Q: I live out of state, and given the current economic recession and my own financial situation, I cannot afford to travel to New York in order to testify at the trial of my friend's lawsuit which arose when he suffered personal injuries while using a defective product . Will the Court allow me to testify remotely via teleconferencing or by video?
A:
As the law in New York currently stands, the answer is almost certainly not. As noted in our blog, New York's Appellate Division recently ruled that unless you are dealing with a situation whereby the Court is concerned about protecting an abused child from further trauma, public policy mandates that a party to a lawsuit be afforded the opportunity to confront - face-to-face an adverse witness at trial, because there is a fundamental belief that this process will most likely deter people from lying.