Ask an Attorney - What Can I Expect in a Deposition
I'm Griff Tonkin and I'm a partner here at the Arthofer and Tonkin Law Offices. This video is part of our series, Ask a Personal Injury Attorney. Our clients ask us a lot of really good questions.
One of the questions that gets asked of us is what to expect in a deposition. A deposition is a formal process in litigation where the attorney who's been hired by the insurance company or the defendant in your personal injury case gets to ask you questions. Those questions are asked under oath.
That means under penalty of perjury, just like the oath that you would take in front of a judge or a jury in a courtroom. Now a deposition doesn't happen in a courtroom. It usually happens informally in a conference room or even over at the computer on Zoom or other video-sharing platforms.
But what you should expect in a deposition is the defense attorney to be well prepared to ask you questions about your injuries, about how it happened, about how your have affected your life, and about your damages from those injuries. Your damages, both things that you can produce a receipt for, like medical bills or wage loss, and things that you can't necessarily produce proof of on paper, like the impact it's had on your life. Those are called your general damages or sometimes referred to as your pain and suffering.
You're going to get asked a myriad of questions on these topics during the deposition. Depositions in simple cases can be short if the defense attorney is efficient and your case is not overly complicated. A deposition can be an hour or two.
In difficult cases with severe injuries or complex disputes about liability or causation, your deposition can last seven hours. That's just the deposition time. It doesn't include times with breaks or lunch breaks or any other type of break where you go off the record.
That's seven hours of testimony. These can be long and arduous processes. They're always nerve-wracking.
What you need in order to get through your deposition successfully is a lawyer who's taken or defended thousands of depositions. That's who we are here at the Arthofer and Tonkin law offices. My business partner Ken Arthofer and I have done nothing but litigation for over 50 years combined.
We've taken more depositions, defended more depositions than we can count. If you're involved in personal litigation, you need an experienced litigator like us who will prepare you well for your deposition, who will help you set your mind at ease, and who will make sure that when a deposition occurs, you're not surprised because you're prepared. We'll get you through your deposition.
It won't be nearly as bad as you think it will be on the night before when you're worrying about it. We'll walk with you side by side and make sure that nothing inappropriate is asked of you in a deposition. If necessary, we will go to court to protect you.
We're the Arthofer and Tonkin Law Offices. It's our pleasure to serve those who've been injured through the fault of someone else. Call us today for a free consultation on your personal injury matter.
