What is the difference between a witness and a character witness?

Answer 1

An expert witness is someone that testifies according to their knowledge on a subject that pertains to the evidence given. Their expertise is needed to identify, test, and explain the evidence and how it is useful in proving information for either the innocence or guilt of a suspect. Examples of this would be trace evidence, DNA evidence, fingerprint analysis or ballistics.

A lay witness, however, is a person that gives testimony based on direct knowledge of the person or crime. A lay witness does not testify based on any education. There is something called an expert lay witness, that could testify based on experience of something pertaining to the case.

Answer 2

A witness is anyone who saw an event happen and can be called upon to appear in a court of law to recall that account as seen by that witness. An expert witness is one who specializes in a specific area by occupation or education, provides credentials in their field of expertise, and is called on to testify in court either for the prosecution or the defense.

Answer 3

A "witness" will testify as to the facts that pertain to the issues of the case itself. A "character witness" testifies as to his knowledge and opinion of the character of either the accused or a party in a civil action in order to prove that the person is such a good person that the allegations against him/her cannot possibly be true.

In that sense, the character witness testifies to facts unrelated to the actual case in order to disprove or discredit the actual facts of the case.

Answer 4

A lay witness is not an expert, so will be speaking as to what he/she saw or heard. An expert witness is someone who can speak to a specialized field of knowledge, like a ballistics expert, and need not have "seen" the crime.

Answer 5

An ordinary witness gives testimony about circumstantial evidence. Like, "I saw John walking into that dark alley, and then I heard a woman screaming."

An expert witness gives testimony about certain topics that the average lay person wouldn't know. A doctor can provide evidence about things like cause of death. A doctor can say, "an overdose of this chemical could cause cerebral hemorrhaging which killed the victim."

Answer 6

A difference between a eye witness and a witness is that;

Eye witness- who actually sees something happening with his own eyes

witness- your just someone who heard something. eg - if you heard them talking over the phone. nor if its happened over facebook or msn..

ANOTHER VIEW No difference - they are synonymous terms. To be a witness you must have observed the event first hand. Anything else is simply HEARSAY.

Answer 7

A witness is someone who is called in by the court who has supposedly seen the crime. A juror is someone in the jury.