The Trial Practice Tips Weblog

15 Ways to Ruin a Deposition (Part 1 of 3)

In this series of posts, I'll dig into the archives of The Trial Practice Tips Weblog and highlight some of my prior posts about depositions. Although you can see all of these post in this weblog's deposition category, I thought I'd try to reorganize some of them in a new way.

I'll begin with the first five ways a lawyer can ruin a deposition. I've been guilty of all of them at one time or another--

1. Deposing someone who doesn't need to be deposed at all. Unnecessary depositions are a waste of time and money. See this post: "Not Every Witness Need to Be Deposed." 

2. Failing to investigate the witness online. Just a few minutes of Internet research can turn up lots of things about a witness you didn't know before.  Here's a post about that: "Deposition Tip: In Preparing for a Witness, Always Check the Web."

3. Trying to wing it. Maybe you're so good that your only preparation is getting to the deposition on time. Sound foolish? It is. See this post: "The Dangers of Winging It in Depositions."

4. Neglecting the preliminary questions. Those cookie-cutter questions lawyers ask at the beginning of a deposition have a purpose. Don't skip the "you know you're under oath"-type questions, but don't turn them into a speech either. Here are two posts that make these points: "Those Preliminary Deposition Questions: What's Their Purpose?" and "Those Preliminary Deposition Questions: Don't Make a Speech."

5. Assuming the witness is telling you the truth. As human beings, we're conditioned to believe what people say. I feel like I am, at least. That's why I'm constantly making this mistake, even though I wrote this post: "Practice Tip: "Assume Your Deposition Witness Is Lying."

Next up: Five more ways you can ruin a deposition. If you can't wait, see the hundreds of tips in my deposition book, Deposition Checklists and Strategies (3d Rev. 2008 James Publishing).

The Paperless Office Continues to Fascinate

Ernie the Attorney remains on the trail of the paperless office. For details, see his post, "Upcoming 'paperless lawyering' seminars," and sign up to receive notice of seminars that might be taking place near you.

Related Post: "The Paperless Office Wiki: Everything You Need to Know" (and other posts noted therein).

New Weblog with Practice Tips: the James Publishing Author's Blog

There's a new weblog by James Publishing, which publishes (often plaintiff-oriented) law-related works like my own Deposition Checklists and Strategies.

Called the James Publishing Author's Blog, the weblog will feature posts from James Publishing authors, who will highlight content from their books.

The weblog's first author is Dorothy Clay Sims, author of Exposing Deceptive Defense Doctors. So far, Sims has offered the following posts:

• Website for Basic Info on Doctors
• When Doctors Claim Malingering Based on a Test That Is Not a Malingering Test
• Junk Defense #2: “Something Is Wrong With Your Client, but It Was Not Caused by the Accident”
• Overcome Junk Defenses - #1: “There Is Nothing Psychiatrically Wrong With Your Client”

Plaintiff lawyers who like practical, hands-on tips should check in with this new weblog from time to time.

Conform Your Citations to the Bluebook, Automatically

Using CiteGenie, you can "automagically copy text with correct citations from Westlaw, Lexis, and other websites."

Here's how the author describes the free program, which plugs into your browser--

Cutting and pasting when doing legal research using your browser is simple. But having to construct the citation for what you pasted is not so simple. This is especially true with legal citations from sources like Westlaw. You have to stop and copy the case name separately, determine the pinpoint page numbers, and adjust the date and court name format.

So I decided to write a browser plugin that would automatically add a pinpoint citation to the text I copy and paste. Thus CiteGenie was born.

If something like this interests you, just surf to the website and try it for yourself.

Source: "Achieve total recall with online tools," by Catherine Sanders Reach, Trial Magazine, January 2009.

Trial Practice Tips from the Kentucky Law Review Weblog

You can find three-years of trial practice tips at Kentucky Law Review by Michael L. Stevens, including these--

• "Tip: Obtaining certified copies of past weather conditions from National Climatic Data Center (NCDC)"
• "Manual for Complex Litigation - FREE"
• "Use of Demonstrative and Technology in the Courtroom"
• "Closing Arguments"

The second two of the listed posts are notes that Stevens took at a CLE called "Kentucky Justice Association and Kentucky Defense Counsel on Trial Techniques & Strategies."

The notes are thorough, and there are other posts like this on the weblog. It's a good idea . . .

Epidemiology for Semi-Dummies

Products-liability lawyers who work on pharmaceutical cases, as I do from time to time, need to be have a working knowledge of the science of epidemiology.

A few years ago, I surveyed a variety of basic-to-intermediate epidemiology texts and selected Epidemiology in Medicine over a number of others.

Despite the title of the post, the book is no for-dummies tome. Written by Charles H. Hennekens and Julie E. Buring, Epidemiology in Medicine contains clear explanations of basic principles but becomes more and more advanced as the book progresses. Chapter titles include "Basic Concepts," "Types of Epidemiologic Studies," and "Analysis of Epidemiologic Studies," with emphases on "the role of chance," "the role of bias," and "the role of confounding."

For lawyers who need to understand epidemiological studies and depose experts about them, this book might be all they need. It's my solution, in any case. If you have another, please leave a comment.

Two Litigation-Related Weblogs for Your RSS Reader

Check out these two weblogs, if you haven't already--

• The Complex Litigator--"A California-centric collection of comments and resources concerning the practice and procedures that make complex litigation and class actions uniquely challenging"
• Litigation & Trial--"The tales and tribulations of a Philadelphia lawyer" who works as a civil litigation and trial attorney.

I've added both to my sidebar, which I'm in the process of cleaning up.

Tip for Direct Examination: Write Down the Answer, Not the Question

This direct-examination tip comes from "Persuasive Direct," by Jim McElhaney, in the January 2009 issue of the ABA Journal--

When you prepare for trial, don’t write out your questions. They’ll sound stiff and unnatural when you read them out loud. Instead, write down the answers you’re looking for on the right-hand side of your outline, leaving the left side of the page for occasional notes and reminders. That system forces you to ‘free-form’ your questions to get the information you need. It makes everything sound more natural, including the witness’s answers.

There's more in the full article, which encourages you to leave the legalese in your office when you head for courtroom.