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051 What Is a Deposition?

051 What Is a Deposition?

Lawyers in the House with Montlick

Attorneys in Podcast: Enrique Fernandez, Esq.| Douglas Glosser, Esq.

What exactly is a deposition? What does it mean for your case? How do you prepare for one? Well, Montlick lawyers Doug and Enrique are here to answer these questions and more as they explain the secret and sometimes complicated world of depositions, and what a lawyer’s role is in preparing their client.

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The purpose of this show is to provide general information about the law. Our guests will not provide any individualized legal advice. If you have a personal situation and need legal advice, contact us for your free legal consultation with a Montlick attorney.

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00:05	ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Lawyers in the House. With Montlick. Wish you had a lawyer in the family? Now you do. Here’s your host. Veronica Waters. VERONICA: Welcome to Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB. I’m Veronica Waters here with you for another fantastic episode with two of your favorite Montlick injury attorneys back in the house with me. And if you’ve been listening to the show for a while you probably have come to know that I am a lover of all things pop culture.
00:38	VERONICA: Especially movies and TV shows. And I love to just veg on the sofa and, you know, with some popcorn and just, you know… just keep them coming, keep them coming. And yes, I am still watching, yes. You know how it asks you in the streaming service, “Are you still watching?” Yes, don’t try to couch potato shame me. All right. But some of the fondest, most exciting peeks into the legal field actually come from my love of pop culture.
01:09	VERONICA: Movies and TV shows from To Kill a Mockingbird to A Time to Kill, from “The Trial of the Chicago Seven-“ DOUG: We had to watch My Cousin Vinny for law school. VERONICA: Oh my gosh. One of my favorites- You had to watch My Cousin Vinny in law school? DOUG: As an entry requirement for law school. Well, after you already got in part of your summer assignments, put it that way, was watching My Cousin Vinny. VERONICA: The best homework ever, right? The best application ever – watching My Cousin Vinny? Legally Blonde? Right? DOUG: Oh yeah. VERONICA: Yes, Just Mercy?
01:39	VERONICA: I would love… what? Give me that homework any day of the week. But some of the best peeks, right? Am I right, Doug, Enrique? They come from movies and TV shows. And what’s maybe the most quoted movie line ever from a courtroom from A Few Good Men? DOUG: “You can’t handle the truth.” VERONICA: Yes, exactly. So all of that to say, we do kind of get a peek behind the legal scenes from movies and TV shows, but you know what we never hear about? Nobody’s ever quoting lines from a deposition.
02:08	DOUG: No, and I think a lot of times with movies and TV shows we see a lot of the criminal proceedings and the in-courtroom proceedings, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. A lot of cases and a lot of the litigation process too… VERONICA: Exactly. And what comes before the trial is often a deposition, and that’s what we’re talking about today here on Lawyers in the House with Montlick. And we’ve already gotten our chatter going, let’s start off here with Doug Glosser. You remember our favorite blooper reel, which is me calling this guy Doug Glossman over and over and over.
02:38	DOUG: We’re good now. We’re good. VERONICA: His name is Doug Glosser. He comes to Montlick by way of Pittsburgh. Grew up in Pittsburgh, right? DOUG: I did. VERONICA: Went to school at Syracuse and then Duquesne Law. And came to Montlick in 2015. DOUG: Yeah, you’re like my official biographer now. That’s right. DOUG: We’ve been together a long time here. VERONICA: I know a lot about you, Doug. DOUG: Same. VERONICA: What I don’t know that I know, or maybe what I do kind of have a hint about, but want to remind people is like, what inspired you to get into law?
03:08	DOUG: Sure. Well, I’m sure my parents would tell you it’s because I like to argue a lot as a kid. I had some relatives that are lawyers and I always looked up to them and kind of what they were doing and the relationships that they had with clients and how they were able to help. And so I kind of thought, you know, as a lot of kids that are being told, oh, you should be a lawyer, you should be a lawyer. You kind of brainwash yourself almost a little bit and thinking about it, but then you’re like, you know what, this actually probably would be a good thing for me in terms of how I can utilize my skills and what I like to do.
03:39	VERONICA: When did you become an attorney? DOUG: 2015. VERONICA: Wow, so you came to Montlick straight away. DOUG: Pretty much, I was working in interning with a different firm, and then I interned with Montlick and after that, I came aboard. VERONICA: Why did it feel like home? Because that’s what I’m sensing. DOUG: Sure. I put a lot of value in the people that I was working with and the environment there. And I thought, you know, sometimes the grass is not always greener. And if you got a good thing going, why change?
04:07	DOUG: And if you like the people that you’re working with and you like the work that you’re doing and the help that you’re being able to provide you know, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. VERONICA: Wow. And so it’s 2023 as we sit here. So for the past 8 years, you’re pretty happy camper. DOUG: I’m still here. VERONICA: Yeah, what have you learned? What have you learned about yourself as an attorney? DOUG: That’s a great question. Thank you for asking that.
04:32	DOUG: That there’s various different ways that you can approach things and you have to be flexible and always continue to learn about stuff and people and the law and what you’re doing and yourself so that you can continue to best represent people because not everybody and not every client and not every case requires the same approach. So like when people say, oh, I’ve been doing this forever and everything else like that. Yes, that’s true.
04:59	DOUG: But have you always seen that individual client’s case? Perhaps not. So when you aren’t so flexible or so inflexible as to not try to figure out what that particular client needs or what that case requires of you, I think you can be best successful as opposed to try to say, this is my system and this is how I do it and this is how I approach things. And I’m just going to take that tact for the rest of my career. VERONICA: Doug has learned to be more flexible.
05:28	VERONICA: Thank you so much for that insight into your character, Doug. Not an inflexible guy anymore. Also, let’s go over, let’s hop over one seat to Mister Enrique Fernandez, who’s been with Montlick since 2019. ENRIQUE: Correct. VERONICA: Yes. And you came to Montlick after you went to UGA for college, Emory for law school? Yes. ENRIQUE: Correct. VERONICA: And am I remembering that you also were inspired into law by a relative when you were young, but not a relative in the legal field?
05:58	ENRIQUE: No, no. My dad, he worked as a doctor and seeing him get up every day and, you know, having the, the emphasis and the importance he attached to having an education. I kind of took that. And then it was, you know, from there, I kind of went into law school based on partly on inspiration from him, and then kind of fell into the life of a lawyer, and, you know, one thing that I didn’t really realize in law school… I don’t think they really teach you that well, is how to be a lawyer. But then definitely once you kind of got into it… because I passed the bar back in… way back in 2012, it was a, it was a jarring and, you know, it was a new world opening up.
06:34	ENRIQUE: And so, once you began to go into the whole entire process, I’ve come to appreciate it. In ways that I never really thought possible. VERONICA: Tell me one of those ways. ENRIQUE: I think one thing that I found out about myself going back to what you were asking Doug is, you know, the desire to be organized, which I was never really organized in my own personal life. I was just a very disorganized person until I became a lawyer. And then I think that organization is such a key aspect in practicing law, you know.
07:04	ENRIQUE: You always have to have the soft skills and be good with people, otherwise you won’t be able to get your point across, or you won’t be able to communicate with the client. But I think a client definitely wants a lawyer who’s organized and knows what they’re doing and lay out a plan or a process. And you know I do think you have to be flexible, but there is the lot of stuff as a base, as a body of rules and you have to follow the procedures. VERONICA: I love it. Okay, one flexible guy, one creative and organized guy. This is fantastic. It’s already shaping up to be a great show.
07:30	VERONICA: Thank you so much to Enrique Fernandez and Doug Glosser for being in the house with me on Lawyers in the House with Montlick. Glad to have you in, fellas. DOUG: Great to be here. ENRIQUE: Yep. VERONICA: We’re talking about depositions. And I want to start off with a sort of a definition of deposition. A deposition definition, deposition definition. Say that three times fast. What in the world is a deposition? We’ve talked about… let me just say, our audience is probably familiar with the episode where we talked about taking a case to trial and how you get there.
07:59	VERONICA: But let’s remind people, what is a deposition? DOUG: Sure. So in very simple terms, it’s basically a question and answer session between lawyers and another party to the lawsuit or it could even be like a doctor. So with the deposition, you’re being asked questions about your history or the incident itself or anything else like that and you’re required to answer that under oath. VERONICA: So I raise my hand, swear to tell the truth, sit down across the table from somebody.
08:32	DOUG: Yep. Yep. And generally, it will start, like I said, with some very simple questions. And then it can, as it goes on, because some depositions can be a long time. It can get into some questions that, like I said, start peeling years and years back into your personal history. VERONICA: What do you mean a long time? What are you talking about a long time? Two hours. 30 minutes. DOUG: So it really just depends on the nature of the case, but it can be hours.
09:00	DOUG: I personally haven’t had depositions that have had to go multiple days, but I certainly have had… heard of ones that have gone that long. It just depends again on the nature of the case. And specific fact sets that maybe the other side… because with depositions and even though you’re my client, the other side does get to ask you questions, and I may ask the other side questions as well, too. VERONICA: Is it dramatic at all?
09:27	VERONICA: Because you know I keep going back to, like, nobody really makes movies about depositions. Although The Social Network was a movie that was primarily based in depositions. Was it not? DOUG: Yeah. VERONICA: That whole story about Facebook and how that played out. But that’s really rare. Nobody’s hollering out, you know, a deposition… I don’t even know what they said. Why did you file that cease and desist order? I mean, you know, that’s not a quoted line. So depositions – not exciting?
09:54	DOUG: No, they can be. I wouldn’t say that they’re not exciting, but certainly a lot of what they’re meant to do is just make sure that all parties have a total understanding of everything that’s going on and everybody’s perspective of what happened. VERONICA: Okay. Enrique, not every case that you guys are going to get, though… Not everything that lands on your table and your desk is going to require a deposition. Yay or nay? ENRIQUE: Oh, that’s correct. You would only have a deposition if you fought a lawsuit and I think out of the cases that you would see fall on my desk or from the call from the day of the wreck, the majority of them will not result in litigation.
10:30	VERONICA: Okay, so this is only if we’re going to trial. ENRIQUE: Not necessarily. VERONICA: Oh, okay. ENRIQUE: I think if you file a lawsuit, that means you’re putting it in the court system and you’re serving the defendant with the law… with the complaint of like, hey, this is my claim against you, defendant, for hitting me. But simply because you have a lawsuit doesn’t mean you’ll go to trial. I guess you’re trying to avoid that with a good deposition. VERONICA: Really? Okay, so how do we get there then? Tell me the steps that we are going to go through before we get there. Because I know that a lot of times when you’re doing personal injury cases, things will settle.
11:03	VERONICA: And that could happen after a deposition, right? But a lot of times you don’t get that far, right? So can you tell me the steps? What do we have to go through to get to the deposition? ENRIQUE: File the lawsuit, serve it upon the defendant, or the defendants, and from there, what you probably will happen is that once you get served, discovery will begin, which is like a process where the lawyers exchange information. One of them are written questions, requests for documents.
11:32	ENRIQUE: Typically after that process has been done, you will start getting notices for a deposition. The defendant will notice your client, the plaintiff, for a deposition. And that’s when that happens. And then you’ll notice the defendant for a deposition, or I think Doug touched on it briefly or before, experts like a doctor or something like that. That doesn’t happen until later on. But usually it’s the exchange of paper then the interviews. VERONICA: Okay. And what are you interviewing these folks about? What are you trying to unearth there?
12:01	DOUG: So, and this can kind of be a little bit maybe jumping ahead in terms of some good tips, but one thing that I tell my clients is you have to approach the deposition as if you’re basically the one on trial, right? So… VERONICA: Not scary at all. DOUG: No. And I don’t mean that, obviously, to scare anybody, but I mean it in the sense that there are things about a deposition when we’re talking about the facts of the case, sometimes the other side just wants to see how you’re presenting.
12:31	DOUG: And are you able to articulate yourself clearly? VERONICA: Would this be a good person that I want to have sitting across from me at trial? DOUG: Exactly. VERONICA: Yeah. DOUG: And sometimes you know, I do encourage my clients because when you’re at the stage of a deposition, generally, you have been with that client for at least a year, if not longer. VERONICA: Wow. So this isn’t right out the box. DOUG: No, and that’s an important distinction to make.
12:56	DOUG: So generally, you know, you can, you can work on a case and like Enrique said, a lot of these cases will resolve prior to a lawsuit being filed. But if perhaps the insurance company is saying this wasn’t our fault or they’re not giving you a good offer, then you do have to file a lawsuit and that’s when you get into all the steps that Enrique was talking about. VERONICA: Doug Glosser and Enrique Fernandez talking to us about depositions here on Lawyers in the House with Montlick. Coming up some of the advice these guys give to their clients for a depo. Stay with us.
13:32	You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick. Join us 8 a.m. every Sunday if you want to listen live on 95.5 WSB. VERONICA: Welcome back to Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB. I’m Veronica Waters here with Montlick injury attorneys Doug Glosser…. DOUG: You got it. VERONICA: See what I did there? And Enrique Fernandez. And we are talking about depositions today.
13:56	VERONICA: This thing that you do when you are under oath and answering questions one on one with the lawyers in a little old conference room, I guess, or something like that. That’s how I’m picturing it, right? Let’s talk, though, about one thing that we didn’t really touch on, what is a lawsuit to begin with? We talked about depositions are usually… they only come about when you’ve got a lawsuit. What is the lawsuit? Do I have a lawsuit automatically if I’m coming to you with a personal injury? ENRIQUE: I wouldn’t say so.
14:24	ENRIQUE: I mean, unless… I feel like with a lawsuit, you would have like a claim against someone else when someone injured you. And you try to resolve it prior to filing a lawsuit, through letters with the insurance company. And now if negotiations break down, you will then have a lawyer prepare a formal document called a complaint that will lay out the jurisdiction or why you’re actually suing someone, you’ll file it in court, it’ll get a case number, and then you serve it. Like you know, “you’ve been served” upon the defendant.
14:52	ENRIQUE: And I think at that point, you will have a lawsuit. DOUG: Yeah, so you have, I would say you basically have a claim against that other person and you’re presenting your claim, you know, like, hey, this is… I had to go to the doctor, and here’s everything that happened, and I would like whatever you’re asking for, right? And so it’s an important distinction to recognize you are not suing somebody. It’s not a lawsuit at that point in time. Not until, like what Enrique said, maybe there is some breakdown in the negotiation.
15:22	DOUG: You go, I just don’t love what they’re offering me for my claim. Now we need to file a lawsuit and, you know, like you said with pop culture, we’ve all seen in the movies where, you know, they got served. Not You Got Served. That’s a very different movie. When people, you know, serve you with the process, the paperwork and everything like that. And now you have a lawsuit. VERONICA: And it’s very dramatic and very fun, right? ’cause they come out of nowhere. Like, are you Doug Glosser? DOUG: Exactly. VERONICA: Yes, I am. You’ve been served. DOUG: That’s exactly it, yes. So now you have a lawsuit.
15:51	VERONICA: Okay, that’s a lawsuit. And then the deposition, let’s… before we take a break, can we just start off talking about how do you prepare a client for that deposition? Because it seems like such a crucial thing. DOUG: The biggest thing is just to go back over the facts of the case again and say to the client, you need to be completely honest with me about exactly how you’d be saying it to the other side.
16:15	DOUG: So not to get into too much about how depositions can go bad, but certainly if people don’t remember specific facts or they aren’t briefed on certain things again to refresh their memory, that’s how things can break down in terms of your work. VERONICA: I would love to get into some stories about depositions gone bad. And depositions gone good, Enrique, okay? And whether or not it’s okay to say, “I don’t know” when you’re under oath at a deposition. That’s coming up next on Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB, I’m Veronica Waters. Stay with us.
16:47	You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick. Join us 8 a.m. every Sunday on 95.5 WSB. VERONICA: We’re back here in the house with you on Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB. I’m your host Veronica Waters here with Montlick injury attorneys Enrique Fernandez and Doug Glosser. We’re talking about depositions.
17:13	VERONICA: Those things which don’t ever seem to really make it that much into the movies and the TV shows that I watch, but actually have a lot to do with an actual case going to trial when they happen in real life. I was just saying… we were talking earlier at the top of the show. Nobody’s, like, quoting from a deposition like they are from My Cousin Vinny and the “two youts” you know. Right? But depositions are a crucial thing. If you missed any of those great nuggets in the first half of the show, don’t forget to hit us up online.
17:42	VERONICA: You can subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. Don’t forget, and you can also find us on YouTube, see our smiling pretty faces on there. And visit LawyersintheHouse.com to send us a question 24/7. And please, while you are milling about that worldwide interwebs, be sure and hit us up on social media @Montlicklaw on every platform. We can’t wait to see you there. Doug and Enrique, we’re talking about depositions. And we’ve told people how there are these things that are recorded, videoed, you take an oath and you promise to tell the truth.
18:13	VERONICA: And I want to get into some of these depositions gone good and depositions gone bad. Okay, so tell me a little bit about the prep for a deposition that… out the box. What’s the prep like? What are you telling your clients? DOUG: Sure. So the first thing that I want to reassure my clients is that for 9 out of ten questions that the defense counselor is going to ask you, if not ten out of ten, you already know the answer to it. You already know the answer.
18:42	DOUG: So they’re not going to ask you anything that’s going to trip you up necessarily or trick you if you don’t let it. You can, and that kind of gets into some of the strategies behind having a good deposition, which is certainly – and it seems simple- but it’s just, listen. And it’s to listen to what you’re being asked. And if your lawyer, this is what we do for all of our clients, I think, if they’ve prepared you well, everything will be just fine. Because like I said, you already know, you have the answers to the test.
19:11	VERONICA: Most of these aren’t curveball questions coming at you. DOUG: There’s some certain defense attorneys, I think, that might try to phrase a question in a way that could be designed to try to trip plaintiffs up and get them going down a path or chatting about stuff that isn’t necessarily helpful, but generally it will just be something like, tell me what happened, and defense counselors will let the clients go from there and then a skilled defense attorney will listen to what the client is saying and try to poke holes in it, but if you’re not giving them anything to poke holes into, then it’s usually… can just be a very smooth back and forth question and answer session.
19:47	VERONICA: One of the things that I remember from one of our earliest episodes when we were talking about attorney red flags is when attorney Phillip was in here and he was talking about how he had a client who had had a personal injury with a different firm, you know, case prior. And when they were going to trial on this particular case, when he was with you guys at Montlick, he told the guy that he wanted to sit down and prep him for the deposition and the guy was like, what? What are you talking about? My old lawyer never did anything like that to me.
20:15	VERONICA: He just had the guy show up for the deposition and just dropped him in the middle of the room with nothing. And he was, like, sort of blown away that Montlick would take the time to sit down with him and let him know what this process was all about and how to do it. Enrique, what do you think happens when a deposition goes bad? ENRIQUE: I mean, touching to your point, I think lack of preparation is a key element in many depositions gone bad. I mean, whenever I personally, I’m sure everyone at the firm as well, has a deposition you would bring the client in multiple days to prepare.
20:49	ENRIQUE: Do it in person so they know how to get to the office. And then another thing that I’ve noticed that is a reoccurring trend in depositions that go poorly is that the client says too much and maybe volunteers too much information where his or her questions should be short. We need… just answer the question that the lawyer is asking. They should only be asking you one question at a time. Otherwise, it’s probably objectionable.
21:18	ENRIQUE: But you should be asking that one question, that one answer. Listen carefully. And don’t volunteer information. Don’t speculate. It’s okay to say I don’t know. You know, you know, it’s… VERONICA: Are people uncomfortable to say, “I don’t know”? I mean, ’cause a lot of times, I would imagine people feel this pressure to want to provide some kind of information. So how do you tell them it’s okay if you don’t know? You don’t have to come up with something if you don’t. DOUG: Yeah, I think you kind of hit the nail on the head.
21:44	DOUG: A lot of people generally are pretty kind and they want to be helpful and they want to try to give as much information as they can. Oh, this happened, and I was doing this and I was doing that. And it’s not necessarily helpful for their case. Just answer the question in a very straightforward way. And if you don’t recall, and I tell my clients, even if you’re 90% certain about something, you don’t have to answer that. You can say, I don’t recall. Because the defense counselor would only want you to be a 100% about something as well.
22:12	DOUG: So if you don’t recall something, you can say that, but obviously there would come a point, I would say some of the foundational questions that Enrique was saying, if you’re saying, I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know to all of that. That, of course, can be bad. But certainly if you truly don’t recall something, it is perfectly fine to say, I don’t recall. VERONICA: Okay, can I just go off on a little tangent before you stop here? Have you guys seen that short film Verbatim or any of the segments that New York Times put on their site years ago?
22:41	VERONICA: Verbatim actually has actors who are doing transcribed deposition segments. And it is hilarious. DOUG: Oh, no kidding. VERONICA: Yes, it is so good. And I think you guys would get a kick out of it as somebody who loves the law, because I think anybody who’s an even not in law could enjoy it because… watch the one called “Follow the Chicken.” It’s amazing. Just a little entertainment tip for you guys there. But you were going to say something, Enrique. ENRIQUE: Actually, I was going to say something but to your point that you just made. Remember that the deposition, I mean, sometimes they’re video recorded, a lot of times they’re not.
23:11	ENRIQUE: So when they’re used, it’s a transcript. And so it’s someone months later reading a transcript of what transpired. And that… that is who… the audience that you’re playing for, honestly. Someone is going to be using your deposition because that’s what they do in trial. They’ll take it. If you say something different, they’ll shake the deposition transcript in front of you (they being the defense counsel) and say, I asked you this question you know, face to face, then. Why is your response different now? And then the jury can go back and read it.
23:39	ENRIQUE: And they don’t know how you looked or the way you were gesturing or whether you look nervous or whatnot. They just know yes, no. So to Doug’s point, if you’re not sure, it’s okay to say, I don’t know. Now, if you don’t know the question is, what was in pain or what were your injuries? You don’t really have a case because you need to know what was injured. But at the same time, I mean, they’re going to ask you a bunch of questions that are going to try to like what exactly happened on the day of the wreck or… which is fine.
24:05	ENRIQUE: Answer to the best of your ability, but at the same time, they’re asking you specific questions about the speed limit, where people were looking, things of that nature. You need to be okay with saying, I don’t know, because you probably don’t. VERONICA: And you know what? Is it possible to be over prepared or over afraid… too afraid? And I’m only thinking about this because of that same series I just told you about of the mini films, because there was a guy who in his deposition was giving the lawyer all kinds of fits and starts because he said, do you have a photocopier in your office and the guy was like, well, what do you mean by photocopier?
24:39	VERONICA: I’m not sure. And he’s like, are you kidding me? So people could be too tense, right? You’re like, you don’t want to… you want to just have them be relaxed, right? You got to be relaxed. DOUG: For sure. And you want to give people strategies as to you know how to answer these questions, not in a way that isn’t truthful or isn’t authentic to what actually happened or what they want to say. And you also want to tell people, hey, just as a heads up, like, here’s the types of things that you could be asked. But I do find that if you are, like you said, overpreparing…
25:12	DOUG: And it is kind of a case by case basis depending on the person, right? But I certainly try to do be wary of giving everybody too much information or repeating it too too much because you can then sometimes see in their eyes, they’re trying to remember what you said as opposed to what they said, even though you’re just trying to say, hey, based on what you told me, maybe phrase it this way, or is it like that, right? And then they’re starting to think about what you said, as opposed to what they want to say, and it’s just not authentic and then obviously you might have a problem.
25:44	VERONICA: All right, let’s talk about… who wants to go first? Who wants to go deposition gone well? Who wants to do that one? I know you guys have stories. ENRIQUE: I mean, I’ve definitely had depositions where clients, you know, listen to what we said, and were able to identify their injuries. I mean, not to an extent that it was like an expert diagnosis, but to know what was in pain. They have a good timeline of their treatment, which doctors they went to when and what happened before at what time, which is very important just in the context of a personal injury case.
26:17	ENRIQUE: And that they could, you know, recount the wreck with just enough detail, but not give them too much information. I think if you just remember the basic ground rules that we, or a good lawyer at Montlick, will be able to tell you in preparation, you’ll be fine. And just don’t volunteer too much information. I feel like the bad ones are more interesting because the good ones are just like, okay, nice. VERONICA: The good ones are textbook. The bad ones are… One of the things that, okay, please forgive me if I’m…
26:47	VERONICA: Giving too many examples, but did anybody see that Amber Heard? Did anybody watch any of the Johnny Depp / Amber Heard? You remember there was this segment about Amber Heard’s deposition where she said something about TMZ having been alerted to their separation or something and she just stopped in the middle and did like this. And Johnny Depp’s lawyer played that segment of the deposition in court and said, “you slipped up there, didn’t you?” And you could kind of see on her face and she said, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t have any reason to do that. I don’t know how to do that.
27:14	VERONICA: But it makes you wonder if that was a moment where a lawyer was sitting there like, uh, yeah, you said too much. VERONICA: You said too much. DOUG: For sure. And again, it just comes back to being honest in the conversations with your attorney prior to. That way they can help you try to navigate any pitfalls or anything else like that and avoid any problems. VERONICA: All right, deposition gone bad. Give me an example.
27:37	DOUG: So from stemming from that, I had a situation where we thought we prepared a client perfectly well and we had been working on our case for a while and we thought we knew kind of everything about it and I had a nice relationship with her parents and everything that was helping us out, too. Come into the deposition and they’re asking her just very easy foundational questions – where do you live? Uou know, what do you use this vehicle for? And all of a sudden her answers started changing from what we had talked about.
28:08	DOUG: She lived in a different place. VERONICA: What? DOUG: Oh, it’s my car that I let my friends use, my mom use in something all of a sudden. And I’m just like dumbfounded and we had to call a time out there. And we went off the record for a little bit, but… VERONICA: What was going on?
28:27	DOUG: Well, basically, the girl was purchasing stuff because she had a job that was paying her a lot of money and she was purchasing stuff for friends and family and then putting stuff in her name and putting stuff in other people’s names and sometimes I’m here and sometimes I’m there and, you know, it was just one of those things where she just kind of had this whole complicated web, but everything on paper… and this was actually part of… the defense counselor tried to get us on this, but we ended up turning it back on because the insurance company had screwed some stuff up, too.
29:04	DOUG: So thankfully we were able to get this resolved, you know, kind of okay because they screwed up as well; but if they hadn’t, just based on what the client had said in the deposition, we were now going from a viable case to a denial. VERONICA: Incredible. So a deposition, gentleman, really can make or break a case? ENRIQUE: Truly. DOUG: Sure. Oh for sure. Big time.
29:27	DOUG: ’cause like I said, if the defense counselor gets a read that maybe you’re not going to present well down at trial, they’re not going to want to play ball with you after that deposition because they’re going to say, I’m just going to let that person get up there and start acting a fool and nobody on that jury is going to have the sympathy for him even though they were legitimately injured. VERONICA: But tell me quickly have you seen a deposition go so well where the insurance company was like, okay, you got it. ENRIQUE: Yes.
29:57	DOUG: Definitely. ENRIQUE: Well, you want them to say is that after the deposition, you want defense counsel after everyone’s left the room to say, hey, let’s go mediate this case. When you hear that, you’ve done well in the case because then they’re literally telling, all right, let’s settle it. Now, if they don’t say that, you’re like oh. I guess we’re not going to settle the case, but to hear that, those words from defense counsel, I mean, that is a very good sign. And then you can tee it up for mediation to resolve it short of going through trial and putting your client through all that stress.
30:27	VERONICA: Teed up for victory through mediation. Coming up, the Montlick Closing Argument. Stay with us. You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick. If you want to listen to our radio show live, you can hear it every Sunday, 8 a.m. on 95.5 WSB. VERONICA: Welcome back to Lawyers in the House with Montlick. We were having such a good time during the break and I’m so glad that you stayed with us for the Montlick Closing Argument with Montlick injury attorneys Enrique Fernandez and Doug Glosser.
31:03	VERONICA: Gentlemen, take it away. DOUG: Well, we’ve been talking about depositions and they certainly can be a very scary thing if you’re not properly prepared. But that always comes back to why we say, look, if you’re going to make a call, make it to us because we can walk you through this entire process from start to finish and we’re more than capable of getting you prepared so that deposition isn’t so scary. VERONICA: You’ve got to have somebody in on this with you from the beginning. Yes or no? ENRIQUE: Yes, absolutely.
31:30	ENRIQUE: It can be pretty treacherous for someone who doesn’t… who’s unfamiliar with the process and it really is important to start well with a good representation at the beginning of the case. And even, you know, once… although most cases don’t result in trial, the vast majority don’t, once you are at trial, if you actually make it to that point, you will then realize as a client, how important everything that happened beforehand was from the beginning, from the setting up of the case through litigation, your deposition, how well your performance mattered.
32:02	VERONICA: You guys can kind of see the overview, right? Because you have this experience as… whereas with me, I’m just movies and TV girl, right? What do I know about it? ENRIQUE: I don’t think, I mean… I think going back to what you were saying, you know, you’ve seen movies and television about what happens in court, what happens in depositions, even though that’s not really, it isn’t that exciting, typically, a lot of it’s more… it’s very run of the mill, very calm to an extent.
32:28	ENRIQUE: But once you’re in that hot seat, you will see how scary it is and how important it is to have a lawyer with you who knows what they’re doing. Like us at Montlick. VERONICA: And tell me, is it not the fact that the insurance company that you’re fighting against is going to come in prepared and ready for their part of the deposition?
32:45	DOUG: Yeah, of course, because what their job at that point in time is to try to see if there really is anything that they can try to use to take away from your claim, try to minimize the situation or what you went through, or twist your words against you. And like what Enrique said before, people aren’t going to always realize the context of what it is that you said or how you said it; so that preparation ahead of time and making sure that you’re aware of what they may try to ask you, it’s so important.
33:19	ENRIQUE: Yes, they’ll try to capitalize on any sort of inconsistency, any way to make it seem that you’re less than credible. Because your credibility is the ticket to a success in your case. Without your credibility, I think Doug mentioned earlier, you can have a great case. If you’re not credible, your case will fall apart.
33:51	VERONICA: Thank you so much to Enrique Fernandez and Doug Glosser, Montlick injury attorneys. I’m Veronica Waters here, your host on Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB. So glad you were with us this week. We’ll see you next time. You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick. Catch us live every Sunday, 8 a.m. on 95.5 WSB.

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