Court Procedures / Evidence / Service

NEED TO AMEND

The question that you are asking is a very good one to ask on behalf of your clients since it’s very important to have some knowledge of the court process for someone who is pro se (representing oneself) in court. Although it’s hard to give a specific list of questions that would apply to each and every case, the general idea of a witness is to talk about what s/he has observed or done - in other words, somethings s/he has firsthand knowledge of. Questions that someone asks of his/her own witness (called “direct examination”) are supposed to be very open-ended to allow the witness to explain the answer in his/her own words - the questions are not supposed to be phrased to get the witness to answer with a “yes” or “no,” which can be seen as “leading the witness.” For example, if a person was at the victim’s house when the abuser showed up and attacked the victim, the victim may ask questions such as: On XXX [date] at XX time, where were you. Who was with you. Was there a time when someone came to the door. Can you explain what you heard. Then what happened next. What did you observe. What did you do? Can you describe how the victim appeared after XXX did XYZ. What was the victim’s behavior? What did you observe next?

Again, Amanda, this is one example of how a victim can question his/her witness but I cannot say for sure what exactly would be allowed and what wouldn’t be allowed under Louisiana laws. Generally, most states’ “rules of evidence” may not allow witnesses to testify about what someone said to them or what they heard from another person, which is generally known as “hearsay” - however, there can be exceptions to this. For example, a person may be able to testify to what the defendant said if it is some sort of admission of wrong-doing.

To explain a little bit more, generally, each state is governed by what are called “rules of evidence” - the state can have its own rules or the state may follow the Federal Rules of Evidence (which are general rules that are followed by many states). The rules generally deal with issues such as exceptions to the rule against “hearsay,” what types of documents may have to be certified in order for them to be admitted into court during a trial, and other topics. I found a link to some rules regarding evidence in Louisiana from the LA legislature here if you want to read through them: http://www.legis.state.la.us/lss/lss.asp?folder=70 However, I do not know if this is a complete list of all of the evidence rules or not or whether there are other ones that are followed. However, even if you are able to read through these rules, as you can see, it is very complicated and often extremely hard for a non-lawyer to understand or to apply to an actual hearing.

Perhaps your organization may want to reach out to the local Legal Aid or Legal Services organization near you to ask if an attorney can come to do a training on this topic and to provide a script of some basic questions that a victim can use when examining her witness. Here is a link to local legal services organizations in LA: http://www.womenslaw.org/gethelp_state_type.php?type_id=1339&state_code=LA Another place to turn to for a recommendation of a local lawyer who can come do a presentation such as this may be the Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Their phone number is 225) 752-1296 and website is www.lcadv.org

Also, something else that may be helpful is our Preparing Your Case page on our WomensLaw.org website, which you can see here: http://womenslaw.org/simple.php?sitemap_id=32 This was written to help victims navigate a restraining order hearing on their own.