Abstract: Witnesses represent one of the oldest means of evidence used in evidentiary proceedings. A witness is a natural person who provides the court with information about a particular event. However, in practice, besides being one of the most commonly used means of evidence, witnesses may sometimes prove to be an unreliable source of evidence. It often happens that witnesses incorrectly observe an event or, due to the passage of time between the event and the court proceedings, forget or convey an altered version of their sensory perception. The subject of this paper is the evidentiary significance that witnesses may have in court proceedings. The importance of witnesses as a means of evidence is assessed differently in practice, depending on whether the procedure is civil or criminal. In civil proceedings, their credibility is ranked immediately below documents, on-site inspections, and expert opinions, which are considered more reliable means of evidence. In criminal proceedings, however, witness testimony is regarded as one of the key evidentiary actions evaluated by the court during the decision-making process. Sažetak: Svedoci predstavljaju jedno od najstarijih dokaznih sredstava koja se primenjuju u dokaznom postupku. Svedok je fizičko lice koje sudu saopštava svoja saznanja o predmetnom događaju. Međutim, u praksi, pored toga što je svedok jedno od najčešće primenjivanih dokaznih sredstava, u određenom broju slučajeva predstavlja i nepouzdano dokazno sredstavo. Dešava se da svedoci pogrešno opserviraju događaj ili da protekom vremena od događaja do postupka pred sudom zaborave ili prenesu izmenjenu verziju svog čulnog opažanja. Predmet ovog rada biće dokazni značaj koji mogu ostvariti svedoci u dokaznom postupku pred sudom. Značaj svedoka kao dokaznog sredstva se različito vrednuje u praksi u parničnom ili krivičnom postupku. U parničnom postupku je po verodostojnosti odmah ispod isprava, uviđaja i veštačenja kao merodavnijih dokaznih sredstava, dok u krivičnom postupku zauzima jedno od vodećih dokaznih radnji koje sud ceni prilikom odlučivanja. info:eu-repo/semantics/article eng srp http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode Kultura polisa volume: 22 number: 2 startpage: 70 endpage: 81 The Importance of Witnesses in Civil and Criminal Proceedings Značaj svedoka u parničnom i krivičnom postupku https://unilib.phaidrabg.rs/o:8736 doi:doi.org/10.51738/kpolisa.2025.2r.006 ISSN: 1820-4589 Keywords: means of evidence, evidentiary actions, testimony, evidentiary proceedings, evidence Ključne reči: dokazna sredstva, dokazne radnje, svedočenje, dokazni postupak, dokaz application/pdf 206817 bytes Stanković, Marko Stanković, Marija Aleksić Oliveira, Nina 2025