Trial Lawyer Resource Center

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Why take a deposition?  To find out what the witness is going to say?  Sure.  But it is just as important to find out what the witness is not going to say, particularly with a witness that is likely to be adverse.  Accordingly, in an auto accident case, you need to establish what the eyewitness saw and heard, what they did not see or hear, and what they think they saw or heard but do not have the factual predicate to draw the conclusions they have drawn.

In auto accident cases, the deposition tactics often revolve around the issue of speed.  In Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, Alabama, and North Carolina, where the draconian contributory negligence laws remain on the books (we are fighting in the legislature this year for comparative negligence in Maryland), speed is always the last resort of defense attorneys who (1) have nothing to argue, or (2) want to argue everything.

If you have an adverse witness on the issue of speed, you obviously have to ask how fast the witness thinks your client was driving and find out what foundation they have for their estimation of speed.  Make sure you conduct complete speed and distance questioning as well.  By complete, I mean full questioning as to how long the witness observed the vehicles traveling, how long it took, and what was the distance covered.  Ask the question in miles, yards, feet, car lengths, etc.  It is rare that anyone other than a well trained police officer can answer consistently time and distance calculations in the first place, much less when they are required to make the same distance measurements using different standards.  If an adverse fact witness offers conflicting testimony as to the speed, it may negate the impact of his/her testimony or give the personal injury attorney grounds to exclude the witness' testimony at trial. 

To see sample depositions in auto accident and truck accident cases, click here.