At some point during your case, our office will call you with numerous questions and requests for documents and other materials. We may also call you to coordinate a date, time and location for you or your family to give one or more depositions. These requests are part of a process called discovery, the stage during which attorneys do their formal investigation of the case.
While most discovery requests focus on questions or documents that are obviously related to your claim, some questions (Do you take any medications? Where are you employed?) may strike you as irrelevant. But it’s important to remember that the scope of discovery is broader than what is admissible at trial. Sometimes irrelevant questions lead to relevant answers that would never have come to light if the question wasn’t asked. Like a movie, however, all irrelevant facts get “left on the cutting room floor” if and when a case actually goes to trial.
We try to make sure you don’t relive the events behind your lawsuit anymore than necessary. If you are asked to give a deposition, we will prepare you for that process in advance and attend the deposition to help you and make sure the other side asks proper questions. While depositions can be stressful and time-consuming, they are the only occasion (other than trial) when you can be asked to tell your story.