Every lawsuit is based on the evidence presented in it. That is a rather obvious statement. The procedure for these lawsuits calls for a period of discovery. As the name suggests, this is the time when the parties find out what each other have in regards to evidence and generate testimony from the parties and witnesses regarding the events of the dispute. This testimony is gained through the deposition process.

A deposition is a question and answer session. The lawyers ask the questions and the witness answers them. This is effectively the same thing as you see in movies and television when someone is on the stand. Depositions usually take place in an office, not court. That being said, they are still taken under oath and are formal events.

The first thing to understand about depositions is they are a one way affair for parties in the lawsuit. Let’s say you sue a doctor for the wrongful death of your spouse. The lawyer for the doctor is going to depose you. The deposition will take place in the office of your lawyer. During this period, the lawyer for the doctor will ask you a host of questions. Unlike court, your lawyer will not follow up those questions by asking you anything. Why? There is little reason to do so before court because it would simply give the other side a preview of what you are going to say.

The second “oddity” about depositions has to do with objections. On television, dramatic moments are played out where the questioning attorney asks some brutal question, opposing counsel objects and the judge rules. This does not happen in depositions. Instead, the attorney will ask a question and opposing counsel will object for the record being taken down by the court reporter. There is no ruling on that objection and you must answer the question unless expressly told by your attorney not to.

Finally, one of the biggest complaints about depositions is how long they are. Remember, a deposition is part of the discovery process. As a result, the attorneys are going to ask a ton of questions about a wide host of subjects because, frankly, they know nothing about you or your view of things. This is there one chance to find out something, so they are going to cast their net far and wide to do so.

Depositions are critical to the outcome of most cases. While similar to what you see in a court dramatization, they are not exactly the same thing.