That New School Year Feeling: How a Deposition Can Feel Like Going Back to School for the Attorney and the Witness
As summer is winding down, and the nostalgia of autumn is beginning to drift in, memories of going back to school are forefront in the heads of many adults. Whether it was Friday night football games, the squeaks of new shoes against the freshly waxed floor tiles, the scent of freshly cut pencil shavings, running miles around the hot track, or eating lunch with your closest hundred friends, there are many good memories of school.
There are also many not so good memories! The first day of each year was full of feelings of being unsure of ourselves as we attempted to acclimate to the new schedule, the new classroom, the new teacher, and the other students. Walking into the first day of kindergarten holding hands with your mom, or stepping onto a university campus your freshmen year miles away from home, instilled anxiety before those big moments. It is with these memories of the first day of school that make me think how it feels for attorneys and witnesses when entering a deposition.
Attorneys may depose their first or hundredth witness and still have the sense of the unknown walking into the deposition. For a witness it may be there first and only time ever being at a deposition and they feel like they are on stage. The witness may know their own attorney, but they usually don’t know anybody else in the room. The room, maybe even the building itself, is likely not a place they’ve ever been to, and unlike in school, most of the people in the room are at best indifferent at becoming friends with you, or at worst, are against you.
So what can be done to prepare for a deposition? Here are some suggestions to making it a more comfortable experience:
- Treat the Deposition Like the First Day of School –
When you walked in your first day of school, you felt the anxiety of not knowing what to expect. You may have even heard rumors about the school or classes from friends or family that put you on edge.
Depositions can also cause just as much anxiety. The new atmosphere, experience, and people may cause the questioning attorney and the witness dread. Courtroom dramas and sensationalized anecdotes only serve to intensify those feelings. Be prepared with what questions you need answered. Be mindful of your flow and if it is your client or witness being deposed, be mindful of your their concerns. Run through your questions and expected questions from the other attorney, and help assure the witness that it’s natural to feel anxious.
- Be patient –
In elementary school it would be 11:00 am, and the lunch/recess hour was still an hour away. Your stomach would begin to twist in pain and the teacher would suddenly start sounding like the adults from Snoopy cartoons as if time had slowed down. You would get more and more fidgety and stare at the clock until the bell rang. After lunch you looked at your desk and realized that in the hour before lunch, you accomplished nothing.
It is important to remember in a deposition you are not always in charge of the schedule of the day, and sometimes you deal with attorneys who take late lunches or maybe even no lunch at all. Don’t let impatience for a break or for the end of the day cause you to gloss over what you’re there to accomplish.
- Use listening ears –
Paying attention in class was likely a chore at certain times. The subjects may be uninteresting or the information may be redundant from a previous class. But if you zoned out too long, you may miss the golden nugget of information that you needed for your test.
The same can be applied to depositions. You should be listening to opposing council question the witness so that you can object to questions and preserve the testimony.
- Make Sure Your Witness Can Plan Around the Deposition –
In college and high school, you likely received a schedule before you arrived in class, and possibly even a map of the building with the rooms you were looking for. The benefit was that you could coordinate your plans before, during, and after school to ensure your time was most effectively utilized.
If the witness knows when the deposition is supposed to start, where it will be, the best place to park, and how long the deposition will likely last, they can find some comfort in being able to plan. A little planning can create a lot less stress for the witness, who like a student in a new school is going to be out of their element.
- Walk Through the Deposition Process with Your Witness –
Often times before school even started you were often given a syllabus for each class. When you walked into school, you knew where you were supposed to go and what to expect in each classroom.
Likewise, it is beneficial if the witness has a general understanding of what types of questions they will be asked prior to arriving, so that they feel prepared to give the information they need to. Also, like a student shopping for school supplies, the more time the witness has to prepare, the more exhibits they can produce to you so that they can better articulate their case and move the questioning along expediently.
- Help Your Witness Understand What is Required of Them –
On the first day of class, teachers often laid ground rules so that their students knew how to behave in the classrooms. Some of the rules given may have been things like raise your hand to speak and don’t interrupt when someone else is talking.
The deposition has its own set of rules as well, and it helps if the witness is already familiar with them before entering the room. Rules such as “Wait until the questioning attorney has finished talking before answering his or her question,” or, “Do not interrupt each other,” could be gone over prior to the deposition beginning. This will help ensure a clean transcript.
- Assure Them To Not Take Anything Personally –
In school, you often had to deal with people we didn’t easily get along with on a day to day basis. You may have even been bullied. The witness may feel this same anxiety when facing an attorney from opposing council, except they do not have their own clique to turn to, no classwork to limit their interaction, and there is no option to escape the attorney’s proximity. The only thing the witness has to turn to is his or her own council.
Assure your client that the opposing council may use tactics to elicit a response, but the witness needs to keep their composure and not take anything personally. Also, assure the witness you are working to protect their interests and breaks are beneficial to help refocus.
By reflecting on your own memories of the first day of school and the many unknowns, try to empathize with your client as they enter into a deposition. Your ability to empathize with them may be the key to building their trust in you as their representative and your reputation as a caring attorney.
