E&A Materials (2023): Virtual Questioning Introduction

Introducing yourself and explaining to the witness what you are doing will help you stay in control of your virtual questioning.  Here is a sample script for you to use and/or build off of.

Virtual Questioning Introduction – PDF

 

Good morning, everyone. Before I (swear/affirm) you, (insert name of witness), I’m just going to quickly explain who I am and my purpose today.

My name is __ and I am your stenographer, which means that (under my desk/in front of me) here, I’m using a specialized machine to write down every single word said during the proceedings today. (point to your machine here if you can)

The reason I am telling you all this is because I would like to emphasize the importance of speaking one at a time, because my purpose, as I said, is to get down all the testimony, which can be difficult when two people speak at the same time, especially on (Zoom/Teams/Webex) because it can cut out the quieter speaker.

So thank you in advance for your cooperation, and I’ll now (swear/affirm) you, (insert name of witness).