Litigation Lawyers in College Park

In College Park, Georgia, a civil deposition is a part of the discovery procedure in civil litigation.

Discovery, in College Park, Georgia is a very critical step in the civil litigation process. It is when all of the relevant evidence is gathered by both sides, and, generally, each side must disclose that evidence to the other.

One of the most effective ways to obtain information relevant to a lawsuit in College Park, Georgia is to conduct a deposition of a party who you believe to be privy to that information. A deposition is a Q&A session between an attorney representing one of the parties to a lawsuit, and someone who has knowledge relevant to the lawsuit. This can be one of the parties, or a witness. The individual being deposed is sworn in, and must answer all of the questions presented to them under oath. An attorney representing the other side can object to lines of questioning, on every grounds that would be valid during in-court testimony. The purpose of this is mainly to get the objection on the record, but if it proves to be a major sticking point, a judge can rule on the objections later. If any questions are found to be invalid, the questions, and their answers, will not be shown to the jury during trial. This is much more effective than simply instructing the jury to disregard a question and answer they've already heard.

Conducting A Civil Deposition in College Park, Georgia

Depositions in College Park, Georgia are meant to get verbal testimony on the record and into evidence, when there is concern that the individual being deposed might be unable to show up and testify at trial, or their testimony will take far too long for them to testify at trial.

College Park, Georgia civil depositions can go on for a long time - sometimes going for a week or more. If you get subpoenaed to provide your testimony in a College Park, Georgia civil deposition, this could prove to be incredibly inconvenient.

To help mitigate this inconvenience, College Park, Georgia permits witnesses who are appearing in depositions to be paid a set amount of money for their time, and reimbursed for travel expenses. However, if there is any evidence that this money is being used to influence a witness' testimony, there is going to be a significant problem: this would amount bribery, and it is a serious offense.

If you are called to a deposition in College Park, Georgia, it's absolutely imperative that you answer all the questions truthfully, to the best of your knowledge. When testifying in a deposition, you are under oath, just as you would be in open court. Deliberately lying in a deposition is perjury, which is a serious crime.

How Can A College Park, Georgia Lawyer Help?

If you are the plaintiff or defendant in a lawsuit, you almost definitely already have a College Park, Georgia lawyer. If either party to the lawsuit calls you for a deposition, your lawyer will have plenty of advice for you. You should, of course, follow that advice to the letter.

If you're not a party to the case, but have relevant information, you might be subpoenaed to appear in a deposition. In this case, you likely don't need to hire a College Park, Georgia litigation attorney, but it would not be a bad idea to seek out a brief consultation with one, to get an idea of what to expect.