Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

Re: Deposition

I am a proponent for telling the truth at a deposition. Most attorneys understand that it is difficult to remember all the answers to questions that you are being asked at the depo.

Addressing your question, I would recommend generally that you make truthful changes because it could take the steam away from the defense at some point. However, it really depends on the change. I have given you two hypotheticals below.

First, let's say that you testify that you were struck by a Honda Accord, but later when you went to make your corrections, you wrote that you were really hit by a Toyota Camry. This would be a minor change because a Toyota and Honda look the same and any reasonable person can make this mistake.

However, if you testify that you were hit by a Honda Accord, but you later change your answer to a Ford Bronco, you are effectively tanked because no reasonable person can mistake a Honda for a Ford Bronco.

Finally, to answer your question, you need to sit down with your attorney and go through each change with him/her so that you can maintain your integrity, yet at the same time, not tank your case.

Good luck.

Re: Deposition

Just to augment what Mr. Lupoff suggests: sit down with your attorney before you make the changes. Sometimes, adding information (even if you're not really changing the basic answer) is unnecessary since a deposition is not designed to help you -- it's designed to help the other side get information that is inconsistent or contradictory to that which you allege.