15 mistakes plaintiffs make in their depositions.
After your suit has been filed, your deposition will be taken. Most plaintiffs will make some sort of mistake and will damage their own case during the deposition. Here are 15 common mistakes that plaintiffs make in their depositions that you should avoid:
- Exaggerating symptoms.
- Exaggerating liability aspects.
- Telling at least one lie during the deposition.
- Testifying poorly, such as prefacing every answer with “Let me be honest…”
- Exaggerating loss of income.
- Being inconsistent with a prior recorded or written statement.
- Being inconsistent with the testimony of another potential witness.
- Making a substantial mistake in estimating time or distance, for example, “I was sitting at the stop light for approximately ten minutes before I was struck from the rear by the defendant.”
- Making mistakes with respect to dates and time of treatment.
- Being inconsistent with various aspects of the plaintiff’s own medical records
- Refusing to accept responsibility whatsoever in an incident in which the plaintiff clearly has some responsibility for comparative negligence
- Blaming the doctor, physical therapist, or other medical provider for a bad diagnosis, bad treatment, or unsatisfactory result in treatment.
- Being rude to defense counsel.
- Admitting some responsibility for the incident when they absolutely shouldn’t.
- Misunderstanding a question by defense counsel and thereby providing an answer that absolutely destroys the case.
