Rules For Witnesses
Everyone has rules to follow in court, even the Magistrate, or Judge, the Prosecutor, and the Defence Barrister. Being a witness is an important job, and there are some rules for you too.
The number one rule is that you must tell the truth. You might be asked to make a special promise to tell the truth called an Oath or Affirmation. Once you have made this promise, you must always tell the truth when speaking to the court. It is more important to tell the truth in court than anywhere else.
The second rule is that you must tell the Magistrate or Judge if you do not understand a question. You will not get into trouble for not understanding.
The next rule is that you must tell them if you cannot remember something. It is OK to say, ‘I can’t remember’, if that is true. It is very important that you do not guess or make up an answer.
The fourth rule is that you must tell them if you do not know the answer. If this happens to you, it is OK to say, ‘I don’t know’.
The next rule is, that you can disagree if you think something’s wrong. Remember that you are the witness and you know something the court wants to hear about. If someone in court, even if it is the Magistrate or Judge, suggests something, you think is wrong, it is OK to set them straight and tell them what the truth is. If you agree with the question and the information is right, then tell them you agree.
Listen to all the questions carefully and check that you understand the question before answering.
And last of all, if you know any other witnesses in the case, you can’t talk to them about your evidence or their evidence. You cannot tell them about the things you are going to talk about to the court or even after you have been in court. This is to stop witnesses from sharing evidence and maybe changing what they say. Once the hearing or trial is over, and the decision is made about whether the person is guilty or not guilty, you can talk about your evidence then.