Who Can Attend a Deposition

I’m Katelyn Holub, an attorney focusing on personal injury law in northwest Indiana.

Welcome to Personal Injury Primer, where we break down the law into simple terms, provide legal tips, and discuss personal injury law topics.

You may have heard that at trial, upon motion of one of the parties, the court can issue an order separating witnesses.

What does this mean?

It means that if the court orders the separation of witnesses until a witness testifies, the witness needs to stay outside of the courtroom and not hear or see another witness testify.

The reasoning behind such an order is that it prevents witnesses from coordinating their stories.

In theory, a separation of witness order makes sense. But what about witnesses attending the depositions of other witnesses?

The same principle applies. Without a court order, a potential witness in a case can attend the deposition of another witness.

Of course, a party can seek a motion for a protective order to prevent one witness from attending the deposition of another witness or prevent the reading of a deposition transcript before testifying in a deposition themselves.

But in practical terms does this work?

Consider experts for example. Many experts must base their opinions on what witnesses testify as to their observations.

For example, in a medical negligence case, an expert consulted by the plaintiff will almost always need to know what the target defendant doctor has to say about the medical treatment or lack thereof at issue. It would be shocking if a court were to issue an order preventing the disclosure of a treating doctor’s testimony in such a situation.

A party to a lawsuit, however, can never be excluded from a proceeding.

For example, if a husband and wife are both suing for injuries suffered by the wife in a crash, a court cannot exclude either of them from attending each other’s depositions, or the depositions of the defendant, and cannot exclude them from being in the courtroom at trial while other witnesses testify.

I hope you found this information helpful. If you are a victim of someone’s carelessness, substandard medical care, product defect, work injury, or another personal injury, please call (219) 736-9700 with your questions. You can also learn more about us by visiting our website at DavidHolubLaw.com – while there, make sure you request a copy of our book “Fighting for Truth.”