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For a small courts case (landlord-tenant deposit), does a witness statement need to be in MC-030 declaration form?
Anonymous8 views3 answers
The court clerk with whom I filed the case indicated MC-030 was not necessary for a witness declaration. It would just be a simple word document. Can you please validate for me as I don;t fully trust the court clerks who are not offering legal advice. Also, can I be just an email or needs to be a document duly signed by the witness?
In small claims court, the rules of evidence are relaxed. This means the judge can consider witness statements, but the statements ought to be signed under penalty of perjury (which is what MC-030 provides), but the statement does not need to be on the MC-030 form. In fact, the witness statements can even be handwritten. Of course, the best thing would be for the witness to appear in court at the small claims trial.
This is not the answer your are looking for. Small claims court judges prefer real people as witnesses, not paper. If you witness absolutely cannot attend the hearing, then your best bet is to follow suggestions of the clerks.
Have you tried resolving your case through non-legal means? If not, I highly recommend you check out the Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center. www.pcrc.org.
As Mr. Moss indicated, your witness needs to be in court. No one can cross examine a piece of paper and a declaration has to be admitted by an exception to the hearsay evidence rule. The court may not consider it.
An alternative is to conduct some discovery and try to get the information that you need out of the defendant.
Below, I've included a link to a legal guide that may help you.
