A deposition is an oral statement of a witness taken under oath before trial. It is part of the discovery process in a civil lawsuit, which involves collecting and exchanging evidence in a case. The purpose of a deposition is to allow the parties to learn all the facts before the trial, so that no one is surprised once that witness is on the stand. The deposition has two purposes: to find out what the witness knows and to preserve that witness testimony. Depositions are usually taken of lay or expert witnesses.
During a deposition, the witness being deposed is called the "deponent". The process is initiated and supervised by the individual parties, and usually, the only people present at a deposition are the deponent, attorneys for all interested parties, and a person qualified to administer oaths. All parties may question the witness, and there are very few limits on what types of questions may be asked at a deposition. However, attorneys may enter objections into the record, such as the “relevance” of a certain line of questioning to preserve the objections for fuller argument later.
The chief values of obtaining a deposition, as with any discovery proceeding, is to give all litigant parties in a contested case a fair preview of the evidence, and to provide support documents for further trials and dispositive motions. The process provides a "level playing field" of information among the litigants and avoids surprises at trial. Depositions can also be taken to preserve testimony when a witness may not be able to testify at trial.
Depositions are usually hearsay and are thus inadmissible at trial. However, there are three exceptions to the hearsay rule that are particularly relevant to deposition testimony. The first is when a party admits something in a deposition that is against their interest. The second is when a witness's testimony is inconsistent with their testimony at trial. The third is when a witness is unavailable to testify at trial, and their deposition testimony is used instead.
