Deposition Procedures and Strategies

• Author: T. Evan Schaeffer
• Pages: 386-414

Deposition Checklists

and Strategies

T. Evan Schaeffer

DISCOVERY COLLECTION

James’ Best Materials

1-1

Chapter 1

Deposition Procedures and Strategies

I. HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

A. Chapter Organization

§1:01 Overview of Substantive Law

§1:02 Sample Deposition Outlines

§1:03 A Note on Scope

B. Bonus Information

§1:10 Practice Tips and Forms

§1:11 Specialized Deposition Outlines

§1:12 Practice Tips Relating to Trial

II. PURPOSES AND USES OF DEPOSITIONS

A. Depositions as a Discovery Tool

§1:20 The Scope of Depositions

§1:21 Purposes of Depositions

§1:22 When You Shouldn’t Take a Deposition

B. Depositions as a Settlement Tool

§1:30 Using Depositions to Encourage Settlement

§1:31 Practice Tip: Stay on the Offensive

C. Depositions as a Trial Tool

§1:40 The Use of Depositions at Trial

III. PREPARING FOR DEPOSITIONS

A. Depositions as Part of an Overall Discovery Plan

§1:50 Reviewing the Case

§1:51 Establishing Goals

§1:52 Preparing an Outline

§1:52.1 Practice Tip: When Making a Deposition Outline, Should You Write Out Every Question?

§1:53 Practice Tip: Ten Things to Cover in Every Deposition

B. Preparing the Documents

§1:60 Choosing the Documents to Use

§1:61 Preparing the Documents

C. Other Pre-Deposition Tasks

§1:70 Where to Conduct the Deposition

§1:71 The Deposition Notice

§1:72 The Court Reporter

D. Some Special Situations

§1:80 Telephone Depositions

§1:81 Video Depositions

§1:82 Second-Chairing Depositions

§1:83 Practice Tip: Controlling Abusive Counsel With Video Depositions

§1:84 Practice Tip: Use Exhibits Regularly During Video Depositions