If you were hurt in an accident, your attorney will have to file a lawsuit if the insurance company refuses to settle. After a lawsuit is filed, you will be required to testify at a deposition.
What’s a deposition? A deposition is a procedure where you will give sworn testimony in answer to questions by the opposing attorney. Your attorney will be present but can do very little to prevent any questions from being asked or to prevent you from answering.
A deposition can be done in a room at the courthouse; a lawyer’s office; but is usually done at the office of a court reporting company. Your testimony will be recorded by a court reporter who uses shorthand to type everything said by everyone. Sometimes, a videographer is also used so that your testimony is on video.
Your testimony at a deposition is one of the more important aspects of your case. You will be asked many questions about how the accident happened and about your injuries. However, you may also be asked other relevant questions. Your deposition will take approximately 2-3 hours.
Of course, the attorney hired by the insurance company will try to elicit statements by you that prove that you were at least partially at fault for causing the accident and that your injury is not as bad as you and your lawyer claimed.
It’s not that difficult to confuse or trick you into making admissions that substantially harm your case. For instance, you will be asked many questions involving time and distance such as “approximately how many seconds before the accident do you see the car that struck you?” “Approximately, what was the distance between you when you first saw the car?” and many other similar questions.
Likewise, there are many questions designed to confuse or trick you when asking you about your medical treatment and injuries.
Since your attorney is almost powerless at your deposition, preparing you prior to your deposition for your testimony is crucial. Some attorneys meet their clients for just an hour prior to the deposition, while some attorneys spent several hours in their office preparing you.
We have found that even spending several hours with our clients was not very helpful because the information is difficult to absorb. Even with substantial preparation, clients frequently harm their case.
Consequently, we set out to find a much better way to prepare our clients. We set up a “deposition prep room” with a large screen TV, surround sound and a comfortable couch where our clients can watch our DVD showing a sample accident and deposition with questions followed by the wrong way to answer and the right way to answer. Additionally, our clients are much more comfortable having been able to see what the deposition actually looks like and what happens.
Our Deposition Preparation Room
Finally, together with preparation for our client’s particular facts, all of our clients have done spectacularly well at their deposition. Not one of our clients has harmed their case after being prepared by our new system.
Call us and we’ll make sure you’re properly prepared for your deposition! Call 7 days/nights at 1-800-HURT-911