Zoom Deposition Tips – Round 1

 

With more depositions being held via Zoom, it’s important to remind your client of some tips that will support successful testimony in this format.

1. We’ve all become used to the casual nature of Zoom meetings in our kitchens and living rooms. However, when it comes to a deposition, just because it’s Zoom, doesn’t mean you can testify in your sweats. It’s important to dress professionally or conservatively, at least from the waist up. So that means no bare arms for men or women, no vivid patterns that would distract from the substance of the testimony, and that all clothing be clean and pressed.

2. We’ve all seen the bloopers online from people on Zoom meetings who forgot to close the kitchen/living room/bedroom door, allowing errant children/pets to wander in. Or a spouse who’d forgotten there was a meeting going on and appeared in his/her PJs yelling a reminder of some chore or task. Tell your client to alert household members to the meeting, and close the door. Perhaps with a sign on it “Meeting in Session.” Bloopers are funny online, not so much when they disrupt the flow of a deposition.

More tips to come next month, stay tuned!

In the meantime, best wishes for Happy Holidays.

Help Witnesses Think Before Responding

Thinking out loud is ordinary, common, and acceptable in regular conversation. However, in a deposition, it can make the difference between solid responses, and responses that give opposing counsel more information than was required – and could damage your case.

For example, to the question: “Are your neck symptoms resolved as we sit here today?” the response was: “Well, my neck was sore from the incision for a while. And I have a pain in my shoulder from that other surgery I had back in ’10, but my neck, yeah, it hurts whenever I try to move my head, like when I drive.”

Thinking out loud gave opposing counsel information regarding residual pain from a prior surgery which could complicate matters for you. Not to say that witnesses should ever hide information, but if the witness had thought through his/her response before verbalizing it, the witness would have limited their answer to the pain experienced as a result of the second surgery – the one at issue.

Help witnesses to do their thinking inside their minds before they verbalize their response. Reassure your witness that the moment or two it takes to organize an answer in their heads will not appear like “fudging” or evading the question. Video-taped role-play as part of witness preparation helps demonstrate to witnesses that “think time” is really very brief, yet critical.