{"id":213,"date":"2019-08-20T15:02:24","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T19:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/whitecollarcriminallaw\/?p=213"},"modified":"2019-08-20T17:26:56","modified_gmt":"2019-08-20T21:26:56","slug":"federal-grand-jury-testimony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/whitecollarcriminallaw\/2019\/08\/20\/federal-grand-jury-testimony\/","title":{"rendered":"Sometimes, You CAN Always Get What You Want: Counseling Clients On Taking Breaks Before a Federal Grand Jury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri\">Sooner or later, nearly every white collar defense attorney will represent a witness subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury.\u00a0 It is well settled in most circuits that federal grand jury witnesses do not have a right to have defense counsel present during the grand jury proceedings \u2013 but how frequently may witnesses request a break in the grand jury proceedings to leave the room to consult with their lawyers about the questions being posed?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri\">Quite frequently, it turns out.\u00a0\u00a0 Many federal courts allow non-immunized grand jury witnesses to consult with their lawyers <i>after each question posed<\/i>.\u00a0 <i>See U.S. v. Soto<\/i>, 574 F.Supp. 986, 990 (D. Conn. 1983).\u00a0 Courts recognize that witnesses reasonably wish to consult with counsel to avoid, for example, providing testimony which may tend to incriminate them.\u00a0 While some courts may limit the frequency of consultation to every two or three questions, particularly if the breaks become too lengthy or disruptive, courts will typically honor requests for regular consultation unless the request appears \u201cfrivolous\u201d or \u201cwith intent to frustrate the proceedings.\u201d\u00a0 <i>See In re Tierney<\/i>, 465 F.2d 806, 810 (5<sup><span style=\"font-size: small\">th<\/span><\/sup> Cir. 1972). <\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri\">Additionally, courts will generally allow grand jury witnesses to take notes on the proceedings for the purposes of conferring with counsel.\u00a0 Witnesses may, for example, write down the questions posed to them, so that they can consult with their lawyers before answering the questions.\u00a0 A prosecutor might ask a court to intervene, though, if the witness\u2019s note-taking begins to delay the proceedings.\u00a0 <i>See, e.g., Soto <\/i>at 989 (finding that the witness\u2019s \u201ctranscribing process\u201d \u201cimpedes the investigation\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri\">The court is empowered to prevent a breakdown in the grand jury proceedings, but this power is balanced against the witness\u2019s need to consult with counsel.\u00a0 <i>See Tierney<\/i> at 810-811.\u00a0 As long as grand jury witnesses\u2019 requests are reasonable, courts will \u201ccustomarily\u201d allow witnesses an opportunity to consult with their counsel about the subject matter of their testimony.\u00a0 <i>Soto<\/i> at 990.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>By Kimberly Koziara and Karen Alexander<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sooner or later, nearly every white collar defense attorney will represent a witness subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury.\u00a0 It is well settled in most circuits that federal grand jury witnesses do not have a right to have defense counsel present during the grand jury proceedings \u2013 but how frequently may witnesses request &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/whitecollarcriminallaw\/2019\/08\/20\/federal-grand-jury-testimony\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Sometimes, You CAN Always Get What You Want: Counseling Clients On Taking Breaks Before a Federal Grand Jury&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":280,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[195,151,197],"ppma_author":[247],"class_list":["post-213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-grand-jury","tag-karen-lehmann-alexander","tag-kimberly-koziara"],"authors":[{"term_id":247,"user_id":280,"is_guest":0,"slug":"klalexander","display_name":"Karen Lehmann Alexander","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/whitecollarcriminallaw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2017\/04\/alexanderkaren-125x150.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":"","9":"","10":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/whitecollarcriminallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/whitecollarcriminallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/whitecollarcriminallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/whitecollarcriminallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/280"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/whitecollarcriminallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/whitecollarcriminallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/whitecollarcriminallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/whitecollarcriminallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/whitecollarcriminallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/whitecollarcriminallaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}