Deposition Strategies in Divorce and Custody Cases: Deposing Parties, Lay Witnesses, and Experts
Leveraging Deposition Testimony During Discovery, Settlement, and Trial
Recording of a 90-minute CLE video webinar with Q&A
This CLE course will prepare family law practitioners to take and defend depositions of parties, lay witnesses, and expert witnesses in divorce and custody cases. The panel will explain tactics for preparing witnesses, outline techniques for effective questioning, and offer strategies for leveraging deposition testimony during discovery, settlement, and trial.
Outline
- Planning for depositions
- Determining who to depose
- Goals of deposition
- Seating arrangements, participant personalities, and other "dynamics" considerations
- Witness preparation
- Document requests
- Taking and defending depositions
- Questioning witnesses
- Raising and responding to objections
- Using exhibits
- Using information obtained from social media
- Post-deposition strategies
- Using deposition information during discovery
- Using deposition information during settlement discussions and trial
Benefits
The panel will review these and other key issues:
- What are the most common challenges family law practitioners face when taking and defending depositions of parties, lay witnesses, and experts?
- What deposition questioning techniques will maximize the information obtained from witnesses?
- What strategies are effective when raising and responding to objections during depositions?
- How can deposition testimony be most effectively used during discovery, settlement, and trial?
Faculty
Barbra I. Black
Managing Partner
The Black Law Group
Ms. Black has been practicing law for over thirty years and is a founding member and the managing partner of The Black... | Read More
Ms. Black has been practicing law for over thirty years and is a founding member and the managing partner of The Black Law Group, LLC. She was a former partner at the Boston, MA law firm of Burns & Levinson, LLP, where she practiced for over eight years in the firm's Divorce and Family Law group. Prior to that, Ms. Black was a solo practitioner for several years, focusing her practice in the area of domestic relations litigation.
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David H. Pikus
Principal
Bressler Amery & Ross
Mr. Pikus has been actively engaged as a litigator for over three decades in New York and New Jersey. Devoted to... | Read More
Mr. Pikus has been actively engaged as a litigator for over three decades in New York and New Jersey. Devoted to complex cases, his experience has spanned nearly all facets of litigation, including general commercial, matrimonial, bankruptcy, regulatory, public utility, securities, environmental and intellectual property.
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