Today’s topic is going to be deposition in a car accident case lawsuit. Depositions are part of the discovery phase in a lawsuit. The lawsuit is commenced once we file a petition and the second phase of the lawsuit is usually discovery. The first phase of in the discovery is written in derogatories and then usually the second phase is the depositions.
What is a deposition? #
A deposition is basically an opportunity for parties to sit down with people that have got the information that is pertinent to the case and ask them oral questions.
Who can be deposed? #
Usually, the car that was involved, if there are passengers if there are witnesses, the doctors that have been treating the people that were injured and in certain instances the investigating police officers.
Who will be present at those depositions? #
It’s the witness, the lawyers that will be asking questions, so if there is more than one party to the proceeding, there is going to be usually their lawyers are going to be present at those depositions and allowed to ask questions of the deponent.
The deposition testimony #
The deposition testimony is given under oath. So what you have to keep in mind that any of all answers that you swore to be the truth. And the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So if you are caught lying that’s not a good thing you can be subject to civil as well as criminal penalties. And the most important thing is to as truthful as you can. Piece of advice that I give my clients is that it’s okay not to know to answer an answer. It’s okay to ask for clarification if you don’t understand the question that’s been asked. And it’s okay to not guess to certain things. If you are asked to guess the distances, the speeds and so on. It’s okay to say I don’t know the answer to that question or I’m not 100% certain. So it’s perfectly fine.
What type of questions will be asked in the deposition #
Those questions are very similar to interrogatory questions, except that once you kinda open the door, once the question is answered in the certain way lawyers tend to pursue that pattern. It’s gonna be who you are, your name, address, date of the birth social security number the fact of the lost.
How are you related to the accident? #
If you are a plaintiff you are gonna be asked: What happened, date, time location? And if you are the plaintiff the third part is going to be injuries. Treating physicians your diagnosis, your prognoses and so on, medical bills related to the accident. Those are the typical questions that you are gonna see in a depositional in a car accident case.
Hope this helps. If you have any other questions about a deposition in a car accident case give me a call 314-352-6800.
