Litigation

Dealing with 30(b)(6) Depositions from the Defense Perspective

By Evan Schaeffer

Depositions of corporate representatives remain my preferred method of working up a plaintiff's class action or products-liability case. As seen in the "related posts" below, I've written about 30(b)(6) depositions before, but usually from a plaintiffs' perspective.

In "Be Prepared to Deal With Deposition Notices," Lori L. Pines and Ardith Bronson look at 30(b)(6) depositions from the defense point of view:

Your company has just been served with a 30(b)(6) deposition notice under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and it is your job to respond to the notice and determine who will testify on behalf of the corporation. Is there anything you can do to ensure that your company puts its best foot forward at the deposition? The answer is yes: There are numerous strategies for selecting and preparing witnesses to participate in these depositions.

Pines and Bronson have written a comprehensive article that covers many knotty issues, such as how to choose the testifying witness or witnesses, whether the questioning lawyer is limited in the questioning to the topics in the deposition notice, and the length of the deposition if more than one witness is selected to testify. Recommended.

Related posts:

1. Discovery: Cut Out the Middleman

2. More on Corporate-Representative Depositions, Plus a Sample Notice

3. Corporate-Representative Depositions: Are You Limited to the Topics in Your Notice?

4. Corporate-Representative Depositions: An Amplification of My Last Post

Full post as published by The Illinois Trial Practice Blog on July 07, 2009 (boomark / email).