Your Deposition Has Been Set
For starters, what is a deposition? Maybe you’ve been involved in litigation before, and maybe you have not, so let’s start there. A deposition is a question-and-answer session, under oath, just like if you were in court. You’ll be answering the questions of the defense lawyer. This may sound intimidating, but it’s a part of every case, and we will have you well prepared for it.
If the insurance company would not pay what your case is worth, we will file suit and begin preparing the case for trial. One thing our office does on nearly every case is to serve discovery requests with the lawsuit. Discovery requests are written questions that must be answered by the other side. If we send them out with the lawsuit, we typically get their answers much quicker. You will also receive a set of discovery requests. Our office will work with you to answer those and insert objections if necessary.
Once written discovery is complete, depositions will begin. When we meet, we’ll discuss the rules of depositions, we’ll talk about how to answer questions, and we’ll review portions of your file to prepare. While there are many rules, one stands out among all the others: Tell the truth.
The biggest favor you can do for the defense in your case is to lie at your deposition. When you show up in court, you can rest assured the jury will hear about it repeatedly. They will tell the jury some version of “how can you trust this person to tell the truth about his or her case when they lied about _______”. You can insert anything in that blank and take it to the bank – that is what will happen.
So Rule #1 in a deposition is honesty, and we’ll discuss this, along with your other file materials and how to answer some of the misleading or “gotcha” questions you might hear. You may be nervous about your deposition now, but by the time it rolls around, we will have you ready for it.