Section 9.20 Competency of Children

• Library: Civil Trial Practice 2015 Supp

1. (§9.20) Competency of Children

Whenever a trial attorney finds that he or she must put a child on the witness stand in order to establish the pertinent claim or defense, the attorney must become familiar with the law as it relates to the competency of children as witnesses. The law makes a distinction between children over the age of ten years and children under the age of ten years. There is a rebuttable presumption that children under the age of ten years are incompetent as witnesses unless the trial...