Examination of witnesses on commission; in general · as in force on May 31, 2026
§ 680.10 Examination of witnesses on commission; in general.
1. Under circumstances prescribed in this article, testimony material to a trial or pending trial of an accusatory instrument which charges a crime, may be taken by "examination on a commission" outside the state and received in evidence at such trial.
2. A "commission" is a process issued by a superior court designating one or more persons as commissioners and authorizing them to conduct a recorded examination of a witness or witnesses under oath, primarily on the basis of interrogatories annexed to the commission, and to remit to the issuing court the transcript of such examination.
A superior court may issue a commission to take material testimony outside New York for use at a trial on a criminal charge. A commission appoints one or more people to conduct and record an out-of-state examination under oath, mainly from attached written questions, and return the transcript to the issuing court. ★
Marked in the text: penalties, time limits, sums of money. Editorial emphasis added by this edition; it does not appear in the statute as enacted.
This provision appears in Volume 1 — The Court Officer in Plain English; Volume 2 — The Court Officer: Criminal Procedure Law; Volume 2 — Your Career: Criminal Procedure in Plain English.