Blog #6

 Today I went through just a bunch of depositions for a single case. I went through a few hundred pages of answers given by the plaintiff, witnesses, doctors, and the various people associated with the Defendant. Now that I have read both trial transcripts depositions and discovery depositions I can notice some differences. Trial depositions are questions and answers given in an actual trial, while a discovery deposition is questions and answers in order to get information for each side and occurs without a jury or judge. If a lawyer has something that they feel should not have been allowed then they need to get the court reporter to tell the judge later on to look it over and choose to strike it or not. This enormous stack of depositions I just looked through was from a discovery deposition. There is clearly a difference in the type of questions the lawyers ask in each type of deposition. In discovery depositions it is just for more information, so there are a lot of clarifying questions and questions that set the scene of the injury. In a trial the questions are much more of a means to an end. They are meant to paint a picture for the jury. There are less follow up questions more questions that are very specific to a part of the case, diagnosis, or injury. They are meant to highlight the parts of the case that the lawyer thinks helps them win it. So, because the enormous binder of depositions I read was a discovery deposition it helped me get a really good idea of everything that happened that day. I learned the exact layout of a building, the schedule of employees for various months, and what their COVID restrictions were. 

 Just hanging out at my own personal cubicle.