Can anyone reassure me re. giving witness evidence in Family Court

[epithet]

I wonder if anyone can advise me. I have given a friend's solicitor a witness statement to be used on her behalf in a custody case being brought by her abusive ex p. I am dragging my heels about signing it, though, because I am really worried about what the implications of standing up for her in court might be.

Once signed and returned, the statement will go to her ex-p's solicitor, and this is what worries me. Will the solicitor try to probe into my background at all? (not that I have anything to hide - just have visions of being dragged into Orwellian nightmare type scenario.) It is also not unlikely that friend's xp might try to harrass or intimidate me.

My statement doesn't say much beyond 'Friend told me this and I believe her' - I was never a witness ot anything and xp was never aggressive towards me personally.

Am I letting myself in for a world of unwanted official contact? Or should it be OK? Would really appreciate any advice, TIA.

Your background is irrelevant, all you are doing is verifying what you were told. Evidence in the form of school, police, social work and medical reports is usually required to carry any great weight and your evidence is likely only to be of some use as part of the overall circumstances and to argue for further investigation and reports to be carried out to assist the judge in making a decision.

That's very helpful, thanks. I think I'm going to ring her solicitor tomorrow as well, to voice my concerns that the xp might get funny with me - best to have it on record just in case, maybe.

i shall warn you that it is his solicitors job to try and discredit you. they aren't going to bring up you getting drunk at a party aged 17 but they may question your job and reliability etc.

if your friends x so much as makes contact with you you should contact her solicitor (if not the police) immediately. they will then tell the judge and it will go very badly for his case and they can offer you protection by way of injunction

Right, thanks, mamazon. What would the solicitor be allowed to look at in his/her effort to discredit me? Just things that are a matter of public record? I have no debts, no criminal record, no job problems (currently SAHM), no SS involvement etc. but I have had mental health problems in the past (over 10 years ago). I guess they'd have no way of knowing that though?

In my experience witnesses rarely get called into court. The statement will maybe not even be referred to, just glanced at by the judge/ cafcass

I hope you're right, ILT - that would be ideal. I'm happy to provide 'back up' for my friend's case, but I'm quite conscious of not being able to offer anything but hearsay evidence, although I am totally convinced that she has told me nothing but the truth. But I'm just Jo Bloggs, so there's no reason why they should believe me; I can't imagine that my statement is so compelling that x-examination would be necessary.

It is unlikely there will be the time and money for any deep probing into your background. Remember the solicitor is bound by the Data Protection Act just like anyone else and there are real disciplinary consequences for any lawyer who gets hold of information improperly (this is a big deal these days with the Information Commissioner).

Also, there has to be some basis for cross-examining you on your past: s/he can't just throw out any old question insinuating something in the hope that something damaging comes out. If anything like that happened I think the judge would step in pretty quickly.

So the overwhelming likelihood is that any questioning will just be on what's in the statement and your relationship with your friend, assuming you get called to give evidence at all.