Town Compass®, in association with the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA), presents Deposition Rules: The Essential Handbook to Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.

Deposition Rules: The Essential Handbook answers the most commonly asked questions about depositions in an accessible, practical style, and includes helpful Practice Tips. These tips, drawn from the actual conduct of counsel in depositions, address numerous areas, including supplementation by experts, the pace of questions, custody of transcript, and breaks in depositions.

The Database includes:

• 4th Edition: 70 new pages based on the most recent changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Federal Rules of Evidence

• Introduction, including Title, Author, Editorial Board, Copyright Info, Reproduction Permission, Cataloging Data, Foreword, Introduction, Intro to Previous Edition, and Dedication

• Chapter 1: Who
  • Who can be deposed?
  • Who may ask questions at depositions?
  • Can witnesses and non-witnesses both be deposed?
  • Can organizations be deposed?
  • How many people can be deposed?
  • Can testifying experts be deposed?
  • Can non-testifying experts be deposed?
  • Who pays expert fees for disposition?
  • Can senior officials be deposed?
  • Can insiders or outsiders to the litigation be excluded from the deposition room?
  • Who takes custody of the transcript?

• Chapter 2: What
  • What may be asked?
  • What may the attorney direct the witness not answer?
  • What is the significance of an irrelevance objection?
  • What should you do about coaching?
  • What may you ask the deponent to speculate or guess about?
  • What may you ask about the contents of documents?
  • What application does the "Best Evidence Rule" have at depositions?
  • What use may be made of prior statements by the deponent?
  • What reference may be made to testimony by other witnesses?
  • What protection is provided to secrets or confidences?
  • What protection is provided for attorney work-product?
  • What problems can be cured, obviated, or removed?
  • What can be asked about the expert's opinion in this case?
  • What can be asked about the expert's opinions in other cases?
  • What are the "usual stipulations"?
  • What questions must the witness answer despite objection?
  • What must be supplemented in an expert's deposition?
  • What must be supplemented in a non-expert's deposition?
  • What corrections may be made to the deposition (and when may they be made)?
  • What are legitimate bases for objections?
  • What sanctions apply for failure to make discovery at deposition?

• Chapter 3: When
  • May depositions be taken before the complaint?
  • May depositions be taken pending appeal?
  • When, after the discovery conference, may depositions begin?
  • When may testifying experts be deposed?
  • When may you get some priority for depositions?
  • When are depositions and returns on request for production of documents scheduled?
  • When may formal corrections be made to the deposition?
  • When may you take a break?
  • When do depositions begin and end?

• Chapter 4: Where
  • Where must depositions be taken?
  • Where may party witnesses be deposed?
  • In the forum, at whose office is a deposition held?
  • Where does everybody sit?
  • Where do subpoenas issue?
  • Where do protective orders issue from?
  • Where do orders to terminate or resume issue?
  • Where are the notary and reporter in a telephone deposition?
  • Where do the documents go when the deposition is finished?

• Chapter 5: Why
  • Why take depositions of your own witnesses?
  • Why should you use depositions to support motions practice?
  • Why do depositions help you learn new information?
  • Why do depositions help confirm known information?
  • Why are depositions useful to support settlement discussions?
  • Why are interrogatories and requests for admission inferior to depositions?
  • Why should counsel taking the deposition avoid argument with defending counsel?

• Chapter 6: How
  • How do you notify the witness to appear?
  • How do you obtain protection from unreasonable timing?
  • How do you protect your client from improper process?
  • How do you start the deposition?
  • How should you frame questions to obtain new information efficiently?
  • How do you use leading questions appropriately?
  • How do you repeat questions to obtain refined answers?
  • How should you control the pace of the deposition?
  • How do you object to your opponent's behavior?
  • How do you make designations of transcript that you may use at trial?
  • How does your client communicate with you during the deposition?
  • How do you handle exhibits at deposition?
  • How do you number exhibits at deposition?

• Chapter 7: Expert Depositions
  • What is the relationship between the expert report and the expert deposition?
  • What is the most important question to ask at an expert's deposition?
  • What is the most important preparation for the expert's deposition?
  • What is the "Fourteen Document Rule" and how do you use it to prepare your expert?
  • How protective should you be of the expert at the deposition?
  • What role does your expert have in the deposition of the opposing expert?
  • What is the relationship between Daubert and the expert's deposition?
  • The Daubert Deposition Dance - Essay

• Chapter 8: Video Depositions
  • Why should you take a video deposition?
  • How do you adjust your defense in a video deposition?
  • How do you obtain rulings on objections to material in a video deposition?
  • When do you need a paper or computer transcript of a video deposition?
  • How do you use a video deposition at trial?
  • When should you use the video deposition at trial?

• Chapter 9: Seven Ways to Use Depositions at Trial, including Testimony of an absent witness, Past recollection recorded, Basis for proffer, Refreshing recollection, Source of admission, Impeachment, and Phantom impeachment

• Appendix, including section reprints from the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Federal Rules of Evidence