Following the filing of a lawsuit, a discovery session gets scheduled. During that session a number of depositions get taken.

What is the nature of a deposition?

That is a time during the discovery session when an attorney questions a witness. The answers given by the witness reveal the strengths and weaknesses of a specific party’s case.

Who might be asked to testify at a deposition?

Both the plaintiff and the defendant need to testify.Others that can provide facts, facts that relate to the personal injury case, may also testify. If the case being pursued arose from a car accident, one or more of the eye witnesses might be asked questions during a deposition.

If the personal injury had resulted from a slip and fall incident, a contractor or a property managed might be deposed. On the other hand, if the lawsuit had resulted from a medical malpractice claim, then physicians, nurses and other members of a facility’s medical staff might be called to testify.

Sometimes, the injury lawyer in Buena Park for the plaintiff has discovered that it would help to gain a greater degree of insight into the defendant’s state-of-mind at the time of the injury-causing incident. When that happens, then that same attorney might elect to depose one or more of the defendant’s neighbors, friends, or co-workers. Even a visiting nurse and private investigator might be deposed.

Understand that a lawyer might find it necessary to search for new facts, as different pieces of evidence come-to-light. Frequently, those new facts must come from an expert. There are all sorts of experts that might appear at a deposition for a personal injury case.

The experts that might be called to testify at such a deposition

If the plaintiff has been injured in a car crash, the defense attorney might seek testimony from an expert at accident reconstruction. If that same plaintiff has requested compensation for the loss of future opportunities to earn a living, it then becomes necessary to estimate the cost of living in the coming years. That need could push the plaintiff’s lawyer to depose an expert in economics.

Finally, if the plaintiff has filed a medical malpractice lawsuit, then either of the lawyers might choose to depose a medical specialist. That specialist would need to have gained a large amount of knowledge in a field that had a relation to the plaintiff’s medical condition. For instance, suppose that the plaintiff claims to have developed a traumatic brain injury, as the result of a collision. In that case, the plaintiff’s attorney might decide to depose a neurologist. Physicians that choose to specialize in the field of neurology devote time to learning as much as possible about the human brain.