§ 40.310 Rule 601. General rule of competency

Anyone can testify as a witness in court, as long as they can sense what's happening around them and can share what they noticed with other people. This means if a person can see, hear, or otherwise perceive events, and can communicate that to the judge and jury, they qualify as a witness.

This is a pretty low bar. It doesn't matter if the person is young, old, or has certain disabilities. What matters is whether they can perceive things and talk about what they perceived. There are some specific exceptions listed elsewhere in the law that limit who can testify in certain situations, but those are the exception rather than the rule.

In practice, this means courts don't usually block someone from testifying just because of their age, background, or general ability to understand things. Instead, questions about whether someone is a good or reliable witness usually get sorted out through cross-examination, not by keeping them off the witness stand entirely.