Discovery and evidence

Deposition

A deposition is sworn out-of-court testimony taken in front of a court reporter, where lawyers question a witness on the record.

Federal depositions are presumptively limited to one day of seven hours, and each side gets ten depositions without leave of court. The transcript can be used at trial to impeach a witness who changes their story and, in some circumstances, in place of live testimony.

Organizations can be deposed too. A party can notice a company on specific topics, and the company must designate someone to speak for it, whose answers bind the organization.

Depositions are where cases are usually won or lost, and they are also where settlement value gets set. A witness who performs badly under questioning changes both sides' estimate of the risk far more than any brief will.