First, a deposition is a question and answer session given under oath.
It takes place in our office.
In our conference room.
During your lawsuit, the attorney for the people you sued will be able to question you.
To ask you questions about what happened.
About what injuries you suffered.
About what you are no longer able to do or do with difficulty.
There is no judge in the room.
Nor is there a jury.
This is pretrial testimony.
Just you, your lawyer, the attorney who will be asking you questions and a court reporter to record all of the questions and answers.
The answers you give carry the same exact weight as if you're testifying at trial.
Let's get to the title of this article.
What are 2 things you should NEVER do during this pretrial question and answer session?
(1) NEVER, EVER LIE and
(2) NEVER GET INTO ARGUMENTS WITH THE ATTORNEY ASKING YOU QUESTIONS
Your goal is to tell the truth.
The whole truth and nothing but the truth!
If you tell a lie, it will come back to bite you in the butt.
It may seem like a little white lie, but I guarantee the defense lawyer will find out and then use it to destroy your credibility.
He'll ambush you at trial.
He'll lock you into your testimony.
He'll get you to admit what you said in court and then when you've locked yourself into your testimony, then he'll show the jury and the court how you lied and/or contradicted yourself. Once your credibility is gone, there's a good chance you'll lose your case. Your credibility is everything in your lawsuit.
Your goal is to always tell the truth when answering questions.
The second thing is not to get into arguments with the defense lawyer.
Don't argue about why the question is unfair.
Don't argue about why you shouldn't have to answer a question.
Don't argue saying that the lawyer already asked you questions about that topic.
Leave the arguing to your lawyer.
If your lawyer objects to a question, there's a reason for it.
If your lawyer doesn't objection, there's a reason for it as well.
It is your lawyer's job to do the legal arguing.
Your job is to answer factual questions.
To learn more, I invite you to watch the quick video below...
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