Depositions are a common part of personal injury claims in Nevada. A deposition is a spoken interview where a witness is asked questions by the deposing attorney. Having a personal injury lawyer representing you during a deposition can protect your rights. A lawyer will be able to object to questions on your behalf to protect you from unfair questions.
What to Know About Depositions
During a deposition, the witness being interviewed must swear an oath to tell the truth. The witness is then interviewed by the lawyer working for the deposing side, often in front of a court reporter. The witness has the right to hire an attorney to be present during the deposition, as well.
The lawyer will ask the witness a series of questions regarding the case. The witness is required to give truthful and accurate testimony. However, the witness can present an acceptable deposition objection for the record, which is typically raised by the defending attorney.
Form
The first type of deposition objection is a form objection. This is the most often used type. It argues that the form of the question is inherently unfair, confusing or misleading.
Specific objections used under the form category include:
- Leading question
- Compound question
- Calls for speculation
- Vague or ambiguous wording
- Unintelligible question
- Confusing question
- Argumentative
- Asked and answered
- Misstatement of prior testimony
- Assumes facts that aren’t established in evidence
- Lack of foundation
- Calls for legal conclusion
- Harassing or badgering
Despite a form objection, the witness typically must give an answer. This is because a deposition is not a trial. It is a fact-gathering mission that is used mainly to preserve specific issues for trial. The objection will be noted for the record, and the deposing attorney may or may not rephrase the question, but it must be answered anyway.
Relevancy
The second key type of objection is relevancy. The defending attorney may object on the basis of relevancy if a question has no bearing on the claim and is not likely to result in relevant evidence. Again, usually the witness will still provide an answer after a relevancy objection, even if it will not lead to usable evidence. The scope of a deposition can be broad.
Privilege
The third type of objection is privilege. It is the most serious, and one of the only situations where a witness can be instructed not to answer. A privilege-based objection means that a question is requesting privileged information, or facts that are protected by a legal privilege, such as the attorney-client privilege or the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.
In addition to privilege, a witness could be instructed not to answer abusive or bad-faith questioning or to enforce a court order. These are the only scenarios where a witness can be instructed by an attorney not to answer during a deposition.
Get Deposition Assistance From an Attorney
If you are scheduled for a deposition as part of a personal injury case in Nevada, it is recommended that you hire an attorney to provide guidance, advice and representation during the deposition process. Your lawyer will know the full list of objections and exactly when to use each for the greatest protection. Contact an attorney in Las Vegas today to learn more about the deposition process.