Experts Will Tell You a Lot in Depositions if You Ask the Right Questions
Illustration by John Schmelzer
Mike Pirelli spotted Angus going into the First Federal Soup and Sandwich Shop and followed him in. “Angus,” he said, pulling a chair up to the table, “did you get a chance to read my deposition?”
“Yes,” said Angus. “I did.”
“That’s great!” said Mike. “I really appreciate it. That’s my first expert deposition. How’d I do?”
Angus paused for a moment. Then he said, “The answer to that depends on what you were trying to accomplish. What were your goals in taking this deposition?”
Mike looked puzzled. “What do you mean, ‘goals’?”
“Well, this was the deposition of the defendant’s chief expert witness, Dr. Adleman,” Angus said. “Isn’t he saying that your plaintiff’s back condition didn’t come from the crash but rather from a slow degeneration of his spine?”
“Yes,” said Mike.
“So, under those circumstances, what were you trying to do in your deposition?” said Angus.
“Well, mainly I was trying to win,” said Mike.
“But my problem is,” said Angus, “I don’t know how you ‘win’ a deposition. Look at it this way: What you do with Dr. Adleman in trial is going to be at least partly based on what’s in his deposition, right?”
“Of course,” said Mike.
“And what’s in Dr. Adleman’s deposition is at least partly based on what you were trying to do.”
“I guess so,” said Mike.
“Not that you’ll accomplish all your goals—nobody does,” said Angus. “But to reach any of them, you’ve got to have a plan. Like Yogi Berra said, ‘If you don’t know where you’re going, you might wind up someplace else.’ ”
Mike turned to me. “Jimmy,” he said, “did Yogi Berra really say that?”
I smiled. Angus was at it again. I pulled out my legal pad to take notes.
Click here to read the rest of “Know What You’re After” from the July issue of the ABA Journal.
