The Importance of Witnesses in Civil and Criminal Proceedings

Witnesses represent one of the oldest means of evidence used in evidentiary proceedings. A witness is a natural person who provides the court with information about a particular event. However, in practice, besides being one of the most commonly used means of evidence, witnesses may sometimes prove to be an unreliable source of evidence. It often happens that witnesses incorrectly observe an event or, due to the passage of time between the event and the court proceedings, forget or convey an altered version of their sensory perception. The subject of this paper is the evidentiary significance that witnesses may have in court proceedings. The importance of witnesses as a means of evidence is assessed differently in practice, depending on whether the procedure is civil or criminal. In civil proceedings, their credibility is ranked immediately below documents, on-site inspections, and expert opinions, which are considered more reliable means of evidence. In criminal proceedings, however, witness testimony is regarded as one of the key evidentiary actions evaluated by the court during the decision-making process.