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?

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.