Courts Crack Down on Improper Deposition Tactics
Maryland Bar Journal, Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 47-49, May/June 1995
4 Pages Posted: 1 Aug 2010
Date Written: May/June 1995
Abstract
I have recently been involved in an outrageous series of depositions in an extremely contentious fraud case. Our firm represents the defrauded plaintiff. At a series of third party witness depositions the defense counsel engaged in such inappropriate conduct that for the first time in my career I decided to file a motion for an order of court prescribing rules of conduct at depositions and another motion for sanctions against opposing counsel. As part of this process, it became apparent that there is little reported case law on discovery abuse at depositions. Many of the decisions, such as the one I just received from our federal court, go unreported. Accordingly, this Practice Tips article attempts to identify recent court decisions which bear directly on improper conduct at depositions and how to go about utilizing them if you are faced with the miscreant lawyer.
Keywords: depositions, evidence, discovery abuse, professional responsibility, inappropriate conduct, counsel, sanctions, sanctionable conduct, federal Rule 30, deposition conduct guidelines, Hall v. Clifton Precision, misconduct, attorneys, lawyers, counsel
JEL Classification: L84, K19, K29, K39, K49
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation