Court Procedures / Evidence / Service

Generally, a state’s rules of evidence determine what kind of evidence will be allowed in court. Each state may have its own rules about when witnesses must come to court, what kind of testimony is allowed, and how evidence must be presented. Since you specifically asked if the witnesses would need to come to court or could submit a statement, I will mention that many judges will not accept statements from witnesses as evidence because the other party wouldn’t be allowed to cross-examine those witnesses. Not being able to cross-examine the witnesses would put the other party at a disadvantage. However, some statements, such as statements of a police officer in a written police report, may be accepted by a judge since there are often exceptions to the evidence rules that allow such statements to be considered as evidence.