How do you keep the friends of a Defendant from making up awful lies about a victim or a witness?
If it's a potentally criminal case and the witness may say something during the trial that could incriminate themselves the Judge has to offer them the opportunity to hire a lawyer to advise them before they testify. Most people will just not testify. Is this something that happens much in other Jurisdictions??? Talk about messing with the judicial system...

A judge has no obligation to warn a witness of his/her rights or give them an oppportunity to hire an attorney. They either testify or take the Fifth.