witness statements

[Tina Sherman]

Hi. Does anyone know how the format of several short witness statements should look? Are they separate transcripts or one whole transcripts one witness after the next. The witnesses weren't sworn in, which threw me off. How should the cover pages look? And I'm assuming there shouldn't be a penalty of perjury page. Thanks for your help :)

[Cathryn Bauer]

If you received the job from an agency, you might ask them for a sample transcript.

I would assume that they are separate transcripts. I am not sure what you mean by "penalty of perjury page." I would definitely attach a cert, but not until I'd looked it over and removed any reference to swearing in the witness. I would just use my regular format with STATEMENT OF (NAME OF WITNESS) as the title. Again, that would be minus any reference to the witness having been sworn.

Hope this helps.

[Rachel Gard]

If it helps, I transcribe statements (on my own, not through an agency) for a federal law enforcement agency. I make them separate transcripts and just put on the front something like "Statement of (Name)" or "Interview of (Name)," the date if I have it, and who conducted the interview. I do not put a cert on it at their request. They don't want/need certified transcripts. But as Cathryn said, definitely check with the agency if you're doing it through an agency and get their format if they have one.

Rachel

[Tina Sherman]

Thank you. I was doing it for my own client so I had to figure it out for myself, but I wasn't sure if the whole caption goes on the cover or if it was as you suggested, the one line and then the date. I think I'll go with that. That sounds correct, but I wasn't sure. Thank you both so much for taking to the time to answer my question :)