# Why does the US forces the witnesses to appear in court?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-forces-the-witnesses-to-appear-in-court/646460>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 8, 2013, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-forces-the-witnesses-to-appear-in-court/646460 "2013-01-08T08:55:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-us-forces-the-witnesses-to-appear-in-court/646460/41 "2013-01-16T14:54:02Z")

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> [@Northern\_Piper](#):
>
> Why would they want to?
> 
> It’s a basic principle of trial prep …  
> It’s stronger than that. A Crown who proceeds to trial without being satisfied that there is a reasonable likelihood of conviction may be committing professional misconduct and may be opening himself up to a malicious prosecution lawsuit. I don’t understand why you think a Crown would want to call someone to testify when the Crown doesn’t know what that witness is likely to say.
> 
> Not with the court, no. In indictable matters,…

Very interesting. Answers my questions, thank you, and makes the point regarding OP, I hope.

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