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Witness compellability meaning
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What does Witness compellability mean?
Witness compellability describes whether a person can lawfully be required by a court to attend, take the oath or affirmation, and answer questions, typically enforced by a witness summons/subpoena, with non-compliance punishable as contempt. It is distinct from competence (the ability to understand questions and give intelligible answers): a competent witness will usually be compellable.
The concept is used across civil and criminal practice and is governed mainly by statute, supplemented by case law (including rules on spouses/civil partners, child witnesses and vulnerable witnesses). Key limits include that an accused is not compellable for the prosecution in criminal proceedings, and that recognised privileges apply (privilege against self-incrimination, legal professional privilege, without prejudice privilege and public interest immunity).
In civil proceedings, most witnesses, including parties and spouses/civil partners, are compellable subject to privilege. In criminal proceedings, jurisdictions differ on when a spouse or civil partner is compellable for the prosecution: in England and Wales and Northern Ireland this is restricted to specified offences involving violence or abuse against the spouse or a child; Scotland and Ireland have their own statutory schemes. Usage and effect are otherwise broadly consistent across England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland.
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View the related Checklists about Witness compellability
CHECKLISTS
Summary trial in the magistrates’ courts: procedural sequence, witnesses, evidence and sentencing—flowchart
For further information relating to each of these stages, see the following Practice Notes: Case oversight in the magistrates’ courts The course of a criminal matter Phases of a summary hearing Burden and level of proof in criminal cases Ability and compellability of witnesses in criminal cases Witness testimony during a criminal trial Special arrangements Expert testimony in criminal proceedings Admitting a defendant’s bad character in criminal proceedings Admissibility of hearsay evidence in criminal proceedings Penalties imposed after conviction Obligation to give reasons and set out the effect of sentence imposed...
20 May
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View the related Practice Notes about Witness compellability
PRACTICE NOTES
Criminal Witness Competence and Compellability: Procedures and Exceptions for Accused, Spouses/Civil Partners, Children and Witnesses with Mental Impairment (England and Wales)
Competency—general rule The usual method of presenting evidence in criminal proceedings is, in practice, via a witness’s testimony. A witness is regarded as competent where, as a matter of law, a party may call them to give evidence. Everyone is treated as competent to testify, whatever their age, and at every stage of criminal proceedings, but there are two exceptions: a person is not competent in criminal proceedings if, in the court’s view, they are unable to understand questions put to them as a witness and to give answers to those questions that can be understood a person charged in criminal proceedings is not competent to give evidence for the prosecution in those proceedings (whether tried alone or together with a co-accused) (see further below: The accused—evidence on behalf of the prosecution) This statutory test imports no presumptions and no preconceptions. A challenge to competence cannot be mounted by pointing simply to chronological age or to mental capacity, for example, unless it...
21 May
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