How’d ya do? What was the topic? Were you nervous? Did you screw up? Was it stressful? Were you cool as a cuke? Didja tell the whole truth and nuthin’ but?
I’m jsut curious cuz I’ve had mine taken a couple times recently. I was wondering what the experience of others might have been.
[QUOTE=Stoid]
Didja tell the whole truth and nuthin’ but?
[/QUOTE]
I’ll give a shiny new penny to the first person who admits to committing perjury before the statute of limitation has run.
I answered every question put to me succinctly and honestly. It took about four hours and was fairly hostile. And I caught the opposing attorney in a ‘misinformation’ where he said a email was from one person when it was from another. I corrected him and he thanked me.
Later in the trial he got it wrong again in front of the judge.
I’ve testified in court and given depositions many, many times. I have never found it to be the anxious experience that some describe. Counsel for your side and the judge tend to keep harassment to a minimum. Answer every question truthfully, directly and narrowly. Do not offer information that is not directly solicited or editorialize. I hope this helps.
Hawk
I once witnessed an assault of a grown man on a minor.
I worked at a movie theatre and some kids came in from the parking lot and said a man is beating up on a kid outside.
I went out and this man had a kid pinned up against a wall and was screaming to ‘stay away from his daughter’ ect, ect. Then he stormed off. I took the kid inside and as he was pretty shaken up and we called the police. Now, I said ‘he’ but, funny story, turns out he was a she. She was about 15, wearing jeans, a t-shirt and a loose jean jacket and a ball cap and no makeup. Combined with the ‘conversation’ she was having with dad and I thought she was a guy. So I gave a depostion and testified in court and all. Even though the guy did get, IMHO, too physical with the minor, the lesbian slant to the victim, I think, got him off.
What others have already said:
Don’t offer extra information, answer the question as completely as you have to, not as completely as you can. Especially when being questioned by the other side’s guy. If he knows what he wants from you, he’ll ask. Anything you offer beyond that could be new and potentially helpful to him.
Don’t lie.
Stay calm.
I’ve testified in court many, many, many times and been deposed several times. It has never been stressful and I’ve never been the least bit uncomfortable. All of the cases involved land use issues (zoning violations, suits over land use decisions, or serving as an expert witness).
As others have said:
Answer only the question asked. Don’t expound.
Don’t volunteer information.
If you don’t understand a quesiton, say, “I don’t understand your question.”
Don’t lie.
Relax.
[QUOTE=Zebra]
I once witnessed an assault of a grown man on a minor.
[/quote]
Due to your sentence construction, I’m getting an interesting visual here that you didn’t intend. 
There’s a joke in there somewhere.
I assume you’re asking about people who have been deposed, not people who have taken depositions. I’ve taken hundreds of deps, but I’ve never had my deposition taken.
I was a witness in a criminal trial. I didn’t find it stressful because I was familiar with the court and judge, I knew how the proceedings went and I knew what to expect. But I could certainly see how a lay-person would be made very nervous by the prospect of testifying. So for me having to testify was very helpful, because it reinforced the importance of making sure my own trial witnesses were as comfortable and as informed about the process as possible. People do freak out about it, and it’s not unreasonable that they do.
I sued a landlord and an ex-roommate several years ago over a security deposit and gave testimony twice, once at an administrative hearing and once at a trial.
I had written a detailed account of my side as part of the filing (what amounted to a complaint) and the commisioner had me read it into the record. I tend to rush when I read so he told me to slow down a few times. He asked a few questions of each party and the ex-roomie flat-out lied more than once but I was able to restrain myself and not call him a liar in the middle of his statement. I lost the hearing and filed for a trial de novo.
During the trial I think I did a good job on the stand. Answered questions clearly and concisely and didn’t jump up dramatically from the plaintiff’s table and scream “you’re lying!” when the ex-roomie lied his fool head off under oath. Sadly, my atorney was not the best in the world and he prepared this weird rent payment chart as an exhibit and didn’t show it to me before the trial so I had no idea how to read or interpret it and I had a hell of a time ansering questions about it. So I didn’t come off well during that portion. I still won part of my case and got my deposit back but I didn’t win any punitive damages and got ordered to pay my landlord like $11 for photocopying costs.
I once stated that a traffic light was indeed red when the BMW drove through it and crashed into the pickup truck. I was exceedingly nervous the entire day but was given comic relief when the attorney in the DUI case ahead of ours offered up this gem of a defense at the behest of his client.
(paraphrased) " Your honor, my client would like to state that no one could reach his alcohol level in their blood and remain conscious on a whim. It has indeed taken many years of hard drinking to be able to tolerate that much, and, in that time, he has committed no traffic violations and therefore this time was merely an oversight on an otherwise responsible history of drinking."
A wee titter erupted in the courtroom as the judge laid his head in his hands and commenced to shaking.
[QUOTE=Zebra]
the lesbian slant to the victim, I think, got him off.
[/QUOTE]
I can believe it. It’s having a similar effect on me right now. 
[QUOTE=Bearflag70]
Due to your sentence construction, I’m getting an interesting visual here that you didn’t intend.
There’s a joke in there somewhere.
[/QUOTE]
Well I guess I should have said that it got both the father and daughter off but in very different ways.
Advice from another slant: The court reporter will LOVE you if :
You answer yes or no questions with “Yes” or “No” and not “Uh-huh” or “Huh-uh” or shaking your head. A perfectly acceptable answer is also, “I don’t know” or “I don’t remember.”
You stop by the court reporter after your testimony during a break and provide him/her with any unusual spellings.
You don’t try to answer the question before the questioner finishes asking it. We so often assume we know where a question is headed, but in a courtroom it’s really not a good idea. So always listen to the complete question before you answer.
Don’t guess or speculate unless you’re asked to and the attorney on your side agrees that it’s okay.
If the opposing attorney objects, stop answering immediately and don’t get involved in the legal arguments. That’s what the attorneys and judge are there for.
Are you a court reporter?
You should start an *Ask the * thread.
I’m not heading into mine (well, actually we are going to have DAY FREAKIN THREE…it’s so damn sad and sick and a horrible waste of time and money…sigh) I’ve alreay had two days of it, so I’m hip to how it works. I’m just interested in other people’s experiences.
(For the record, I rocked it right down to the ground. The opposing counsel isn’t really very good, and he made absolutely no headway with me whatsoever. He repeatedly misstated facts and assumed things and twisted words, and I was relentlessly precise with him. It was pretty awesome, actually. You could see the steam coming off the guy. Why he wants to go for round three I have no idea but Im fine with it. Except for the cost, of course, that kinda blows.)
If you have ever played “Taboo” and you are good at it, you can give a good deposition. I am the undisputed Taboo master, and it those skills translated.
If it’s DAY FREAKIN’ THREE, the lawyer’s trying to wear you down from pure fatigue to get you to slip up. Make sure you get some good sleep and drink your coffee.
I’ve seen excellent witnesses get worn down and slip up–usually right about the end of day freakin’ three.
[QUOTE=Flipshod]
If it’s DAY FREAKIN’ THREE, the lawyer’s trying to wear you down from pure fatigue to get you to slip up. Make sure you get some good sleep and drink your coffee.
I’ve seen excellent witnesses get worn down and slip up–usually right about the end of day freakin’ three.
[/QUOTE]
Well, the days have been weeks apart. And there’s really no slipping up, because I am telling the glorious, provable, unvarnished truth, and he’s trying to get me to agree to things which are not true.
I’m the defendant in this lovely adventure, too. (Lawsuit, not criminal) And fortunately, every conceivable aspect of this thing is squarely on my side. Also fortunately, the plaintiff lied in his pleadings, because the lawyer did that, but the plaintiff can only tell lies he believes himself, and there’s a limit to how much crap he’ll swallow from himself, so he pretty much screwed his own case in HIS deposition. He ended up revealing, unwittingly, amazingly, how completely clueless he is, how his story is a big fat made up mess, and thereby screwed his credibility completely. Add that to the fact that every single shred of documentary evidence which exists refutes him and supports me, and I cannot believe we’re still doing this, frankly, except that his lawyer is a skank of the highest order and he’s enjoying the billing.
It’s heartbreaking, really.
It’s been an interesting process, though. My lawyer is aces, an old friend and incredibly talented, but he knows I can’t afford any of this. So I’ve been writing my own pleadings and gathering my own evidence and so forth, he and his paralegal just lawyer it up before it gets submitted. I’m proud to say that they haven’t had to do much.
I’ve been deposed twice. Went to court once on a hit-and-run but the other side didn’t show.
The last time was for a wages case against a firm where I’d worked previously. I didn’t get nervous about that, as it didn’t really affect me directly. Also I was perfectly happy to answer all the questions honestly - the employer had done everything they complained of to me also, and I had no qualms about saying so.
The first time was for my mom’s malpractice suit. That one made me pretty nervous that I’d screw something up; I was only about 22 at the time. Her lawyer had given me the same advice - always tell the truth; answer only the question asked, ‘yes’ or ‘no’ is best if that answers the question, no extra information; say ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I don’t remember’ unless you’re absolutely positively without a doubt sure of your answer; etc.
Since it had been several years since most of the things they were asking, I mostly answered ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I don’t remember’. Felt kinda stupid but didn’t cause any problems for our case.
The best was when the other guy’s attorney asked me a question. I sat and thought and thought and thought trying to remember, because it would be an advantage for our side if I could answer specifically. Eventually I answered (I think my answer was “yes”), and the attorney had to have the question read back because he’d forgotten what he asked by then. After that I quit feeling so stupid and started almost enjoying the game of ‘don’t help the attorney’. Hee hee.
I was “deposed” by our student court in college. My fraternity was busted for playing Beruit (beer pong) and I was asked to testify.
Since I was a) a senior b) not in a real court and c) did not give a shit I made a bit of a joke of it.
Magistrate (or whatever he called himself): “The officer says he came in and saw you playing a beer game”.
Me: “What he probably saw was a number of the older boys standing around with some beers talking and hanging out”
Magistrate: “He says he saw you guys throwing ping pong balls into beer cups”
Me: “I can see how he may have misinterpreted that. What he likely saw was a couple of us horsing around throwing stuff around the room at each other. Some of that stuff might have been ping pong balls. Maybe some of those balls landed in the beers that one of the older boys were holding or standing near?”
Magistrate: “That was the worst testimony I’ve ever heard”
Me: “meh…I’m sticking with that story.”
Nowadays, part of my job includes preparing attorneys who need to depose technical experts (computers). I help them with which questions to ask and what answers to look for, etc.