Yosef Karo

“ If the defendant is sick, we do not accept testimony if not in front of him, even if there is a concern that his properties will transfer to his orphans and the plaintiff will not be able to litigate with them, as will be explained in Siman 110. There are those that say that any time they send after someone and he does not come to court, we can accept testimony not in front of him if they began the claims in front of him, or even where they did not begin the claims if it’s a situation where he is required to be judged in front of those judges, as was explained in Siman 14. ”

“ Paragraph 24- If one claims that he has two sets of witnesses and one set says that they do not know anything, the party does not forfeit his rights and may be bring the second set. We only accept testimony during the day. If they accepted it at night- even where the witnesses were being chased overseas, we may not judge based on that acceptance of testimony. ”

“ Paragraph 3- If a gentile calls a Jew to secular court, and there is a Jew who is the only one that knows testimony for the gentile, and it is a situation where secular courts obligate payment based on a solo witness, the Jew is prohibited from testifying for him. ”

“ If the court knows that his adversary is tough, and the plaintiff claims that the witnesses are afraid of testifying because of the adversary and he has proof to this claim, the court may force the adversary to bring those witnesses. The same applies to similar issues that arise for a tough person. Ideally, witnesses must stand while testifying. If a witness is a scholar, we have him sit. See later at the end of this Siman.
Paragraph 6- Ideally, the judges should sit while accepting testimony. They must understand the language of the testimony and they may not hear it via a translator. ”

“ Paragraph 7- We intimidate the witnesses in front of everyone. We inform them of the power of false testimony and the embarrassment a false witnesses faces in this world and the next and that he is considered lowly in the eyes of the one that hired him. ”