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In this lesson, you will learn what a deposition is and the steps for preparing for a deposition.
DEPOSITIONS – Recorded interviews of witnesses under oath and prior to trial.
Steps when preparing your deposition
- Determine the answers you are looking for.
- Determine which witnesses you are going to depose.
- Order both your questions and witnesses.
- Give your opponent three dates for each deposition you want to conduct.
- Determine a location and hire a court reporter.
- Once the date is agreed, file a notice of deposition or a notice of serving a subpoena depending on if the deposition is a third-party deposition or not.
- Don’t forget to prepare any exhibits you want to use and your questions prior to the deposition date.
Transcript
Depositions are recorded interviews of witnesses made under oath and prior to trial.
There are some basic similarities between depositions and the written discovery we\’ve just discussed.
They\’re all used to gather evidence.
As with written discovery, a deponent that is a witness at a deposition may object to your questions but they generally have to go ahead and answer those questions. A judge will later decide whether those answers can actually be used as evidence.
But unlike written discovery, depositions have very few limitations on the number of questions you can ask.
No. Time limits do exist. You generally can\’t go beyond seven hours with maybe an hour in between.
But You can ask as many questions during that period of time as you like.
Also, parties talk to deponents or witnesses in deposition in person, unlike the written discovery request.
Further notices and subpoenas related to depositions are required to be filed in the record of your case.
Now when preparing to conduct a deposition, you want to determine the answers you\’re looking for ahead of time, as well as the witnesses that you\’re going to depose and the order of those witnesses.
You may decide that it is more helpful to depose a vice president\’s secretary before deposing the vice president, herself.
You wanna give your, opposing party three potential dates for each deposition you want to conduct.
You\’ll determine a location, for the deposition and hire a court reporter.
It\’s not an official deposition without a court reporter.
Now usually choosing a location and hiring the court reporter are typically the same step because court reporters often have a preferred location. It\’s either their office or, a place where they like to conduct depositions.
And so once you\’ve hired your court reporter, Generally, you\’ve also selected your location.
Once the date is agreed, you will file a notice of deposition on a party to the case or a notice of serving a subpoena if it\’s a third party deposition.
You will file those notices and subpoenas with the court.
You also serve notices as subpoenas as appropriate on the witnesses or their council.
You want to prepare any exhibits you want to use for your deposition as as well as a list of questions before you walk into the deposition.