swearing in

[Mimi Murray]

I would like to know if there is a blurb to put in a hearing transcript if the witness had not been sworn by the hearing reporter.

[Cathryn Bauer]

In these parts, the hearing officers always want to swear in the witness. I just report it verbatim like any other part of the proceedings. I'd be interested to know whether anyone else does it differently.

[Jennie Ann]

I have not done legal in a long time, but if the witness was not sworn, I would be inclined to keep everything in colloquy and label them by their name in colloquy as opposed to "THE WITNESS."

Also, sometimes the bench may swear everybody at the beginning in a group. In those instances, I would have a one-line parenthetical: [Witnesses sworn en masse.] Then each time a new witness was called, I would indicate the witness was "previously sworn."

Here's a few more parentheticals:

[JOE BLOW, WITNESS FOR RESPONDENT, NOT SWORN.]
[JOE BLOW, WITNESS FOR RESPONDENT.]

AND last but not least, this may be old school style, but you can do a variation of this:

Whereupon,

......................................Joe Blow

was called as a witness and was examined and testified as follows:

................................EXAMINATION

..........BY MR. SMITH:
Q.
A.

Sometimes we need to be creative. I don't think there is a solution for every situation that pops up.

[michelle cicero]

I would put "Witness Name, after having been duly sworn by "Person's name that swore in the witness, the interpreter" and then continue on. I think that would satisfy all involved.

[Kellie Zollars]

Hi.
Just a clarification: Did anyone swear the witness in? If the hearing officer did it, you can just put ("witnessname" duly sworn by "hearingofficer" testified as follows) or (Witness sworn.) If no one swore them in I'd put ("witnessname" was not sworn in and testified as follows). If the hearing officer swears in all witnesses as they appear, you can just put (Witness sworn.), then change your cert page to say "sworn by the hearing officer" rather than "sworn by me, a duly certified shorthand reporter" or whatever phrasing you use.