William Mitchell Law Review Volume 24 | Issue 1 Article 2 1998 The hiC ld Witness in Tort Cases: The rT ials and Tribulations of Representing Children Chris A. Messerly Follow this and additional works at: http://open.mitchellhamline.edu/wmlr Recommended Citation Messerly, Chris A. (1998) "The hiC ld Witness in Tort Cases: The rT ials and Tribulations of Representing Children," William Mitchell Law Review: Vol. 24: Iss. 1, Article 2. Available at: http://open.mitchellhamline.edu/wmlr/vol24/iss1/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at Mitchell Hamline Open Access. It has been accepted for inclusion in William Mitchell Law Review by an authorized administrator of Mitchell Hamline Open Access. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. © Mitchell Hamline School of Law Messerly: The Child Witness in Tort Cases: The Trials and Tribulations of R THE CHILD WITNESS IN TORT CASES: THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF REPRESENTING CHILDREN Chris A. Messerlyt Trib-u-la-tion; n: distress or suffering resulting from op- pression, persecution or affliction also: a trying experi- ence.* I. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................169 II. To TESTIFY OR NOT TO TESTIFY, THAT IS THE QUESTION ....170 A . Obeying the Child ..............................................................171 III. IS THE CHILD COMPETENT TO TESTIFY? ................................178 IV. PREPARING THE CHILD TO MEET DARTH VADER ...................180 V. PRESENTING THE CHILD'S "TESTIMONY" WITHOUT CALLING THE CHILD TO TESTIFY ...........................................184 VI. CONCLUSION ..........................................................................188 I. INTRODUCTION A child's testimony may provide some therapeutic value for the child,1 but, at the same time it is unquestionably traumatic for a child.