Can your Plymouth boat accident lawyer help you with your deposition? The short answer is yes. There are subtle ways that your lawyer can give you obvious hints as to how you should answer your questions during your deposition. They use subtle ways is because they cannot directly tell you what to say.
We don’t condone this behavior especially if your lawyer has properly prepped you for your deposition. With that said, here are some popular ways that lawyers help their clients during depositions:
Speaking Objection
An objection is a formal protest raised during a deposition to disallow evidence or a witness’s testimony, which would be in violation of procedural law. A speaking objection, on the other hand, is when your lawyer includes commentary beyond the specific legal grounds on which the objection is based. A proper objection would be, “Objection, witness badgering”. A speaking objection would be “Objection, witness badgering. The witness couldn’t have possibly known the owner of the other boat was under the influence”. After hearing a speaking objection, your answer is more likely to be exactly what your lawyer said.
If your case goes to trial, your lawyer won’t make speaking objections simply because there will be a judge. However, they will make them during your deposition. The defense attorney might seek sanctions from the judge if your lawyer uses speaking objections continuously.
Therefore, if your lawyer objects using more than four words, he might be trying to “coach” you.
Speaking Objections are Improper
Most of the time objections are not necessary during depositions. The only objections your Plymouth boat accident lawyer will make will be based on attorney client privilege and to the form of the question.
Your lawyer will object to the form of the question when the defense lawyer asks a confusing or compound question. A compound question is a question that tries to ask several questions at once. Your lawyer does not need to make any other objections during deposition because there’s not a judge present to rule on them. Besides, you will have to answer the questions anyway.
If you, unfortunately, hire an unprofessional boat accident lawyer, they might make unnecessary objections just to annoy the defense lawyer. This is their way of disrupting the flow of questioning. If the defense lawyer isn’t smart enough, he might find himself engaging in a heated argument with your lawyer. As a result, they might forget to ask you any follow up questions
Clarifying Questions
Your lawyer might try to coach you by clarifying the defense attorney’s questions. For instance, if the defense attorney asks “on a scale of 1-10, what is your pain level for your injury?” Your Lawyer might jump in and ask “Do you mean his pain level with or without medication?”
Your lawyer will try to clarify confusing or misleading questions but in the process, they will also send a message to you. For instance, don’t forget to say you feel worse without medication.
The point here is that if your lawyer tries to clarify a question, you should make the clarification part of your answer regardless of whether the defense lawyer agrees to clarify his question or not.
The “Answer if You Can” Prompt
If your Plymouth boa accident lawyer tells you to answer the question if you can, it means he doesn’t like where that line of questioning is leading and is hoping you can request the defense lawyer to re-phrase the question. This will make the defense attorney to re-phrase his question.
The “Asked and Answered” Prompt
If your lawyer jumps in and says that a question was asked and answered, that’s your cue to stick to your original answer. If you can’t remember the answer you gave, you should ask the defense lawyer to re-phrase their question. This way, you will reduce your chances of contradicting your previous answer.
During Deposition Breaks
Your deposition will probably last several hours so you will have bathroom breaks in-between. You can ask your lawyer about any answers that you gave and if you need to clarify anything. It’s better to clarify everything during deposition than to try and fix things after.
There are several ways that your lawyer can help you during deposition but we make it our full responsibility to always prep our clients for a deposition. If you have been involved in a boat accident in Plymouth, you can contact one of our Kevin P Landry law Offices boat accident lawyers or visit our Plymouth offices for a free initial consultation.
