Legal Deposition
In the legal process of a lawsuit, it is the work of the parties involved to undertake formal investigation also called deposition, or discovery. The purpose of depositions is to find out more facts regarding the case. Depositions can be conducted in a variety of ways such as, interrogatories using written questions, requesting for documents, etc.
What is a legal statement? It can be said to be the taking of an oral statement by a witness under oath before trial. The legal statement serves two purposes of finding out what the witness knows and also to preserve the testimony given by the witness for future use. With legal deposition, the parties in the case always get to know all the facts before the trial, and it reduces the chances of producing a surprise witness in the last minutes of the case. The parties should be allowed to know all the witnesses in the case and what they’ll say as their testimonies.
With the legal deposition, it’s not only about getting a favorable testimony but you can also get a witness’ testimony that might damage your case. You hence can be prepared on how to respond to such evidence.
You always take the deposition at an attorney’s office where the lawyer asks the witness some questions related to the lawsuit, and not in a court. You get to answer all the questions but as a deponent, you don’t ask any questions. However, a court reporter is present who does the work of preserving the entire deposition. In special cases, a judge might be present. As a deponent, you can choose whether to have your attorney or not when legal deposition is taking place.
We can have a deposition that gets videotaped where the deponent is ill and might not be feeling well for the trial. Other instances for a videotaped is when the deponent is sure will be unavailable or out-of-town during the trial period.
The length of a legal deposition varies from fifteen minutes to a week or more in a heavily involved witness. All that is said by the deponent is far-reaching, and since he or she is under an oath, there are some consequences for lying under an oath in the event he or she tells false information.
Here at United Employees Law Group always help our clients in understanding what legal deposition is all about and what it involves. We always ensure that our employees know what gets expected of them and which cases they can take a statement. We help our employees get the access to the best attorney in the area they are operating from to help them in the legal deposition process.
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