Family Law Trials in Supreme Court: Difference between revisions

# A list of the witnesses that party intends to call at trial, including each witness’ address and an estimate of the time that witness will be on the stand answering questions by that party,

# A list of any expert reports that party intends to rely upon at trial,

# A list of any orders already made in the court proceeding which may affect the conduct of the trial,

# A list of the documents and other exhibits that party intends to rely upon at trial,

For each witness, prepare a list of the issues that you need them to speak about in their testimony.  Then make a list of questions to ask and review with them before trial.  For each witness, you will likely want to start with basic questions such as their full name, address, age and occupation, their education if relevant, and their relationship to the parties, and then move on to the focused areas of inquiry.  

==== Use of pre-trial examination or deposition ====

Where an expert has been appointed by the court, a party wishing to cross-examine the expert at trial must serve notice on the expert and all parties.  The notice is in [[Form F43 Notice to Cross-examine|Form F43]] and must be served at least 28 days before the scheduled trial date.  

For each expert witness, prepare a list of the issues that you need them to speak about in their testimony.  Then make a list of questions to ask and review the questions with the expert before trial if possible.  You may have questions about their training and experience, about the process of information gathering they used to form their opinion, and the opinion itself.   

# '''Prepare an opening statement:'''  This is a statement that is made at the beginning of each party’s case to give the judge some factual background about the case, an overview of the legal issues involved, and the positions taken/orders sought by that party.  If the parties have reached agreement on any issues, this should be communicated to the judge during a party’s opening statement.  If there are housekeeping issues (such as an expert witness only being available to testify on a specific date), such issues should be raised at this time as well.  A party’s opening statement should be consistent with a party’s closing argument.  

# '''Update outline for closing submissions:'''  Each party’s closing submissions should include a summary of the law on each issue, a description of each order sought by the party making the submissions, and a summary of the evidence that supports each order sought.  If a party has made an extensive outline during their earlier trial preparation (as suggested above), this step is simplified.  A party’s closing argument should be consistent with the party’s opening statement.

#* Read Rule 14-7 carefully, and especially subsections (19) to (39) when it comes to witnesses.  

#* Are you certain your witnesses will show up? Should you be delivering a subpoena (in Form F23) by personal service more than 7 days in advance of when you want them to give testimony?

#* Opening statement.

#* Direct examination of each witness that party intends to call (with each examination behind a separate tab).

#* List of read-ins (from examination for discovery, pre-trial examinations of witnesses, or depositions, if any).

#* Final argument/closing submissions.