Deposition Dos and Donts

Veteran attorneys, Wade Coye and Dan Smith from the Coye Law Firm, discuss depositions and the kinds of personalities in clients that make for great testimonies.

Visit us at www.coyelaw.com or call 866-WADE-COYE.

Transcript:

Wade:
"Dan, let's talk a little bit about some of the basic things that go on with our clients. One of the things that happens in our office, and any lawyer's office, is when your client is coming in, and we're always sort of assessing what type of witness this person is going to make. Let's talk a little bit about some of the basics that clients need to know. Because I'm sure folks are nervous when they have their deposition taken and so on. Let's talk about some of the real basics of things that we notice that we observe right away with people come in."

Dan:
"I kind of have an office saying around here and one of them is that the person I probably like the most and would like to go out and have a beer with or dinner is usually the client I least want to see their deposition taken. That kind of sets people off a little bit but usually that's because people that are kind of pretty chatty and friendly, those are the people we have to train the most to do a good job at their deposition and part of that's just the nature of what a deposition really is for and what's it's not for. And on the other hand, people that are kind of the toughest to kind of pry stuff out of, sometimes they take the best depositions. Both of them can be great clients. It's just a discussion about who you like socially, you know. It's tough to have a conversation with someone who's tough to pry stuff out of, but that's kind of who you want at your deposition is someone who's kind of tough to pry information out of."