[Title 32 CFR 534.3]
[Code of Federal Regulations (annual edition) - July 1, 2002 Edition]
[Title 32 - NATIONAL DEFENSE]
[Chapter V - DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY]
[Subchapter B - CLAIMS AND ACCOUNTS]
[Part 534 - MILITARY COURT FEES]
[Sec. 534.3 - Allowable expenses for witnesses.]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]


32NATIONAL DEFENSE32002-07-012002-07-01false534.3Sec. 534.3NATIONAL DEFENSEDEPARTMENT OF THE ARMYCLAIMS AND ACCOUNTSMILITARY COURT FEES
Sec. 534.3  Allowable expenses for witnesses.

    (a) Military members--(1) On active duty. Members in the military 
service, on active duty, when required to appear as witnesses before 
courts will receive the appropriate travel and transportation allowances 
prescribed in chapter 4, Joint Travel Regulations.
    (2) Retired members. Retired military members, not on active duty, 
when called as witnesses (other than expert witnesses), are entitled for 
their services as such to the mileage and other fees prescribed in 
paragraph (b)(3) of this section, for civilian witnesses not in 
Government employ.
    (b) Civilians--(1) General. (i) Persons not subject to military law 
when called as witnesses are entitled to the fees and mileage allowed to 
wintesses attending courts of the United States.

(Article 47, Uniform Code of Military Justice (10 U.S.C. 847; 1 Comp. 
Gen. 347))

    (ii) When the court is sitting in a foreign country, the oversea 
commander within whose command the court is convened will fix fees and 
allowances to be paid to witnesses, not in excess of maximum rates 
permitted to witnesses attending the courts of the United States or the 
courts of the foreign country, whichever rates may be higher.
    (2) In Government employ. Any officer or employee of the United 
States or any agency thereof, summoned as a witness on behalf of the 
United States, shall be paid his necessary expenses incident to travel 
by common carrier, or, if travel is made by privately owned automobile, 
mileage at a rate not to exceed 10 cents per mile, together with a per 
diem allowance not to exceed the rate of $12 a day.


(62 Stat. 950, 63 Stat. 103, 704, 69 Stat. 394; 28 U.S.C. 1823(a))

    (3) Not in Government employ--(i) Excluding Alaska and Canal Zone. A 
witness attending in any court of the United States or before a United 
States commissioner or person taking his deposition pursuant to any 
order of the court of the United States, will receive $4 for each day's 
attendance and for the time necessarily occupied in going to and 
returning from the same, and 8 cents per mile for going from and 
returning to his place of residence. Witnesses who are not salaried 
employees of the Government and who are not in custody and who attend at 
point so far removed from their respective residences as to prohibit 
return thereto from day to day will be entitled to an additional 
allowance of $8 per day for expenses of subsistence including the time 
necessarily occupied in going to and returning from the place of 
attendance. In lieu of the mileage allowance provided for herein, 
witnesses who are required to travel between the Territories, 
possessions, or to and from the continental United States, will be 
entitled to the actual expenses of travel at the lowest first-class rate 
available at the time of reservation for passage, by means of 
transportation employed. When a witness is detained in prison for want 
of security for his appearance, he will be entitled, in addition to his 
subsistence, to a compensation of $1 a day.
    (ii) In Alaska and Canal Zone. (a) In Alaska such witnesses are 
entitled to the witness fees and mileage prescribed for witnesses before 
the United States district court in the judicial division in which the 
trial or hearing is held. Fees vary in the different judicial divisions.
    (b) In the Canal Zone such witnesses are entitled to the witness 
fees and mileage as are prescribed for witnesses before the United 
States court in the Canal Zone.
    (c) Responsible officers in Alaska and in the Panama Canal Zone will 
keep informed as to the fees payable in United States courts in those 
places.
    (c) Mileage--(1) General. A civilian witness not in Government 
employ, when furnished transportation in kind by the Government, is 
entitled to 8 cents per mile less the cost of transportation furnished. 
A civilian witness residing within the jurisdiction of the

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court, who is subpoenaed and attends the trial in obedience to such 
subpoena, is entitled to mileage between his residence and the place of 
trial, regardless of whether both are in the same city.
    (2) Computation. Mileage at the rate of 8 cents per mile will be 
computed on the basis of the Rand McNally Standard Highway Mileage Guide 
regardless of the mode of transportation used.
    (d) Subsistence per diem allowance--(1) When payable. The 
subsistence per diem allowance is payable only when the place of trial 
is so far removed from the place of residence as to prohibit return of 
the witness thereto from day to day and such fact is properly certified. 
(See 6 Comp. Gen. 835.)
    (2) Computation. In computing the subsistence per diem allowance 
prescribed in paragraph (b)(3)(i) of this section, the calendar day 
beginning at midnight is the unit, and the subsistence per diem 
allowance accrues from the time it is necessary for the witness to leave 
his home in order to arrive at the place of trial at the appointed time 
until the time he could arrive at his home by first available 
transportation after his discharge from attendance, any fractional part 
of a day under such transportation to be regarded as a day for per diem 
purposes. (See 5 Comp. Gen. 1028, as modified by 6 Comp. Gen. 480 and 6 
id. 835.)
    (e) Attendance fees--(1) Attendance at more than one case on same 
day. A person attending as a witness in more than one case on the same 
day under a general subpoena to appear and testify is entitled to only 
one per diem for each day's attendance. If separate subpoenas are issued 
in each case, the defendants being different, the witness is entitled to 
separate per diem for actual attendance in each case. The duplication of 
fees on account of attendance as witness in more than one case on the 
same day does not apply to the 8-cent mileage allowance and does not 
apply to the per diem on $8 in lieu of subsistence.
    (2) Attendance before officer taking deposition. A witness who is 
required to appear before an officer (civil or military) empowered to 
take depositions and there to give testimony under oath to be used 
before a court is entitled for such service and for the necessary travel 
incident thereto, including return travel, to the allowances prescribed 
in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section, the same as though his 
appearance were before a court. (See 8 Comp. Gen. 18.)
    (3) Attendance before military courts or boards of limited 
jurisdiction. A subpoena or other compulsory process addressed to a 
civilian by a military court or board which has not express statutory 
authority to issue such process, such as a board of officers convened to 
investigate and report upon the facts connected with the death of an 
enlisted member while on temporary duty, is void. Civilian witnesses who 
appear before such a board in response to such void process must be 
regarded as having done so voluntarily and are not entitled to witness 
fees, in the absence of a specific appropriation therefor. (See 8 Comp. 
Gen. 64.)
    (4) Computation. The provisions of paragraph (d)(2) of this section 
are equally applicable for computation of the attendance fee.
    (f) Expert--(1) Fees paid. An expert witness employed in accordance 
with Manual for Courts-Martial, 1951, paragraph 116, may be paid 
compensation at the rate prescribed in advance by the official empowered 
to authorize his employment. (See 11 Comp. Gen. 504.) In the absence of 
such advance authorization no fees, other than ordinary witness fees, 
may be paid for the employment of an individual as an expert witness. 
(See paragraph 116, Manual for Courts-Martial (Executive Order 10214).)
    (2) Limitations. (i) An expert while employed on behalf of the 
Government is an officer or employee of the United States within the 
laws affecting traveling and subsistence expenses of officers and 
employees of the Government generally. His traveling allowances are 
therefore subject to the limitations prescribed in the Travel Expense 
Act of 1949 (63 Stat. 166; 5 U.S.C. 835-842) and the Standardized 
Government Travel Regulations. (See 6 Comp. Gen. 712.)
    (ii) There is no authority for payment by the Government of fees to 
an expert, who was employed by an officer or employee of the Government 
to aid in the performance of his duties, other

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than an expert witness who actually appears as such (paragraph (b)(2) of 
this section).
    (iii) A retired officer, not on active duty, employed as an expert 
witness is not entitled to any compensation in addition to his retired 
pay for such service. The traveling allowances of such a retired 
officer, so employed, are subject to the limitations prescribed in the 
Travel Expense Act of 1949 and the Standardized Government Travel 
Regulations. (See 6 Comp. Gen 712.)
    (g) Witness not subpoenaed--(1) Compelled to testify. A person who, 
although not subpoenaed, is present at trial or hearing before a court 
or other body authorized to compel the attendance of witnesses by 
compulsory process, and who is compelled or required to testify at such 
hearing, is entitled to fees and mileage allowances payable to 
witnesses.
    (2) Voluntarily testifies. A person who was neither subpoenaed nor 
requested to appear as a witness, but who voluntarily requested and was 
granted permission to testify to certain matters considered pertinent to 
an inquiry being conducted, is not entitled to mileage and witness fees. 
(See 9 Comp. Gen. 255.)