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Real Realtime

IT'S CRITICAL TO MAINTAIN CONTROL!

If you're taking a deposition, you want:

• The witness to hear the WHOLE question
• The witness to THINK about their answer
• A chance to object if you need to

You DON'T want:

• Questions and answers split apart by interruptions
• The flow of your examination interrupted
• Simultaneous, overlapping colloquy

If you're defending a deposition, you want:

You DON'T want:

• The witness to blurt out an answer off the top of their head
• The answer cut off in mid-sentence
• Your statements for the record lost due to overlapping colloquy

No time to object
When the witness answers quickly, you may not have time to make an important objection, and the witness could blurt out information he wished he hadn't.  Once it's on the record, you can't take it back. 

If the witness jumps the gun
If the witness jumps the gun and answers before they hear the entire question, their response may not be responsive to the exact question ... but it might be JUST what the conducting attorney is looking for.  It's best to follow what I call the One Second Rule and allow a full second between the end of the question and the beginning of the answer. 

Don't cut off the end of the question
Sometimes the back-and-forth in an examination becomes so fast, it's hard to sort everything out ... in other words, unreportable.  I encourage participants to use the One Second Rule and allow one second between the question and the answer.  That way, the last few words of the question, which may be CRITICAL, won't be lost by the reporter OR the witness.

Go with the flow
When you're taking a deposition, you want to use it later.  When you're asking a question and the witness interrupts constantly with "yeah, yeah," "uh-huh," "right," "okay, I got it," things like that, your three-line question could stretch out over an entire page and be extremely difficult to read.  Again, I encourage you to maintain control of your deposition.

• A record you can USE
• Complete, uninterrupted questions
• Full and complete answers