The court, on its own motion or on the motion of any party, may call witnesses and interrogate them the same as if they had been produced by a party to the action, and the parties may object to the questions asked and the evidence adduced the same as if such witnesses were called and examined by an adverse party. Such witnesses may be cross-examined by all parties to the action in such order as the court directs.
Cal. Evid. Code § 775
Examination of Witnesses
Applied in 22 court decisions — leading case 12 Cal. 3d 512 - McCartney v. Commission on Judicial Qualifications (1974)
Most recently applied in 239 Cal. Rptr. 3d 168 - L. A. Cnty. Dep't of Children & Family Servs. v. Charles B. (In re G.B.) (October 2018)
Enacted by Stats. 1965, Ch. 299.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.