Draft a declaration the witness will actually sign
Three turns and a check. Keep this open next to your chat: each step is the thing to paste next, with what you typed already carried across. Nothing is sent from here, and nothing on this page is a transcript. The conversation stays where you are having it.
Who they are, their role during the relevant period, and how long.
The facts, in the witness's own words where you have them, with how they know each.
The motion and the specific point the declaration exists to establish.
The court, so execution and form requirements can be flagged.
What they created, received, or can authenticate.
Watch for, the whole way through
Execution requirements, perjury language, and electronic signature practice vary by court and by state, and a defective declaration can be struck entirely. Confirm the form before it is signed.
A declaration drafted from a lawyer's summary of what a witness said will contain sentences the witness never said. Read it with the witness, line by line, before signing.
Hearsay rewritten into the first person is the most common defect in a declaration and the easiest to expose. If the witness was told something, the declaration cannot say they saw it.
A declaration is a statement under penalty of perjury. Sentences that overstate what the witness knows create exposure for the witness, not only for the motion.
Do not paste privileged communications with the witness. The facts and the documents are enough to draft from.