How to Get A Witness to Testify at Trial

Are you facing a court trial and your key witness won’t agree to come and testify? They say they don’t want to get involved or can’t afford to take time off work? If their testimony is what you need to win your case, then there are ways of getting it. Here are a few suggestions.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Court procedure information
• Legal advice
• Court processor
• Summons

1. Go to the courthouse and get an information package that will give detailed instructions on how to get a witness to trial.
2. Take advantage of your “free” minutes of legal counselling and inquire about how to get your selected witness to trial.
3. Go to the court office and get a summons issued, which is a court order directing the person to attend trial. You will need to have this delivered directly to them by a court processor or friend who will swear an affidavit stating that it was delivered.
4. Offer to pay their day’s wages in return for their testimony. Do this in advance with a receipt and you can submit this expense as a cost at the end of the trial, and get the money back if you win your case.
5. Get them to swear an affidavit that clearly sets out their testimony. File one copy of this with the court and serve the other party an identical copy prior to trial. If the other party needs to cross-examine this witness, it will be their responsibility to either get them to court or get the examination some other way. This is an appropriate method if the witness is hospitalized or physically not able to attend court.

Tips & Warnings

• Don’t use a tape recording of their testimony in place of their presence at court. For one thing, there is no way to prove that the voice on the tape is your witness and there is no ability to cross-examine a tape so the other party will most likely object to it.