Testifying in Court? Follow These Key Tips
Are you about to have to take testimony in court and you’re not sure what to do? My name is Carl Birkhead. I’m a Tulsa attorney practicing criminal and family law in Oklahoma for about seven years. I’m with Wirth Law Office and I want to help you make law easy by kind of walking you through some advice for what to do when you’re on the stand.
Specifically, I want to talk to you about just speaking clearly in court and making sure that your testimony is being heard and taken down appropriately. Oftentimes, if you’re in a situation where you’re on the stand, you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, “Yes, your honor, I do,” there’s going to be a court reporter there. That court reporter is going to have to take down everything that you were saying.
Speaking Clearly and Deliberately
So just a minute ago, I was talking a little bit fast. If I were doing that in the courtroom, I would be getting a look from the court reporter like, would you just slow down? Because they need to be able to type down everything that is said, everything that I say, everything that you say, everything that judge says, everything that the opposing counsel says, they’ve got to get it all down, which can be tricky.
Because there are plenty of situations where it’s just so tempting to interrupt or to talk over one another. And it’s not just for clients, it’s for attorneys, too. I have to check myself all the time. There was a case I had a while back where it was a deprived case, the grandparents were accused of having tried to assist their granddaughter in suicide when she was going nuts.
Answering Questions Thoroughly
I don’t want to say going nuts, but she was having some issues, and she was having a mental health issue, and she was threatening to stab herself. The grandparents literally handed her a big old butcher knife and said, Okay, here you go. As a parent, that got me a little heated, and I got a little heated in court.
And so I started just talking over this guy on the stand and running over him and not even letting him answer a question, to the point that we were talking at the same time. And the court reporter looked at me and said, will you slow down? That’s not something you want to hear when you’re on the stand. I dang sure didn’t want to hear it as an attorney.
Wait for the Question to Finish
It’s just a matter of making sure that the record is properly made and properly preserved. You want to speak slowly and deliberately. You want to make sure that you answer the questions that you’re asked thoroughly. If you’re on the stand and you don’t feel like you’ve been given a chance to answer a question all the way, your attorney will most likely give you the chance to flush out your answer and make sure that you give a full answer.
Just make sure that you do it in a slow, deliberate, succinct manner so that everything can get taken down. If you’re on the stand and the opposing attorney is just going at you, don’t make the mistake I made. Don’t make the mistake that the individual I was questioning made. Wait for the question to finish being asked. Give your response.
Get Help with Your Testimony
If they start to interrupt you, just wait till you have a chance to talk again and then continue to try to answer that question. If anything gets weird, your attorney will be able to clean up on a redirect to make sure that your full story gets told. Once again, if you have questions, please feel free to give us a call. I know that going to court can be scary. It can be not very clear. We want to help you as much as we can so that we can make law easy for you.
My name is Carl Birkhead. I’m with Wirth Law Office. We’re here to help. Thank you.
Call for a Strategy Session
If you need help preparing for testimony or have questions about your upcoming court appearance, contact 918-879-1681 to schedule a low-cost initial strategy session. We’re here to support you every step of the way.
