Credible witness

In the law of evidence, a credible witness is a person making testimony in a court or other tribunal, or acting otherwise as a witness, whose credibility is unimpeachable. A witness may have more or less credibility, or no credibility at all. In the common law system, the term 'credible witness' may be used generally, to refer to testimony, or for the witnessing of certain documents.

Several factors affect witnesses' credibility. A credible witness is "competent to give evidence, and is worthy of belief." Generally, a witness is deemed to be credible if they are recognized (or can be recognized) as a source of reliable information about someone, an event, or a phenomenon.

In a wide variety of cases that use the rules of evidence, testimony must be given by credible witnesses.

In Scottish law, a credible witness is one "whose credibility commends itself to the presiding magistrate ... the trustworthiness" of whom is good.

In English law, a credible witness is one who is not "speaking from hearsay." In English:

Credible seems here to be used in the way that people have employed it ever since it appeared in the English language in the fourteenth century: of something that is convincing or is capable of being believed. (It came from Latin credibilis, worthy of being believed, from the verb credere, to believe.)

In the United States, such a witness is "more than likely to be true based on his/her experience, knowledge, training and appearance of honesty and forthrightness...." Some factors for determining the credibility of testimony in U.S. courts include: (1) the witness had personal knowledge, (2) he or she was actually present at the scene, (3) the witness paid attention at the scene, and (4) he or she told the whole truth. The probative value of a credible witness is not a required element in any criminal case. However, credibility is always a factor in civil cases. The number of witnesses does not matter for credibility: "The question for the jury is not which side has more witnesses, but what testimony they believe." Only the "quality or power" of believability matters.

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