Generally speaking, in the United States witness statements are generally eschewed in favour of a discovery process including deposition of key witnesses prior to trial.
In the UK, a witness statement is a "written statement signed by a person which contains the evidence which that person would be allowed to give orally"
Famous quotes containing the words witness and/or statement:
“No one
bears witness for the
witness.”
—Paul Celan [Paul Antschel] (1920–1970)
“The force of truth that a statement imparts, then, its prominence among the hordes of recorded observations that I may optionally apply to my own life, depends, in addition to the sense that it is argumentatively defensible, on the sense that someone like me, and someone I like, whose voice is audible and who is at least notionally in the same room with me, does or can possibly hold it to be compellingly true.”
—Nicholson Baker (b. 1957)