Do I Need to Get a Deposition to Help My Case?

A deposition is a type of legal process that involves a person giving sworn testimony without having to go in front of a judge in a courtroom to do so. Instead, the person being deposed goes to the office of the attorney taking the deposition or to any other mutually agreeable location. The person being deposed could either be a party in a lawsuit or a possible witness with evidence for the case.

Either party in a lawsuit could be required by the court to testify at a deposition, and anyone not a party to the case could be required to testify through this method as well. This could include family members, friends, expert witnesses with unique insight to a specific topic associated with the case, or anyone else who may have relevant information or knowledge to contribute to the case.

Here’s a bit more information about what you can expect out of legal depositions in Phoenix, AZ.

The deposition process

When you arrive at your deposition, you can expect a court reporter to be present to administer an oath (swearing you in and making your deposition “official”) and to develop a thorough written transcript of everything said at the deposition. The other people at the deposition will vary depending on the type of case and the specific issues at play. Beyond the parties and their attorneys, there may be other deponents who are not party to the lawsuit, as well as their own attorneys.

The deposition will begin with the attorney who initiated the deposition asking the deponent questions. The deponent’s attorney has the opportunity to object to questions, but these opportunities are limited—this is what makes depositions such powerful tools in any type of litigation.

These questions can cover a wide range of issues—some of the questions may not even seem immediately or directly relevant to the matter at hand, but may help supply important background information to contextualize other evidence or answers.

Depositions provide the deposing attorney with an opportunity to learn much more about the scope of knowledge a witness or party has, or to give them an idea of the kind of testimony they might provide in a trial. This can reduce the amount of time spent in a courtroom and make the process of examining witnesses go much more efficiently and smoothly. The deposition also gives the attorney an opportunity to get a sense of how a witness will behave or react when placed under the microscope in a trial setting.

While depositions can add a bit of expense to your litigation process, they do provide some highly valuable information that can ultimately help your case wrap up more quickly. To learn more about the deposition process and what you can expect out of a deposition for your specific case, we encourage you to contact Bartelt | Nix Reporting, LLC today and we will be happy to teach you more about legal depositions in Phoenix, AZ and their potential benefits and drawbacks.

Categorised in: Legal Depositions, Video Deposition

This post was written by Writer