Family Law Matters Are Open to the Public
Video Transcribed: Can a person sit in on a child custody proceeding and trial in Oklahoma? I’m Tulsa attorney, James Wirth and I’m answering frequently asked questions, and that’s the question is, can you sit in and watch a child custody trial in Oklahoma?
And for the most part, our Oklahoma family law matters are open to the public, and you can come in and you can watch those proceedings. The exception to that is going to be guardianships, those are private. Adoptions are going to be private, deprived child actions are going to be private.
If it’s not one of those, for the most part, it’s open to the general public, you can sit in and watch. Now, another exception, if you’re a potential witness to the case, either one of the parties can invoke the rule of sequestration and then kick everybody out of the courtroom that may be testifying.
And that is to make sure that those people testifying don’t get to see prior witness testimony in order to try to conform with it. So those people can be excluded so that they don’t get to watch the trial until after they have testified.
Other than that though, for the most part, open to the public, you can go in there and sit and watch. If you’ve got questions about specific circumstances, you may want to talk to a lawyer about that. If you want to talk to a Tulsa Family Law Attorney in my office you go to makelaweasy.com.
