Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Do you know what a non-party witness deposition is? Would you like to learn the answer? Come
join me as I share with you this great information. Hi. I'm Gerry Oginski. I'm a New York medical
malpractice and personal injury trial lawyer practicing law here in the state of New York.
First of all, a deposition is a question and answer session given under oath. It's pre-trial
testimony. It's also known as an examination before trial. Now what's a non-party witness?
A non-party witness is somebody who is not part of the lawsuit. He is not the person
who is bringing the lawsuit and he's not the person who is being sued either. Instead,
he might be a witness to some of the events that occurred and he might have useful information
that could help or hurt one side or the other. There are key reasons why you would want to
question a non-party witness at a deposition. So here's the scenario. So let's say it's
a car accident case and there was a witness at the scene, at the corner waiting to cross
and he saw everything. And in addition to getting his written statement as to what actually
occurred, now one side or the other wants to take that witness' testimony to find out
truly exactly what happened. What did the witness see? What was he doing? What was his
purpose of being there? Did he have an interest in recording this information? Why was he
there and why did he remember all this stuff? So now one or the other attorney has an opportunity
to go ahead and conduct what's called a non-party witness deposition. And all that fancy legal
terms mean is that now we have an opportunity to question this person. They swear to tell
the truth and now the questions and the answers that he gives is going to be recorded by a
court stenographer and later put into a booklet known as a transcript. This way it preserves
this witness' testimony so now a year or two later when we go to trial and now if this
witness comes in to testify, if he says something different then what he has testified to during
the pre-trial question and answer session now that booklet can be used to cross-examine
him and used to contradict his testimony. On the other hand, if that witness is no longer
available or cannot come into trial, we can still use that information -- that testimony
that he gave -- and then we can actually read that part of the testimony that he gave in
the pre-trial question and answer session to the jury as part of the evidence in the
case. And only, you can only do that when both sides have had an opportunity to be present
and question the witness and ask them any follow up questions. So why do I share this
great information with you? I share it with you just to give an insight and an understanding
into what goes on in the litigation process in an accident case or in a medical malpractice
case or even in a wrongful death case. We see this all the time. You know, I realize
you're watching this because you have questions or concerns about your own particular matter.
Well again if your matter happened here in the state of New York and you do have legal
questions, what I encourage you to do is pick up the phone and call me. You know, I'd love
to talk to you and answer your legal questions. Because this is what I do every single day.
You can reach me at 516-487-8207 or by email at Gerry@Oginski-law.com. That's it for today's
video. I'm Gerry Oginski, have a wonderful day!