Ten Commandments For Preparing the Deposition Witness

Restrictions per the Rules of Civil Procedure, as well as court or individual judge rules, effectively make the deponent’s lawyer a “potted plant” during the deposition itself, writes John C. Maloney Jr., attorney with the Day Pitney law firm. That makes it all the more essential to prepare the deponent, he says, and he lays out ten rules that should be conveyed as part of the preparation, ranging from the general (“Tell the truth”) to the practical and specific: “Try to wait at least three seconds before responding to the question.”