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The importance of deposition objections · Family Law Talk

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Family Law Talk. Familylaw Talk presented by Kirk
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  Stangy of Stangy Law Firm PC. Stangy Law Firm is
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  a multi state family law firm. Now here's your host,
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  Kirk Stangy.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to Family Law Talk. We have an interesting topic today.
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  The topic is the importance of deposition objections and this
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  episode today is based on an article on our blog
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  Familawheadquarters dot com dated June fourth, twenty twenty four, and
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  the title of that article is how deposition objections work.
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  So as a follow up to the episode today, go
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  on over to Family Lawheadquarters dot com and read that article.
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  It'll give individuals interested in this topic more information. But
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  let's go ahead and jump on in. Depositions are common
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  and divorce or family law matters. The truth of the
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  matter is all sorts of witnesses may be deposed the
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  parties themselves. Typically in a case it's going to be
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  tried takes place, so a deposition of the petitioner deposition
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  of their respondent very common. And then there could be
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  depositions of third party witnesses who have information relevant to
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  the proceedings. And then another option would be expert witnesses.
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  So if either party has hired expert witnesses to offer
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  opinion based testimony in the case, typically their deposition would
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  be taken as well. In the list of potential experts
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  in a divorce or family law matter is long, but
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  it could be a business valuator or maybe an accountant.
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  It could be a vocational expert, a custody evaluator, maybe
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  a real estate appraiser, a medical doctor, and really a
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  number of other potential experts could be called as well. Again,
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  once they're disclosed, typically the other attorney once it deposed
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  these individuals to find out what they have to say.
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  And so you know, past that, many ask, well, how
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  does a deposition work? Well, look, a deposition works like this.
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  The part who's being deposed is sworn in under oath
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  and they're asked questions under oath by the attorneys. And
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  that's typically how it works. Now, normally it's not in
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  a courthouse or in a court room. Typically it takes
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  place in one of the attorney's offices, but in theory
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  it could be somewhere else as well, some third party location.
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  Maybe it's at the doctor's office. Let's say, if a
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  doctor's being deposed or something like that. But typically outside
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  of court and they're under oath. In terms of how
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  depositions how long they can take, they can take hours.
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  In theory, they could take a day, or maybe they
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  even take days. It just depends on the case in
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  terms of what they have to say and perhaps how
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  much time the judge allows. Oftentimes it's pretty wide open
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  in terms of how long an individual could be deposed.
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  It's really based on the substance of the case and
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  what the witness has to say. Okay, So, typically the
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  way this works is if the deposition of petitioners taking place,
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  the respondence attorney's going to ask the petitioner questions under oath.
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  Then if there's a guardian at light them, they can
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  ask questions of the witness under oath. And then typically
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  the petitioner's attorney could ask them questions under oath if
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  they like. Oftentimes they don't because if they have questions
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  for their client, they can do it outside the presence
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  of the other attorneys. But there could be some reason,
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  maybe a lawyer wants to put something on the record,
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  and so maybe they do ask questions of their client.
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  But but you know, not very common and normally, if
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  that takes place, it's not not a lot of questions. Now,
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  in terms of objections, look and a typical deposition, there's
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  gonna be some number of objections put on the record
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  as part of the deposition. Okay, And this can happen
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  really a couple of different ways. Okay. So let's say
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  petitioners being pose. Let's say respondence attorneys asking the petitioner questions.
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  Let's say petitioners own attorney once object they might say
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  objection by objecting this question, I think it calls for speculation,
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  but subject to that objection, you can answer the question.
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  So typically what happens is a lawyer objects, they state
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  their objection on the record. Their objection could be really
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  a number of them. It could be based on relevancy,
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  it could be based on hearsay, speculation, the form of
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  the question like maybe it's a compound question, or numerous
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  other legal or evidence based reasons. They could put an
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  objection on the record and then say, subject to the objection,
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  you can answer the question. And you know, when individuals
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  hear this, they say, well, what's the point if they're objecting,
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  But then they still have to answer the question, what's
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  the point, Well, look, the attorney's preserving that objection for trial,
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  all right. By objecting, they're preserving it, and they can
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  bring the manner up to the if this deposition, let's say,
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  is going to be introduced as evidence, or if the
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  same topic is going to be inquired about a trial,
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  the lawyer can say, no, I objected at the deposition,
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  and I'm objecting again to this being inquired about in court. Okay.
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  So objecting merely preserves that objection for court based reasons
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  if the case is tried ultimately okay, or somebody is
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  seeking to admit the deposition into court. Now, the other
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  variety of objections is when an attorney objects and then
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  instructs their client not to answer the question. Okay, So
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  take attorney client privilege. Let's say let's say you know,
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  the other attorney asked the petitioner what petitioner their attorney
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  talked about. Well, the attorney might say, objection. This invades
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  on attorney client privilege, and I'm instructing my client not
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  to answer this question. Let's say a question is asked
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  and it calls for what's called the work product privileged,
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  which again I don't want to get two in the
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  weeds on. But this is trial prep strategy kind of issues.
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  So in theory, an attorney could object and instruct their
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  client not to answer that question. Let's say a question
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  is so far out the bounds of what's been pled
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  what's relevant in the case. In such a scenario, and theory,
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  attorney could object and instruct their client not to answer
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  the question. To use a baseball analogy, if the ball
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  is way off the plate, so far off the plate
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  that the question is unreasonable, that's when an attorney might
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  instruct their client not to answer the question. But if
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  the pitch is kind of roughly on the corner, maybe
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  a little bit off, typically an attorney would object and
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  then subject to the client's able to answer the question itself. Okay,
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  so it's important to distinguish an objection, but then subject
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  to the witness answers versus objection, I'm instructing the witness
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  not to answer the question. So let's take the ladder.
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  Let's say it's a situation where the lawyer objects and
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  they instruct their client not to answer the question. Then
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  the issues, Well, what happens then, Well, there's really a
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  couple of options. Option one is if the attorney who's
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  asking the question thinks that it's really a relevant question.
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  What they do is certified on the record, so they
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  then ask the question again. The attorney states on the record,
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  I'm instructing the client not to answer the question, and
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  the attorney would typically say on the record, I'm certifying
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  this question. And then what happens is the matter is
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  brought up to the judge or if there's a special
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  master who rules on objections in the case, then they
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  rule on the objection, and if the objection is overruled,
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  then you've got to go back and complete the depot
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  another day, and the individual needs to answer the question.
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  If the objection is sustained, then that's that, you know.
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  Another option might be a lawyer might say, well, you know,
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  this question really isn't that important, so I'll just move
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  past it and not really seek to certify it and
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  bring the matter before the judge of the special master.
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  But that's really the choice the lawyer has, which is
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  certify it and then try to get the judge a
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  special master to force a response, or just waive the
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  question and not seek an answer. Okay, so those would
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  really be your two options. But for anybody going through
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  a divorce or family law matter, or anybody who's going
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  to be deposed. I mean, really the issue is this
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  is for you. If you're going through divorce or family
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  law matter, obviously follow the advice of your attorney. Talk
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  about these kinds of matters with your attorney in advance. Obviously,
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  the laws and procedures could vary slightly in a different state.
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  I'm just explaining how things have generally worked with depositions
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  that I've been a part of throughout my career in
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  terms of how I've seen it. There could be nuances
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  and quirks and your jurisdiction, so definitely consult the lawyer
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  who's license and competent to practice law in your jurisdiction.
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  But for any party who's been deposed, if you've hired
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  an attorney to represent yourself or to represent you at
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  the deposition, then you typically want to follow the leader
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  of your attorneys. So you know, if your attorney tells
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  you did not talk, not answer the question, then you
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  typically wouldn't do that. You'd follow your attorney's advice. At
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  the same time, if your attorney's objection says subject to
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  you can answer, then typically you would answer the question.
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  But you know, going through this in advance, going through
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  different topic areas that might come, and having a thorough
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  discussion with the attorney in advance can be an important thing.
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  Sometimes there can be a recess and a break or
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  a break and a deposition where maybe a client a
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  lawyer can discuss and talk about it in more detail
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  as well. But I just think for a lot of individuals,
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  this whole concept of deposition objections is sort of foreign
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  to them. They haven't seen it and they don't really
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  know how it works. And that's why I wanted to
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  cover this topic today. It's kind of an in the
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  weeds topic a little bit, but for anybody who's been
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  deposed before, they're going to see this and it's important
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  to know generally speaking, how it works. So hopefully we've
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  covered this topic in a way that will help individuals
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  listening to this episode today better understand it. Okay, so
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  that's the topic again today, it's about deposition objections again.
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  As a follow up to the episode, going over to
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  familawheadquarters dot com, read the article titled how deposition objections work.
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  It'll give the listeners more information on this topic. But
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  thanks for tuning in. Today. We appreciate you listening and
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  stay tuned to our next episode of Family Law Talk
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  coming up. Thank you very much.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Family Law Talk with Kirk Stangy.
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  Visit Stangy Lawfirm dot com for more about today's topic
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