In a medical malpractice case there could be instances where one of the defense attorneys could start screaming and yelling at the plaintiff’s lawyer during deposition. For instance, the plaintiff’s lawyer was taking pretrial testimony of an obstetrician in a medical malpractice case involving failure to deliver a baby in a timely manner, which caused significant injuries to the precious baby.
In a medical malpractice case there could be instances where one of the defense attorneys could start screaming and yelling at the plaintiff’s lawyer during deposition. For instance, the plaintiff’s lawyer was taking pretrial testimony of an obstetrician in a medical malpractice case involving failure to deliver a baby in a timely manner, which caused significant injuries to the precious baby.
This deposition was taking place in a lawyer’s office without the judge, but with a court stenographer present, who was recording everything. In the middle of the questioning, one of the defense attorneys representing the hospital becomes very agitated and starts shouting and objecting to the question, the plaintiff’s lawyer is asking. The defense attorney has every right to object during the course of the pretrial testimony.
However, when being asked for the record, why the defense attorney was objecting, the defense lawyer says he does not have to give any reason for the objection. The defense says they are preserving their right for trial. However, when an objection is made, they are supposed to provide a valid reason for the objection even if it is during the deposition.
Objecting without Giving a Valid Reason
In this instance, the defense attorney simply wanted to argue about the question being asked. Even though the defense has the right to object, it must be supported by a reason and the objection cannot be raised simply for argumentative purposes. The plaintiff lawyer will ask the defense attorney to put the reason for the objection on record, so that he can ask the judge to take action because of the repeated objections.
The plaintiff’s lawyer will then have the ability to point to the record and show the judge the reason for the objection. The lawyer can then explain to the judge why he feels such reasoning was wrong for raising the objection. The lawyer can then ask the judge to take further action.
The defense attorney had no basis for raising the objection and when he was confronted with the fact that he had to put a reason for objecting on the record, he became agitated and started shouting. As the deposition continued, and plaintiff’s lawyer kept asking questions, the defense attorney kept objecting, but he did not provide any reason for the objections. When asked to put the reasons for the objections on record, the defense becomes even more agitated and starts screaming.
Typical Behavior of Certain Attorneys during Deposition
When such behavior is seen during pretrial testimony, one can safely assume that this attorney is typically not a trial attorney, and will not be the one who will actually try the case at trail. If the lawyer were a trial attorney, he would have realized that the objections he was making were improper. Even if they were improper objections, he would have provided some reasons for the record.
Manipulating the English Language
During a medical malpractice deposition, a lot of time is wasted when the attorneys start objecting about the type of questions the opposing counsel is asking. Experienced attorneys will have the capability of quickly rephrasing the question in different ways in order to counter the objections, and move on.
