If you need an interpreter, let the party who is calling you as a witness know as soon as possible. This party can then make arrangements for an interpreter to be available on the day you need to give evidence in court. When you enter the witness box, you will be required to take an oath or affirmation. This is a promise to tell the truth. If you are a Christian or a Catholic, taking the oath requires you to hold the Bible while swearing to tell the truth. In all other cases, you will make an affirmation instead.
In either case, you are to raise your right hand. When giving evidence, you will need to answer questions from the Prosecutor and the Defence Counsel. You may also need to answer questions from the Judge. Regardless of who asks the questions, your answers are to be addressed to the Judge.
Address the Judge as "Your Honour". If you are asked for an opinion on something, and you are not in a position to offer one, you can say "I am not able to give an opinion on that". If you need a break after giving evidence for some time, you can let the Judge know.
If you do not feel well, you should let the Judge know as well. When you have completed giving evidence, you may leave the witness box with the permission of the Judge. The Judge may, however, order that you be recalled as a witness, if necessary.
This may take place sometime after you first gave evidence. Ask the party who called you as a witness about expenses. You may be allowed to claim a reasonable sum to recover your expenses of going to, remaining at, and returning from court.
Click here for more information on claims, and access the claim forms here. Please email if you would like us to respond to your enquiries. A Singapore Government Agency Website. Virtual Hearing Video-conferencing with the Courts using Zoom. The court hearing. The Chicken Oath was even more elaborate, involving lighting candles, decapitating a chicken, and burning a signed oath in the candle flame. Another form of oath incorporated religious symbols of bread, salt and water rather than a holy book — and some BC courthouses kept a tray stocked with these symbols on hand and replenished them from time to time.
Steps have been taken in other provinces to facilitate use of an eagle feather when taking an oath or affirmation. The Provincial Court of BC is open to exploring a similar initiative in this province. Courts understand that in our diverse society witnesses will have a variety of religious traditions and non-religious beliefs.
Whatever form that promise takes, it is a commitment to tell the truth. A witness who does not tell the truth can be charged with perjury and if found guilty, they can be sentenced to jail for up to 14 years. Skip to main content. Oaths and alternatives, past and present, in BC courts Posted to:. Swearing an oath A witness may swear an oath on the holy book that binds their conscience. Canada Evidence Act section 14, BC Evidence Act section 20 4 It is good practice for lawyers to find out whether their witnesses wish to swear or affirm and let the Court Clerk know as the witness is being called to testify.
Promising to tell the truth A child under the age of 14 does not take an oath or make an affirmation — they testify after making a simple promise to tell the truth. In the past Online research reveals the origin of oath-taking is not clear because it pre-dates recorded history. Three centuries later, English courts adopted the practice, requiring jury members and individuals in particular trials to take an oath on the Bible.
An unnamed thirteenth-century Latin manuscript, now held in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, sets out the method and the significance of the act. By placing a hand on the book and then kissing it, the oath-taker is acknowledging that, should he lie under oath, neither the words in the Bible nor his good deeds nor his prayers will bring him any earthly or spiritual profit. In time, this became standard legal procedure—all witnesses swearing to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth—and made its way into American courts.
In such cases, no book is used. The tradition of using a book during the oath of office is borrowed from the courts, which explains in part why the Bible is the most frequently chosen text. The swearing-in ceremony transforms the oath into a public, secular commitment: a verbal contract between the oath-taker and the nation rather than between an individual and God. But the oath book tips the balance back toward the individual, allowing her to profess her personal—usually religious—values through both the text on which she chooses to swear and the copy of the text that she uses.
The majority of Presidents have sworn in on their own Bible or on a family Bible, and over a particular page rather than over a closed book. Isaiah and the Psalms are popular choices; Franklin D.
At the same time, the book emphasizes the public and the performed aspects of the oath, making visual and physical what would otherwise be only verbal. This physicality is twofold: the physical object the book and the physical display on the part of the oath-taker. The Constitution, representing the whole nation, offers a even neater overlap. Other texts pose more of a problem.
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