or witness's testimony

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Note added at 2002-08-06 17:15:35 (GMT) Post-grading
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Witness Statement Strategies
By Julius Bombet, CLI, CFE, LCI



As professional investigators, our primary function is to gather facts. One of our primary forms of fact-gathering is the witness statement. Statements, of course, take many forms. Affidavits, handwritten statements by witnesses, statements written by investigators and signed by witnesses, and tape recorded statements are all widely used in the context of civil and criminal litigation. However, regardless of the form of the statement, statements have three primary purposes.

SETTLEMENT -- to develop information and \"investigate\" a case in the classic sense for purposes of settlement;
PRESERVATION -- to serve as a recorded recollection of a witness whose memory might fade legitimately with the passage of time; and
IMPEACHMENT -- to document testimony and provide a reliable standard against which a potentially hostile witness might later be held with regard to testimony from the witness stand.
One of the most difficult situations presented to an investigator is that of dealing with an uncooperative or hostile witness who may be critical in terms of testimony to the outcome of a case. In this type of statement taking, the investigator must walk a thin line between the investigation role of statement taking and the documentary function it serves because if a statement cannot be potentially used in court, it is essentially of no value. Additionally, if a statement is used at all in court, the court will usually insist that the statement be read in its entirety, including those portions of the statement that may not necessarily be favorable to the investigator\'s client\'s position. The attorney cannot pick and choose parts of a statement to present in court. It is perhaps stating the obvious that a statement does no good if only part of it is helpful while another part of it is so potentially harmful to the case that the statement cannot be introduced. To cope with this problem, the trained and experienced investigator can orchestrate the taking of statements to a great extent and both \"investigate\" a case and simultaneously preserve the work product for use at trial later on.

http://www.pimall.com/nais/n.wss.html


The law does not, however, require you to accept all of the evidence which has been admitted. In determining what evidence you will accept, you must make your own evaluation of the evidence and determine the degree of weight you choose to give to that evidence.

The testimony of a witness may fail to conform to the facts as they occurred because he is intentionally telling a falsehood, or because he did not accurately see or hear that about which he testifies, or because his recollection of the event is faulty, or because he has not expressed himself clearly in giving his testimony. There is no magical formula by which one may evaluate testimony. You bring with you to this courtroom all of the experience and background of your lives. In your everyday affairs you determine for yourselves the reliability or unreliability of statements made to you by others. The same considerations that you use in your everyday dealings are the considerations which you apply in your deliberations.

The interest or lack of interest of any witness in the outcome of this case; the bias or prejudice of a witness, if there be any; the age, the appearance, the manner in which the witness gives his testimony on the stand; the opportunity that the witness had to observe the facts concerning which he testifies; the probability or improbability of the witness\'s testimony when viewed in the light of all of the other evidence in the case; the contradiction, if any, of a witness\'s testimony by other evidence; statements, if any, made by the witness at other times inconsistent with his present testimony; are all items to be taken into your consideration in determining the weight, if any, you will assign to that witness\'s testimony.

These considerations are among those which may or may not make it appear that there is a discrepancy in the evidence. You may consider whether the apparent discrepancy can be reconciled by fitting the two stories together. If, however, that is not possible, you will then have to determine which of the conflicting versions you will accept

It could also be "Witness' Declaration."

I use these terms in judicial docs.

Without the 's I'd say.

I think that 's it.

HTH

Rick

Quite simply...

Another option Brigida that should about cover it.
Luck!
terry