Posts by Esquire Deposition Solutions
Texas Takes a Different Approach to Deposing In-House Counsel
The deposition of an opposing party’s in-house counsel is a tempting target in high-stakes litigation, but nowhere more so than in Texas, a jurisdiction more permissive than any other when it comes to deposing lawyers for the opposing party. Federal courts and nearly every other state court require that parties seeking to depose opposing in-house…
Read MoreOvercoming Deposition Misbehavior: Go High When They Go Low
At first glance, the number of ways that a litigator might be subjected to sanctions for misbehavior during a pretrial deposition seems limitless. And that may be true. Human beings are good at finding new ways to commit errors. However, broadly speaking, the reasons why deposition conduct is sanctionable are actually few in number. In…
Read MoreInterstate Deposition Act Adoption Approaches the Finish Line
Watching the Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act’s slow crawl toward acceptance in all 50 states can be as stimulating as watching paint dry. Forty-eight state enactments, just two more to go. What’s taking so long? Outside of a 0-0 tie after 90 minutes of FIFA World Cup “action,” nothing beats for sheer tedium the…
Read MoreClass Actions, AI Threats Sharpen Data Security Concerns
Federal criminal rules experts may soon begin studying something the federal criminal system has resisted for more than 80 years: allow parties to take pretrial depositions in criminal cases. A proposal to do just that landed in front of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts’s criminal rules advisory committee last year, and now there…
Read MoreLack of Discovery Sends World Cup Copyright Spat to Extra Time
What part of litigation matches the creativity of soccer legend Pelé with a soccer ball? Is it as reliable as Brazil in World Cup competition? Or as outcome-determinative as Lionel Messi’s left foot? Give up? Pretrial discovery, of course! So, it’s for good reason that federal courts rarely decide courtroom contests without giving both teams…
Read MoreDeposing the Plaintiff
The fifth in a series of articles on basic strategies for questioning commonly encountered witnesses in civil litigation. This week: the plaintiff. The plaintiff’s deposition is rarely just another deposition. The plaintiff is the architect of the lawsuit, the person whose factual story drives the pleadings, frames the damages claim, and ultimately stands before the…
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