Litigation Lawyers in Throop

Depositions are part of the discovery procedure in Throop, Pennsylvania civil litigation.

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

In Throop, Pennsylvania, one way to obtain this information is to find the people involved in the dispute (whether they're witnesses or parties), and ask them questions about the issues you believe them to have knowledge of. A civil deposition is typically a pretty simple process: the person being deposed is sworn in (they are under oath, just as if they were in a courtroom). Because the whole point of a deposition is to get testimony on the record, a stenographer or video technician will also be present, recording the whole deposition. The lawyer then asks questions of the witness, and the lawyers for the other side are able to object to specific lines of questioning, if they wish.

Conducting A Civil Deposition in Throop, Pennsylvania

Depositions are typically conducted in Throop, Pennsylvania if a person's testimony will take several days, or more, to deliver. By doing this before a trial, the jury can be presented just with the testimony that turns out to be relevant, saving everyone a good deal of time. It is also useful if there is any reason to suspect that the witness will be unable to show up in court.

Civil Depositions in Throop, Pennsylvania, 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 Throop, Pennsylvania should be ready for some substantial inconvenience.

Because of this fact, the law in Throop, Pennsylvania 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 Throop, Pennsylvania, 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 Throop, Pennsylvania Lawyer Help?

If you're a party to a Throop, Pennsylvania lawsuit and are obligated to appear at a deposition, one would hope that you've already retained a lawyer by this stage in the proceedings. Your attorney will have a lot of advice for you, which you should of course follow.

If, on the other hand, you're not directly engaged in the case, but have been subpoenaed to appear in a deposition as a witness in Throop, Pennsylvania, you may not need to hire a lawyer. The lawyers for both sides will probably prep you for the deposition, giving you an idea of what to expect.