Can I refuse to be a witness at court? ***DV trigger warning***

I think you can. You can get a note saying you can’t attend for health reasons. I have sat on a jury where a witness didn’t attend for health reasons.

They can read out a statement that you don’t remember.

GPs are really helpful these days with mental wellbeing. I would ask the doctor for a letter, they may charge you, which says attending would be detrimental to your mental health.

Maybe get a prescription for something as well (you don't have to take it) and ask for a diagnosis perhaps?

Have you given a statement either to the police or to your parents solicitors/legal teams?

Have you given a statement OP? If so you could withdraw your statement - contact the police to do this. You could still be summonised to court however , failure to attend if you are could result in arrest.

You can be compelled by the court. In some circumstances you can appear via video link.

You can ask your doctor to write a letter to say you are not fit to attend court but the doctor can refuse and the court could in theory get a second opinion although very unlikely unless you are crucial to the case.

I'd imagine that if you wrote to the defendant's solicitor, should they contact you wanting you to be a witness, and say something like 'that period of your life is incredibly distressing, their clients behaviour was damaging, and you have no interest in damaging yourself further by reliving it all in a court room' then the very last thing they would want to do is call you as a witness.

If you get a witness order, you have to give evidence, otherwise you will be in contempt of court which is a criminal offence.

You may avoid it temporarily with a doctor's note, if the doctor agrees, but they are entitled to explore other ways for you to give evidence, including giving a written statement, recording your evidence separately, or doing it remotely.

If one of your parents has been violent towards the other, don't you want action to be taken to stop that?

This. You can be compelled to attend (and you would have to go) but not much point compelling a v unwilling witness.

This, speak to the police. I doubt that the prosecution would consider you a very useful witness.

It sounds like both parents are as bad as each other and I completely understand why you wouldn’t want to be involved (my parents sound similar to yours).

I do not know the legalities of whether you have to attend or not as it depends on whether you rang the police or gave a statement etc.

Right, there's a load of crap information being given to you here.

If you haven't given a witness statement to either side, you won't be be called to give evidence. The courts don't send summons out to random people. The CPS can't ask you to give evidence without a witness statement being provided first. The defence are the same. All aided need to know what a witness has to say and whether it has a bearing on the case. A witness statement is absolutely required!

Whilst you may well be an excellent person to ASK to provide a statement, given the connection etc, you can refuse to do so.

You can't just be randomly summonsed to court, so you're fine.

You cannot just get the GP to excuse you, as that would then make them liable to contempt of court.

Nothing to do with the GP , any GP who is dim enough to write such a letter could find themselves charges with contempt of court. Talk to the clerk about your options.

Writing that the op has ptsd and anxiety from being in that household is fact - a gp wouldn’t be in trouble for that.

'Dear solicitor. Do you really want me to testify about what I remember your client doing to (other parent)?'

Problem solved - they'll reverse so quickly that you'll wonder if it ever actually happened.

The GP being in contempt of court advice is ridiculous. If you are asked to give an evidence for the defendant (statement followed by oral evidence) summarise what (unhelpful things) you’ll say; it should all go away.

A letter to specifically say that a person should be exempt from attending court, which is what is being asked for, has in the past seen GPs summoned for contempt of court. Factual letter is fine (though chargeable) but unlikely to make any difference to the court.

Came to say this

Yes complete agreement. I work at a witness care unit. You can only be called if. You have given a statement. Even If you give a retraction statement CPS can still witness summons you, compelling you to attend. If you do not attend then they will send the police round. I have had 2 cases recently where they have done this. CPS are taking a much stronger stance against DV cases.