Are potential witnesses required to answer lawyer's questions pre-trial?

FWIW, when I brought up the whole subject of being paid by counsel, I did not mean for the purposes of testifying if it were to come to that (civic duty and the interest of justice and all).

I was saying that you should have made counsel pay you just to talk to them. If they’re imposing on your time while they’re charging their client, then you, too, charge the attorney (who then charges his client). I’m not trying to promote jealousy of lawyer hourly rates, nor undermine the justice system, or anything like that. You wanted both of these bozos to grow up. So, make some money off of them. If the lawyer pays you, he’s not taking the hit. Your idiot neighbors are.

And we miss a day of work when we testify. Sorry, but while civic responsibility enters the equation, it is still an equation.

I mean no hostility in the above post. I value my lawyer and the services he provides me, however I feel that “civic responsibility” only goes so far.