Litigation Lawyers in South Sioux City

Civil depositions happen during civil litigation in South Sioux City, Nebraska. They are part of the discovery procedure.

"Discovery" is a procedure that happens before a trial in South Sioux City, Nebraska. During the discovery process, both sides are obligated to make relevant information available to each other.

One of the most effective ways to obtain information relevant to a lawsuit in South Sioux City, Nebraska 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 South Sioux City, Nebraska

Depositions in South Sioux City, Nebraska 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.

Civil Depositions in South Sioux City, Nebraska, can take a very long time to be completed, typically lasting several days, and occasionally going on for weeks. So, people who are called to give depositions in South Sioux City, Nebraska should be ready for some substantial inconvenience.

Because of this fact, the law in South Sioux City, Nebraska permits witnesses who are appearing for depositions to be compensated for the expense associated with it. This includes reimbursement for gas, lodging, and food. They can also be paid a certain amount of money for every hour they testify, to compensate them for their time. However, this money can only be conditioned on the witness showing up and giving truthful testimony. Trying to condition it on the witness testifying in a specific way ceases to be compensation, and becomes bribery, which is a crime.

If you are called to a deposition in South Sioux City, Nebraska, 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 South Sioux City, Nebraska Lawyer Help?

If you are directly engaged in a lawsuit in South Sioux City, Nebraska, and have to appear at a deposition, you should already be represented by a lawyer. It goes without saying that you should do whatever they advise you to do throughout the deposition.

If you are not directly engaged in the lawsuit, you might still have to appear at a deposition, if you have information that's relevant to the case in South Sioux City, Nebraska. You likely don't need to hire a lawyer in that case, but it might be a good idea to at least get a consultation from one.