One of the more common questions in West Virginia when it comes to court and divorce is who gets to actually testify in court? A lot of rules do apply to who can actually testify in court. However, generally speaking, it really comes down to one main thing as to who can testify in court. Does the person who could testify have personal knowledge about something that happened and is an issue involved in your divorce? For example, a mutual friend heard two spouses discussing something about, well about, for example who took care of the kids or property or something along those lines.
If somebody heard that discussion between the people going through the divorce, then generally speaking, that person would be qualified to testify in court to what they heard. The main key thing is the person can only testify about things that they have actual personal first hand knowledge of. That is going to be the key factor that relates to whether somebody can testify in court. Now that doesn’t mean that the person can’t be questioned or cross examined because that happens quite a bit. What one can do once the person is testifying, then you can test that person’s memory and you can raise credibility issues with the court about whether what that person is saying is true or not. That’s what a lawyer typically does if they’re the lawyer on the opposite side of that witness.
For example, let’s say the husband calls the witness to testify in court. What the court will do is allow the attorney for the other person to question the witness. If you don’t have an attorney representing you or vice versa and wish to question the witness, then allowed as well. You will get to ask them questions about whether what they said was actually true. What that’ll do is raise credibility issues about whether what they’re saying is accurate. You can use any of what they say to try to discredit the person. It does get kind of tricky sometimes when you’re trying to do that.
However, generally speaking, whenever somebody calls a person as a witness, then you have a right to ask them questions if you feel they are incorrect in their knowledge. The key point is if the person has personal knowledge, that’s going to be the main thing that is going to qualify them to be somebody who can testify in court. Whenever someone is getting ready for court, they should be thinking about anybody out there that has personal knowledge about something involved in their divorce. If they have personal knowledge, then one should not think they will totally be on their side and or the court’s not going to take them seriously. The witness may be someone potentially brought into court because they still have a duty to testify under oath and speak truthfully to the court.
