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Rising Star
I used to love defending them when I was in private practice. Taking them (well) is harder by orders of magnitude though. Trick is to know exactly what you need the witness to say for your brief. I learned that the hard way but I had a boss who was a good mentor who finally after doing it the wrong way taught me how to take a good deposition. Defending them, you can just be a total ass and run out the clock. That can actually be kind of fun.
Chief
I always found defending to be far more tiring. You actually have to listen to what your knucklehead witness is giving away. Taking is easy, but I just feel that everyone reaches a point where they have no patience for the games anymore and that’s the point where you need to do something else.
Chief
Liked them in the beginning. Few hundred later I do everything I can to let my colleagues handle all of them. I have had a few really interesting witnesses over the years that were actually fun to speak with but that’s extremely rare.
Once you get good at taking depositions, where you have near full control over the witness and his or her lawyer, they can be fun (especially with experts) and they are much less stressful than your first several dozen. It’s definitely a skill set to learn and master as a litigator, and it’s a great way to bridge to trial skills!
100% agree- I love litigation but am not a huge fan of depositions. Especially Plaintiff depositions- they can be unnecessarily contentious. If I do have to handle one, I prefer defending or doing expert ones.
However, depos are good for easy billable hours.
Thanks for this insight! I’ve definitely gotten better at them over the years but last week I had a plaintiff depo where OC was unnecessarily contentious. I have 2 plaintiff depos next week so will definitely keep your advice in mind. Thanks!
Summarizing the depositions is the true bane of my existence.
Have you gotten a chance to do witnesses at trial and how do you like it? If you don’t like it I would suggest considering switching to a different area away from Litigation.
No trial experience and I think I plan on keeping it that way!
I hate it with a passion and avoid them at all costs
As a plaintiff PI attorney, I defend more than I take myself. Mainly I just find it excruciatingly boring, especially when OC insists on going into extreme detail on topics that are going to have little to nothing to do with affecting the outcome of the case. It can be quite tiring too even if I'm not saying or doing much because of the intense constant active listening required