Quote:
Originally Posted by McLovin
The key thing to remember is that for you, the deposition is purely DEFENSIVE.
You can't say anything in the deposition that will help your case. You can only say things that can hurt your case.
That's because you can't use your deposition transcript to help you. Any of your testimonial evidence that will be submitted to the court will be either by your written declaration, or by your live testimony. Your deposition transcript, if you were to attempt to use it, would be inadmissible hearsay.
Only the other side will use the deposition transcript.
But, your atty will prep you. Just be sure to take his lead and do what he says. Attys aren't supposed to coach witnesses, but there are ways for an atty to coach during a depo, and if he's any good he will do so. For example, if he objects to a question as being "vague and ambiguous," that's your cue to say "I don't understand the question."
Hopefully your atty is decent and is active in defending you at the depo. Defending at a depo is actually more work than taking one, if you are doing a good job of defending. An aggressive defender can actually take over a lot of control of a depo and make life miserable for the atty taking the depo. But, a lot of time bad lawyers really fail their clients in defending them, by basically just sitting there and doing nothing.
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um i hope your not a lawyer..hearsay is generally speaking, a statement made by an out of court declarant used to prove the truth of the matter asserted...if he made the statement, then its not hearsay at all
and what you say at a depo can absolutely help you. if you describe your pain and suffering in detail and honestly, that helps paint the picture for the insurance company and what a jury may potentially hear at a trial.
i have used my plaintiff/clients transcripts to support motions for summary judgments countless times
a defendant's depo is rarely helpful to their case but a plaintiff's absolutely is
the WORST sort of plaintiff witness/client, is the type that says nothing. nothing pisses me off more than having my plaintiff client say nothing when there is much that needs to be said about how the defendant ruined his life. if the plaintiff says that he cant recall how the accident happened because he had a lot on his mind that day, then yea, thats bad...dont offer that sort of information