Shepherding The Client In A Personal Injury, Wrongful Death And Accident Case: Steps Of Guidance From The Start Of The Battle To The End
Deposition Part 3
Talking about deeply emotional and personal issues in a public setting can be difficult. Your Alabama personal injury lawyer, wrongful death lawyer and accident trial lawyer should have your back and help you through the process. If you get tired, you can take a break. Be sure to ask your Alabama personal injury attorney, wrongful death attorney and accident trial attorney about any questions or concerns about the situation. Your Alabama personal injury lawyer, wrongful death lawyer and accident trial lawyer will coach you to avoid elaborating on your answers, “making stuff up,” volunteering information that was not asked for, or allowing extreme emotion to throw you off your game plan.
Rehearsal is essential for any complex, valuable activity. But practice does not necessarily make perfect. Only correct practice makes perfect. That distinction is critical. This is a reason why a good Alabama personal injury lawyer, wrongful death lawyer and accident trial lawyer will work up a case early on: to quickly identify and leverage the case’s strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities; and to build in extra value. This is also the reason why great Alabama personal injury lawyer, wrongful death lawyer and accident trial lawyer spend lots of time on client or plaintiff’s deposition preparation.
Some attorneys are of the mindset that their clients have nothing to hide and so they do very little preparation with their clients for deposition in personal injury, wrongful death or accident cases. Thus the deposition preparation might consist of meeting with the client prior to the deposition and reminding them to be truthful, polite, dress appropriate, and only answer the questions asked unless instructed otherwise. However, as Alabama personal injury lawyers, wrongful death lawyers and accident trial lawyers, we realize that a client’s deposition preparation needs to be more thorough and extensive than that. We understand that we must go into the client deposition with a focus on demonstrating liability, personal injury and damages and to address any potential defenses, pre-existing injuries and gaps in treatment, as well as any other critical issues. While being truthful is still a priority, we know very well that the insurance defense attorney comes to a deposition with a fixed agenda of fishing for defenses and issues to escape or reduce liability – and not necessarily to find the truth. The client must be protected with thorough preparation or the value of the case will be jeopardized. There is potentially a lot to lose.
Please, join us in part four of this series as Alabama personal injury lawyers, wrongful death lawyers and accident trial lawyers David Hogg and Aaron Gartlan of the Gartlan Injury Law continue to share their process of preparing clients in personal injury, wrongful death and accident cases for their deposition. Feel free to contact the Gartlan Injury Law for a free consultation.
Aaron Gartlan is a graduate of Troy University and the Thomas Goode Jones School of Law who focuses his practice exclusively on representing those injured by the wrongdoing of others. He is member of the National Trial Lawyers Association’s Top 100 Trial Lawyers, Million Dollar Advocates Forum and Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum. In addition to his legal practice, Aaron teaches Business Law as an adjunct instructor at Troy University’s Sorrell College of Business and serves as a field artillery sergeant in the Alabama National Guard.
