Scheduling Your 1st Deposition

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LNCtips.com: Scheduling Your 1st Deposition


You're an expert and you're scheduling your first deposition. This is an easy task, right? You might be surprised at what it takes to schedule a deposition, the amount of paperwork you'll need to assemble, and the events that occur prior to your deposition.

The opposing attorney's office will initiate scheduling your deposition. Usually the opposing attorney will ask your attorney for two or three potential deposition dates. Your attorney will then contact you for future dates. After some juggling by the legal assistants of plaintiff and defense attorneys, the deposition day is narrowed down to a specific date and time. If there is just one defendant in the case, this is a relatively straightforward process. If there are several defendants, the schedule needs to be coordinated with all of their attorneys. For this reason, you may be asked to free up potential deposition dates that are months away in the future.

The place where the deposition will occur has to accommodate you, your attorney, all other attorneys in the case (if there are multiple defendants), a court reporter and a videographer if your deposition will be videotaped. If you live or work in the same geographic location as your attorney, the deposition will often occur in your attorney's office. If you're in a different city or state than your attorney, the deposition may be scheduled in a court reporter's office. Physicians and other experts who can accommodate the participants sometimes prefer to hold their depositions in their own offices.

Some of the documents that you will need to bring to your deposition are:

* Your entire file relating to the case.

* All email, fax, memos, and other correspondence relating to the case.

* Your CV.

* A copy of your retainer agreement.

* All invoices and time records kept for the case.

* A list of all medical records sent to you by your attorney. Your attorney may also ask you to bring hard copies of certain medical records.

* A list of all depositions sent to you by your attorney. Again, your attorney may ask you to bring certain depositions.

* Any written reports that you have produced to your attorney.

* If you are an author, a copy of all articles published in professional literature for the last several years, if they have bearing on the case. If you have written a large number of professional articles, it's not unreasonable to supply a list of articles instead of hard copies of all of them.

* If you are an educator, a copy of all syllabi you have taught from in the last several years.

* A list or copy of the cover of any professional periodicals which you regularly receive.

* Copies of any publications you believe are authoritative.

Gather the above information, but don't give it to the other side until after it has been reviewed with and cleared by your attorney.  If your attorney doesn't initiate a pre-depo conference, you need to do so. To prepare for the conference, re-review all pertinent medical records, depositions, and other materials. Your pre-depo discussion(s) can be a phone conference, an in-person meeting, or both.  You should also ask your attorney if any of the issues in the case have changed and what hypothetical questions to expect.

You're now all set to be deposed. Remember that in many states, the plaintiff pays for your time for the actual deposition. Your attorney pays for preparation time to review pertinent medical records and depositions as well as pre-deposition conferences

...Katy Jones