DEFENSE LAWYER / PERSONAL INJURY LAWYER

Why depositions may be important to your case

On Behalf of | Jul 14, 2021 | Firm News

Successfully presenting an aggressive criminal defense requires thorough preparation. If you’re ready to aggressively litigate your case, then you’re going to have a lot more leverage at the negotiation table, and you’ll be better positioned to stand your ground should your case end up going to trial.

There’s a lot that you can do to thoroughly prepare your case, too. One of the most commonly utilized tools is the deposition. Here’s why the deposition is important and why you should consider working with a competent criminal defense attorney to utilize it to your advantage.

The importance of the deposition

There are many benefits to depositions. To start, deposing a witness allows you to learn what that witness knows and gives you insight into how he or she will testify. This can help you better develop your legal strategy and identify weaknesses in the witness’s testimony that you can exploit to your advantage.

Another benefit of a deposition is that it locks a witness’s testimony down. Since depositions are sworn testimony, you can use that depositional testimony to impeach a witness should his or her story change at trial. This simply means that if the witness changes his or her testimony at trial, then you can use his or her testimony given at the deposition to point out inconsistencies. This can destroy that witness’s credibility in the eyes of a judge and jury, which can protect your legal position.

Finally, attempting to take a deposition may allow you to block evidence from being admitted at trial if the witness fails to appear. Here, you’ll have to make sure that you properly subpoena the witness and follow all applicable rules before asking for that witness to be barred from testifying at trial. However, if you’re able to successfully do so, then you can keep out a significant amount of evidence that could otherwise be damaging to your case.

Preparing for a deposition

You can’t just wing a deposition. You need to be ready with questions that are probing in a way that they get you the information that you need to build your criminal defense. That’s why depositions are considered a form of discovery. So, you’ll want to makes sure that you have a firm understanding of every aspect of your case before sitting down to take a deposition. This means knowing the facts of the alleged crime, the witness’s background, and the strategy being utilized by the prosecution.

You’ll also want to be prepared for your witnesses to be deposed. This means that you’ll want them to be prepped so that they know what to expect going into their deposition. After all, the credibility of your own witnesses can be in jeopardy if they give a poor deposition.

An attorney can help you navigate the legal complexities of your case

Depositions are just one of the legal maneuvers that you can undertake in an effort to position your criminal defense for success. You can’t overlook the importance of other preparation tools, such as requests for production of documents, subpoenaing pertinent records, and filing pretrial motions that may help you suppress evidence. Any one of these tactics can be the tipping point in your case, which highlights the importance of being thorough in developing your criminal defense.

If you want to know more about what you can do to drive your case toward the results you want, then consider discussing your situation with an experienced legal professional of your choosing.