you get a reputation for asking improper questions it isn't going to help you with other lawyers or the court. Judges might be more inclined to give the other side the benefit of the doubt when you ask an improper question or when you yourself make an objection. The legal world really is very small. Your reputation follows you around. 

The practice of law really isn't much like it is on tv. There isn't a lot of this, ask an improper question, OBJECTION, withdrawn.

In a criminal cases, if the prosecutor does it and if the question and the result is harmful enough, it could cause a mistrial.

In a civil case, it could cause financial sanctions against the lawyer and/or his client.

In either case, it could create a basis for an appeal for the losing side, if the question was asked by the opposing side and caused enough harm.