Legal Question in Business Law in California

The best person to ask about this is your attorney, the one who told you how to answer questions. Do not worry that you did not get to explain your answers. Your attorney will be able to explain and supplement your answers at trial. If the court reporter made gross errors in transcription, your attorney knows how to address this issue.

Were you represented by an attorney at the deposition? If so, you should consult with him/her about what to do. As a general matter, and without knowing any of the facts of the case, you can change any answers that you gave so that they are a correct and truthful response to the question asked. You may not, of course, change the question. You want to be sure that any answers you gave were completely truthful because if they are not it could come back to bite you in the future. In short, it is better to change your testimony now rather than sign the transcript under penalty of perjury and then try and change your answers later.

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My gut reaction is to support the court reporter's version as set forth in the transcript. All attorneys know that reporters occasionally make mistakes, but it is rare for the transcript to be riddled with mistakes as apparent as "yes" where the deponent said "no." More often than not, a novice deponent loses track of the question being asked, and thus answers with a positive response where a negative response was appropriate because of failing to notice that the question contained a double negative. More typical reporter "mistakes" are things like typing "Jim's Supply" where the witness said "Gyms Apply" or rendering "unh-unh" as "uh-huh."

Another thing you might try is asking for the transcript to be re-created from the original paper or electronic tape, in case there were transcription errors.

If you were represented by an attorney at the deposition, and that attorney were adequately familiar with the case, the attorney could and should have asked questions on the record to allow you to correct mis-statements or misleadingly answered questions.