What is a deposition?

A deposition is an opportunity for parties in a civil lawsuit to obtain testimony from a witness under oath before a trial begins. The person being deposed will sit with a court reporter while someone asks them questions. Typically, it is the attorney for the other side who is asking the questions. It usually comes after written discovery so you have a basic idea what the facts of the case are but the deposition is where you can ask more in depth questions. A deposition usually lasts anywhere from two hours to a couple of days depending on the difficulty of it and every party in the litigation has the ability to use depositions. They can depose the other party, they can subpoena witnesses that they think are going to be relevant and depose them too.