4 Crucial Testimony Tips Every Pro Se Litigant Needs

You have a Constitutional Right to represent yourself in Court, but do you know how to make objections, admit evidence, and present testimony?

Chapters:
00:00 – Pro Se Testimony, Objections, and Evidence
00:42 – Testifying Pro Se and examining witnesses
01:00 – How to Testify
02:37 – Examine Friendly Witnesses
03:09 – Examine Hostile Witnesses
04:06 – 3 Objections every pro see needs to know
05:01 – Hearsay Objections
06:40 – Nonresponsive Objections
07:24 – Not Within Personal Knowledge/Speculation Objections
07:49 – How to get evidence admitted
08:45 – Pictures as Evidence
09:34 – Audio Recordings
09:56 – Video Recordings
10:07 – Texts/Social Media Messages
10:22 – Extra Do’s & Don’ts

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Music:
Homebound – Anno Domini Beats
Music provided via YouTube Studio Audio Library

When you represent yourself in court, it’s called appearing Pro Se, which is Latin for “on one’s own behalf.”

Unfortunately, I’ve watched countless pro se litigants ruin winnable cases because they didn’t know how to testify, object, or present evidence. So, I’m going to teach you how testimony is different when you represent yourself, 3 of the most common objections, and how to get most evidence admitted.

Obviously, I can’t squeeze 3 years of law school and my 12 years of trial experience into this one video, but these few tips will either help you when you appear pro se in Court OR convince you that hiring an attorney is in your best interest.

Testifying Pro Se and examining witnesses

Evidence in our adversarial legal system is routinely provided through live-witness testimony. This means that someone will take the witness stand and answer questions. When you’re representing yourself pro se, the responsibility for asking questions of the witnesses (including yourself) will be all on you.

How to testify pro se

When you’re representing yourself, your testimony is EXTREMELY important, but is often the most overlooked portion of pro se trial prep.

I’m going to warn you, it is going to feel incredibly awkward, but this is normal. I’d rather you prepare to feel awkward rather than you be surprised when you’re hit with those feelings on the stand.

When you testify pro se, you’re allowed to testify in the narrative. That means you’ll be giving testimony that is not in direct response to questions. This is much more difficult than simply answering questions by an attorney because two heads are better than one. If you misspeak, lose your place, or forget a necessary fact, you don’t have someone else keeping you on track or helping you to remember.

When you’re preparing your testimony, take the time to write out questions for yourself, along with your answers. Then, you roll your questions into your answers. Instead of “What is your name? John.” it becomes “My name is John.” It might seem easier to just skip this step, but you first need to go through the exercise of writing out the questions because it will keep you focused on your evidence.

When you’re testifying pro se, your natural reaction is to just “tell your story.” Well, that’s not how trial works. Rather than just telling your story, you need to focus on giving the Judge or Jury specific evidence that proves all of the elements for your case.

Alternatively, if you’re the Defendant in the case, then you need to know the elements of the Plaintiff’s case so you can provide testimony that disproves those elements.

When you’re being cross-examined by the other side, remember that you can still make objections to their questions just like an attorney representing you could do while you’re testifying. More on objections later.

How to examine friendly witnesses pro se

When the witness is friendly to you (meaning that they are there to offer evidence that is beneficial to your case) then your questions can’t be “leading” but must be open ended. If the question calls for a yes/no answer, then it is probably a leading question. Open-ended questions usually begin with Who, What, When, Where, Why, or How.

Keep your questions simple so that the answers are only about a sentence or two long. Talk to your witnesses in advance to let them know the questions that you’ll be asking and to make sure that their answers are what you’re expecting them to testify to.

How to examine hostile witnesses pro se

When the witness is hostile to you (meaning that they are there to offer evidence that is beneficial to the other side’s case) only then are you allowed to ask leading questions. This is known as Cross-Examination.

Your goal when asking leading questions is to get the witness to say the word “Yes” as many times as possible. Ask questions that begin with, “Isn’t it true that…” or “You’d agree with me that…”

The best cross-examination...