Court testimony is words spoken by someone who is a witness in a legal proceeding, in court, in response to questions from an attorney for a party in the proceeding or questions from the judge. Court testimony is always given under oath, meaning that the person swears to tell the truth. Court testimony is always taken down by a court reporter and transcribed so that it becomes part of the official record of the proceeding. If a person is hearing impaired and uses American Sign Language, an interpreter accompanies the person so that the testimony can still be written down. Very occasionally, when someone has died or is completely unable to be in court for a legitimate reason, a deposition (testimony taken under oath, but not in court) of that person's testimony will be admitted to the record to stand in as court testimony. This is quite unusual, though, since court testimony is always supposed to be subject to cross-examination, and it is impossible to cross-examine a transcript.
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