Deposition Prep - Lawyer Secrets to Winning Your Case

Winning your Court Case is always the goal, but what do you do to win your Deposition? How should you dress for it, what do you say correctly, what even is a Deposition? Let me tell you all about as winning your deposition is the secret key to winning your Court Case. Chapters: 00:00 – Deposition Prep 00:21 – What is a Deposition? 00:53 – How to Answer Questions in a Deposition 02:03 – What if you don’t know the answer? 02:41 – Deposition objections to anticipate 03:43 – Instructions not to answer 04:19 – Can you ask your attorney for help? 04:45 – Beware of this trick question 05:21 – Using Depositions in Court Also find our content on: Facebook.com/MatthewHarrisLaw Instagram - @Matthew_Harris_Law Google Maps – https://g.page/MatthewHarrisLaw Website - https://matthewharrislaw.com/ Depositions - if you’ve got a lawsuit, chances are you’ll have to sit for one. Not to add to your stress, but your Deposition can make or break your case. Don’t worry. Today I’m going to share the secrets that you can use to WIN your deposition. I’m also going to break down the one type of trick question that some lawyers use to trap you so you don’t get it wrong. A deposition is a formal question-and-answer session where lawyers from both sides ask you about your case—under oath. Think of it like a practice run for trial, but everything you say is on the record. Depositions are used to gather evidence, test witness credibility, and even push for a settlement before trial. The key players? You, your attorney, the opposing attorney, and a court reporter recording every word. In recent years, you’re also likely to find a video camera in your face recording every twitch and every bead of sweat. Unlike in trial, where questions are asked in a specific order to tell the story to the Judge or Jury, your Deposition Questions might jump around, forwards and backwards in time, to keep you from anticipating what set of questions might be coming next. If you’ll recall from our video on How to Testify in Court, you need to follow the same 3-step formula. Listen to the Question – Let them finish the entire question and make sure that you’ve heard every word of the question. Understand the Question – After they have finished the question, run it again in your head to make sure you are clear on what exactly is being asked of you. Don’t guess what they mean! Answer the Question – Don’t volunteer more information than the question asks; answer JUST the question being asked. Make sure that you actually answer the question being asked and don’t try to dance around it. Don’t waste your brainpower trying to find a way to outsmart the attorney or try to get cute. It doesn’t look good in Court and just drags the process out. If the answer is YES, then say YES. If the answer is NO, then say NO. If it is not exactly YES or NO, then don’t admit or deny something that isn’t exactly true. I guarantee that you’re going to be asked a question that you do not know the answer to. It might be something that you never knew, or it might be something that you just can’t remember. There is a difference between not knowing something that you never knew, and not being able to recall something that you once knew. If you can’t recall something that you once knew, then don’t say “I don’t know.” Instead, say, “I can’t seem to recall right now.” This leaves open the possibility that you might be able to recall it in the future. Once you recall the answer to a question though, you need to make sure that you inform the other side and don’t just hold it until trial. That’s a fast way to get your evidence excluded. In Depositions, specifically here in Texas, there are VERY limited objections available to the attorneys. There are just two that you need to be aware of: Objection Nonresponsive Objection Form Objection Nonresponsive is what you should expect to hear from the attorney asking you questions if you start volunteering extraneous information or if you don’t actually answer the question being asked. If you hear that objection, then you should expect that they will then ask you the same question again, so pay a little closer attention and remember Step 3 to testifying. Objection Form is what you will likely hear from your own attorney who believes that the “form” of the question being asked is not permissible. The question might ask you to speculate, be a vague question, or it might be a compound question. Meaning there’s more than one question in that one question. If you hear your attorney assert Objection Form, just know that it is like a bookmark for all of the possible objections that the Judge will rule on later. You’ll still answer the question to the best of your ability and to the best of your ability to understand what’s being asked. In rare, very limited circumstances, your attorney may instruct you NOT to answer a question. This is where Step 2... Music: Yung Logos – El Secreto Music provided via YouTube Studio Audio Library