Is this the dagger I see before me?

[gurdonark]

Today I took a very short deposition in a very small case. It's amusing, this process. The witness sits next to a court reporter, across from the questioning attorney. The attorney asks the questions, but attorney's mind is not lost to the usual run of conversational chatter that accompanies a normal question and answer in a normal chat. Instead, the attorney tries to picture each word as it will look typed out on the printed page. Similarly, each answer is mentally reviewed to see "how will this read?". How does one learn this skill? Simple--during the first few years of one's career, one reads transcripts that result when one does not handle things this way. Can you say "dangling participle"? Can you say "indefinite reference"? Can you say "prepositional phrase madness"? Can you say "what the heck is he saying?". Can you say "gee, I thought I had her, but the transcript is so vague nobody can tell what she means". Deposition is not my favorite part of law practice, but it is a curious sensation--not how does it sound, but how will it look on the page? One of our local federal judges actually has a monthly column which memorializes silly questions asked by attorneys at deposition and at trial. So far, I've not been quoted there, but who knows if fame will always elude me.

Comments

[lonestarslp.livejournal.com]

It is -so- hard to talk like one writes--with full sentences and grammatically correct phrases. There is no visual feedback except for the expression on the other person's face. And people in conversations are very forgiving of grammar as long as they understand the meaning. Having to be legally precise in your verbal word usage must take a lot of practice. I am so glad no one is taking down what I say on a daily basis.

Kids have a really hard time with this. I have had to transcribe child language samples, and they either use very short non-sentence utterances or long, rambling sentences that go nowhere.

I really admire a good court reporter. Taking a child's deposition must be torture.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I've never had to do a child's depo, but I'll bet they are a challenge. I think court reporters are amazing.

[amatrixangel.livejournal.com]

Yeah :)

Sometimes they say the excalibur distinct object was vertically opposed and reached a destination horizontal. When they could more easily have said the knife fell to the floor. Or have been talking of something of a sexual nature (ha!)

Well, there's that and all the jargon (usually latin which goes hand in hand with law). Nothing wrong with using jargon when with peers bur for those outside it's pretty useless. Is this an attempt to keep 'who?' in the dark? Other peers, the judge? the clients? Everyone? And what's the point (in law)? Is it used as some sort of barrier to set themselves at a distance from others? Some sort of 'higher' plane? Star-bellied Sneetches perhaps?

Speaking of Dr Seuss

[lonestarslp.livejournal.com]

Or those spooky green pants with nobody inside 'em.

Re: Speaking of Dr Seuss

[amatrixangel.livejournal.com]

Oh yes! I forgot about the pants. It was the only Seuss story which scared me (true!) ...my first 'ghost' story I think :)

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Some analytical law jargon to express the rules makes sense. But in law, there's a general move away from jargon now. In deposition, there's no place for jargon, except perhaps of a technical witness, and yet some lawyers can't break the jargon habit. The more frequent lawyer mistake, though, is trying to construct "real" sentences, but ending up with preposition filled run ons.