attending court as a witness - any way out?

[joko]

Me and a friend saw what we assumed was a drunk man back his car into a parked car in a pub car park.

thats it.

we stopped him driving off and the owner of the pub called the police.

this guy was apparently drunk as a skunk, and had a large knife in him
he has not denied hitting the car but we have been asked to attend court because has apparently denied having the knife, and refused to give a specimen.

now, we didn't see the knife, and had no idea he had one, he did not wave it or threaten us. we only knew he had one because the officer who interviewed us showed it to us.
and we know nothing of his refusal to provide a specimen.

the problem is its not until the middle of june, and as freelance filmmakers, we have no idea where we will be on that date - we can't just leave a shoot - it would cost thousands if we held it up.
it also means an overnight stay as it happened while we were in bradford on another shoot.

so, do we have to go?

if i am not busy, i would happily go, but at this stage i cannot commit as sometimes jobs happen within days, no advance warning.

can i say no, but offer to come if i am not busy or do they really need to know if we are coming 3 months in advance?

if i thought our evidence was crucial i would certainly go, but we know nothing of these two things - we only saw the crash, so i can't see the point in potentially causing myself trouble, being sacked, or not even hired for evidence that we do not have and can barely remember anyway.

I am stunned he has denied any of actually because he was totally caught red handed...an idiot.

any ideas of what we can do here?

Thanks

[kempie]

"Do we have to go?" - that depends on whether you are served with a subpoena.

Attendance in response to a witness summons or subpoena is compulsory. Failure to do so may be treated as contempt of court.

[joko]

hi kempie,
how do you know if its a summons or subpoena?
it doesn't have either of those words on the letter anywhere.
it just says notice to attend court, and that i am required to attend to give my evidence...

it also has a form for me to return asking for confirmation of my attendance

at the time they asked us if we would be willing to give evidence and we said yes because we were i suppose we were het up, and wanted this fool to get what he deserves (he very nearly hit us you see) but we didn't really think it come come to that, and neither did the police, as he seemed to be bang to rights. we also didn't think we would be having to commit 3 months in advance and nearly a year later.

thanks

[kempie]

"Require" seems to indicate "must" but I am surprised that you did not receive some type of explanatory guide with your notice to attend.

It is possible that since you claim not to have seen the knife you are actually being called as a witness for the defence.

My advice would be to contact whoever asked you to attend and explain the situation to them.

This may prove useful to you...

http://www.cjsonline.gov.uk/downloads/applicat ion/pdf/giving_a_statement_to_the_police_-_eng lish.pdf

[Barmaid]

This sounds like a standard witness warning rather than a summons. I would suggest you keep the date in mind and if it becomes clear closer to the date that your work takes you elsewhere inform the people that wrote to you. They will either then apply to vacate the trial or come to some agreement with the other side about your evidence. When you acknowledge your warning, I would include a letter pointing your difficulties out.

As to whether your evidence is crucial or not, that will be for the lawyers to assess. Very often people think they have seen nothing but they hold the key to one crucial bit of evidence. There may well have been further charges laid which you know nothing about.