Tricks Lawyers Use In Depositions: Depositions are an essential part of court proceedings, and many opposing lawyers are quite masterful in the art of having unsuspecting witnesses just right where they want them. If you intend to take a deposition head-on like a champ, this post is for you.
Being in a witness box and having nefarious questions thrown at you non-stop by a lawyer determined to prove to the world that you are a liar or do not know what you are saying could be both a terrifying and humbling experience. It is sometimes so tense that even experts break down when being questioned on their depositions. To ameliorate your courtroom anxiety, this post will show you some common tricks lawyers use in depositions.
What are Depositions?
Depositions are formal statements given under oath and intended to be used as evidence during trial. Depositions are usually made by litigants, expert witnesses, and other witnesses concerning facts relevant to the current case.
Typically, depositions are often written in a lawyer’s office with a court reporter also being present. During a deposition, the witness, gives an oral testimony and it is put into writing by the court reporter. This testimony would often be relied upon during the trial. Also, due to a law practice called ‘frontloading’, the adverse party and his lawyer will be notified of the deposition and given copies of it before trial to prepare themselves.
Depositions are usually used by parties to either build their case or to build their defense. Anyone who knows any detail that may be helpful during the trial of the case may make a deposition. For instance, the cop who pulls you over during a DUI incident will make a deposition about the facts that happened on the day you were apprehended, and he will testify during the trial in line with that deposition.
The goal of the deposition is to make sure that no party is caught off guard and that both parties are given equal opportunity to prepare their case before the Jury.
How do Depositions affect Trials?
Depositions are very important tools in the trial of any case. Knowing this, lawyers are very crafty in using depositions to bait and trap witnesses to discredit them before the Jury. A good example of this is for the lawyer to ask seemingly out-of-context questions to impugn the narration of events as contained in the deposition of the witness.
Some lawyers go as far as asking questions to cast doubt as to your perception of the event in question and make you seem crazy! They could bring up your health condition or suggest that you have something to gain by giving evidence in the trial. A small mistake of fact in your deposition could be used to discredit your entire testimony at trial. This is why you must be prepared and adept with the tricks lawyers use in depositions.
The Tricks Lawyers use in depositions
The following are some tricks lawyers use in depositions. Remember, these tricks could be used by defense attorneys and plaintiff attorneys depending on who is calling the witness and who will be cross-examining the witness.
1. Intimidation
Intimidation happens when the lawyer directly or indirectly through his words and demeanor tactically unnerves a witness in a bid to discredit their testimony before the Jury during a trial. it is one of the commonest tricks lawyers use in depositions.
In most cases, witnesses have no prior knowledge or experience in making a deposition or responding to questions during cross-examination. Because of this, lawyers sometimes deploy the age-long weapon, of psychological warfare. When a lawyer has had time to study your deposition, he prepares himself by exploring all the lapses in your statement and background. Lawyers often intimidate witnesses by reminding them that they are under oath and that lying under oath makes them guilty of Perjury.
Experienced lawyers use this information during trial to make the witness nervous and emotional. Their goal is to make you have a mental breakdown such that you will either contradict your previous written deposition or altogether seem to be untrustworthy.
To avoid being intimidated by lawyers during trial, you must make sure that you carefully read and internalize each and every statement of fact you mentioned in your deposition. Better still, you could get a copy of your deposition from your lawyer some weeks before the trial and prepare yourself. Your aim should be to ensure consistency in your testimony. Pay attention to details like dates, times, color of clothes, place, the identity of persons, and other important details in your deposition.
Also, you must make sure that you are assertive in your response to questions, in circumstances where you are not sure, just say so. Also, when reference is made to any document by the lawyer, always ask to see the document first before you respond.
2. Request for Adjournment/Continuance
Lawyers are sometimes very clever foxes when it comes to litigation tactics. If a witness is doing quite well during the cross-examination process and is well in tune with their deposition some lawyers may request for an adjournment or the continuance of the trial at a further date. Usually, courts do not grant a continuance except for important reasons. Lawyers are masters at cooking up excuses to get an adjournment.
This tactic is quite dangerous because the lawyer already has the privilege of reading the witness and will be better prepared at the next hearing to make sure to try to obliterate the witness. When this trick is used by lawyers, there is not much you can do. Just make sure to be mentally prepared for a grueling cross-examination session at the next date of trial.
3. Interruptive Objections During Witness Testimony
Objections are a formal notification of protest that lawyers are allowed to make during a trial. For instance, if in your testimony you make mention of facts that are not within your knowledge but were told to you by another person who is not a witness, the opposing lawyer may successfully raise an objection on the grounds of hearsay evidence which is inadmissible.
When an objection is raised, you may be forced to reconstruct your words or risk having the testimony made unreliable. Also, an objection is made if the lawyer thinks that some parts of your testimony are immaterial to the case.
Objections usually have an interruptive effect during a testimony which may unnerve you. Objections are used by lawyers as a tool to change tide of the testimony. To prevent errors, you must ensure that you have a pretrial preparation with your lawyers before you take the stand.
4. Misinterpreting your Depositions
This situation happens when an opposing lawyer directly misinterprets a witness’ deposition, or a document made by them with the aim of tricking witnesses into making statements adverse to their testimony.
Usually, when you are being cross-examined during trial, your deposition will generally not be in your hands in most cases. So, you’d naturally be expected to recall the facts written in your deposition from memory in response to the questions being asked of you. This is sometimes difficult because lawyers are sometimes incredible at the art of expertly twisting your words out of context. For instance, in your eyewitness deposition in a DUI case, you may have said in your deposition that there were two people in the car on the night of the incident.
A crafty lawyer can frame his question like this, ‘in your deposition before the court, you stated that there were three people in the car on the night of the incident, right?’ This seemingly harmless question can cast doubt on your testimony if you answer, ‘yes’. Lawyers won’t stop here, every statement of fact in your deposition can and may be misinterpreted to you during trial as a trap. Be careful, know your facts!
5. Finding the Lie
This strategy is used by lawyers when they scrutinize your entire deposition looking for discrepancies. If any contradictory statement is found, they use the statement to discredit your testimony without giving you an opportunity to explain further or to clarify the statement. Usually, when you are caught in this trick, the question the lawyer will ask will be close ended. Close-ended questions are a type of question that requires the respondent to select from a specific collection of pre-established answers i.e. Yes/No. To clever way to avoid this is to respond with an elaborate explanation rather than a short response.
Conclusion
The best way to handle that deposition like a champ is to be truthful at all times. You must make sure that you are very familiar with every statement of fact we accounted for in your deposition. Also, if you are making a deposition as an expert, you must ensure that your qualifications and expertise are genuine. Depositions are not that hard; they take a lot of effort though.
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