Cracking Down on Deposition Misconduct: Sanctions for Attorney and Witness Improprieties
Bringing and Defending Motions for Sanctions, Avoiding Misconduct, Creative Judicial Remedies
Recording of a 90-minute CLE video webinar with Q&A
This CLE course will guide trial lawyers through the dangerous area of deposition misconduct and creative judicial remedies. Whether dealing with an evasive witness or an obstreperous lawyer, courts are not shying away from issuing costly sanctions orders. Deposing counsel must know what tools are available to keep defending counsel and the witness in line. Defending counsel is placed between the Scylla and Charybdis of not coaching the witness and failing to control a witness.
Outline
- Sanctionable conduct during a deposition
- Witness answer issues
- Counsel objection issues
- Making a record during the deposition
- What is (and is not) proper colloquy
- Memorializing compromise suggestions
- Video as behavior control
- Discovery motion practice
- Order to compel
- Sanctions orders
- Limitations on sanctions to compensation
- Applicability of sanctions to counsel
- Witness preparation to avoid problems in depositions
Benefits
This panel will review these and other relevant matters:
- General principles concerning deposition conduct
- Improper activity during a deposition
- Making a record during the deposition
- Motion practice
- Witness preparation to avoid sanctionable conduct
Faculty
Anthony L. Cochran
Partner
Smith Gambrell & Russell
Mr. Cochran represents individuals and businesses in a wide variety of matters. He has tried jury trials, bench trials,... | Read More
Mr. Cochran represents individuals and businesses in a wide variety of matters. He has tried jury trials, bench trials, administrative and regulatory hearings, and medical peer review hearings. He has appeared on many panels and spoken at seminars on a variety of topics, including the application of the Daubert rule and a host of topics related to white-collar criminal law and investigations.
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Michael R. Gordon
Founder and Managing Partner
GordonLaw
Mr. Gordon has been representing businesses and individuals in all aspects of dispute avoidance and resolution since... | Read More
Mr. Gordon has been representing businesses and individuals in all aspects of dispute avoidance and resolution since 1989. Some examples of the matters Mr. Gordon has handled include acting as lead litigation counsel for a major foreign bank sued for billions of dollars in connection with the bankruptcy of a large telecom company, successfully fending off a $100 million lender liability case against one of the five largest U.S. banks, and obtaining a $48 million judgment against a large California real estate developer. He is a frequent speaker and writer on a variety of topics related to litigation and is the former Co-Chair of the Commercial Disputes Practice Group at a global, AmLaw 100 law firm.
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Monica P. Witte
Partner
Smith, Gambrell & Russell
Ms. Witte is a litigation Partner at Smith Gambrell whose practice focuses on complex commercial litigation. Prior to... | Read More
Ms. Witte is a litigation Partner at Smith Gambrell whose practice focuses on complex commercial litigation. Prior to joining the Firm, she was a litigation associate at Rogers & Hardin. Ms. Witte started her career at Jenner & Block in Chicago, where she represented clients in a variety of complex commercial litigation cases, including CERCLA, ERISA, corporate securities, and residential mortgage-backed securities litigation matters. She received her B.A, cum laude, from the University of Miami and her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.
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