Where the trial record is not read out under the ordinary rules, what must a declarant ask for to have their statement read and corrected?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In the trial file we read the trial record, and any record of a witness examined outside the trial day, looking for a line showing that the declarant asked for the part concerning their statement to be read, and for any request for addition, deletion or alteration and the court's response to it.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading takes the provision at its word: the trial record and the record of an examination conducted outside the trial day are not governed by the ordinary rules on records that this provision excludes, so no one may demand that the whole record be read aloud; the proviso governs alone, and it works only where the declarant makes a request, with the part 'concerning that statement' read out and the statement recorded 'where a request for addition, deletion or alteration is made'.
Another reading stresses how narrow the proviso is: the reading-out duty reaches only the part of the record that concerns the declarant's own statement, not the rest of the record, and the recording duty is switched on by a request for change, leaving open how such a request must be put to the court in the file and whether what is recorded is the statement as originally given or as corrected.
Your judgment
If a witness says after the trial day that their words were recorded wrongly, what in the file would show the court received that request and what was done with it?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to require the record to be read to a declarant without a request, or if a court decision settles how a request for addition, deletion or alteration must be made and shown on the record.