Home
Course 02 · 4 MCLE credits

Deposition Skills Clinic

A deposition is not discovery. It is the record you will read to the jury, and the record the other side will read back to you at summary judgment. This is how to build one on purpose.

Six sessions, self-paced, on demand. Taught by David Sugden, a trial lawyer at Call & Jensen in Newport Beach.

All four courses
$99a month
  • This course, and the other three
  • Sixteen MCLE credits in total
  • The member library, and everything added to it
See the membership
Just this course — $499, once. Yours to keep. Buy this course →

30-day money-back guarantee, either way.

6 sessions
4 MCLE credits
On demand · self-paced
$499 once, or included in the membership
30 days money back
What it is

The record, built on purpose.

Most depositions are taken to find out what happened. The useful ones are taken to lock something down. The difference is not confidence or experience, it is knowing before you sit down which sentences you need in the transcript and what foundation each of them requires.

The clinic runs through the whole arc: preparing from jury instructions backwards, the adverse party deposition, corporate witnesses, third parties, the objections that matter and the ones that do not, and how to prepare a witness who is about to be deposed by somebody else.

Take it if

  • You are taking depositions and reading the transcripts later with regret
  • You want the admissions, not just the information
  • You defend corporate witnesses and want the privilege questions settled beforehand
  • You have never had anyone show you an outline that works

What it is not

  • Not a course on discovery mechanics or meet-and-confer practice
  • The privilege and objection material is Californian; the technique is not
  • It assumes you have taken at least one deposition, or are about to
The curriculum

Six sessions, in order.

Watch them in any order you like, but they are built to be taken in this one.

01

Evidence, competency, and the adverse party

  • The difference between great facts and great evidence
  • Knowing the rules of evidence in a deposition
  • The rule of witness competency
  • Personal knowledge, and establishing its foundation
  • The adverse party deposition, and its timing
  • Using depositions for document discovery
  • Preparing timelines for deposition and trial
CasesUnited States v. Microsoft (deposition of Bill Gates)
02

Admissions, work product, and authentication

  • Discovering information versus securing admissions
  • Why dropping assumptions leads to effective questioning
  • Using jury instructions to prepare
  • Initial questions, and difficult opposing counsel
  • Discoverability of documents reviewed
  • The attorney work product doctrine
  • The non-privilege to refuse to be a witness, Evid. Code § 911
  • The best method for authenticating documents
  • What failing to authenticate costs you at trial
CasesRufo v. Simpson · Kerns Construction v. Superior Court · Sullivan v. Superior Court · Estate of Gay v. Thicke
03

Must-gets, corporate witnesses, and privilege

  • Deposition “must gets”, and getting commitments from the witness
  • The importance of stipulations
  • Preparing for corporate entity depositions
  • The duties of the corporate witness representative
  • Questions that establish a witness’s qualifications
  • Confidential communications, and the discoverable foundations of the privilege
  • The attorney-client privilege for a corporate party, Evid. Code §§ 950–962
  • The factors that determine waiver
CasesMaldonado v. Superior Court · Zurich v. Superior Court · D.I. Chadbourne v. Superior Court · Snider v. Superior Court · O’Mary v. Mitsubishi · W.T. Grant v. Superior Court
04

Third parties, friendly witnesses, and objections

  • Third party depositions
  • Strategies for the friendly witness
  • Direct examination strategies and outlines
  • How to lead without leading
  • Transitions, and objections at depositions
  • Foundation objections and the scope of discovery
  • Breaks in the chain — personal knowledge and authentication
CasesSecurity National Bank v. Abbott Laboratories · Rifkind v. Superior Court
05

Relevance, privacy, and preparing a witness

  • The relevance objection, in disguise
  • The evidence analytical framework
  • Exclusions and limitations
  • Putting privileged communications at issue
  • Rules of exclusion — discovery versus admissibility
  • Privacy against the right to discovery
  • Deposition 101 letters
  • How to prepare witnesses for depositions
CasesStewart v. Colonial Western Agency · the Lance Armstrong deposition · the Brett Kavanaugh testimony
06

Hearsay, character, and expert depositions

  • The working rule of hearsay, and its exceptions
  • The business records exception
  • Refreshed recollection against recorded recollection
  • Habit against character evidence
  • Preparing for expert depositions
  • The admissibility spectrum for expert opinion
  • The sources that can support an opinion
  • Asking questions for general acceptance

Four hours of MCLE credit on completion. State Bar of California approved MCLE provider #19358. Self-paced, on any device, and yours to keep.

Or all four

Two courses cost more than all four.

If you are likely to want a second one, the membership is already cheaper than buying two, and it does not stop at four.

This course, and one more
$998

Two of the four, bought once each. Eight MCLE credits.

versus
A year of the membership
$990

All four courses, sixteen credits, the member library, and everything added while you are a member.

See the membership Just this course — $499
The other three

The rest of the craft.

California Evidence 101

The Evidence Code read in the order a trial actually uses it. Four modules.

See the course →

Expert Witness Academy

Designation, the deposition, Daubert and Sargon, and the cross that survives a redirect. Five sessions.

See the course →

Business Trial Academy

The transition from litigating a case to trying one, from voir dire to the close. Five modules.

See the course →
Start

Four hours, and the transcript starts working for you.

Thirty days to decide it was worth it, whichever way you buy it.

All four — $99 a month This course — $499

Not ready? The three free resources cost nothing and take an afternoon.