It’s a tough situation when lawyers for the other side start asking sensitive questions. Questions at a deposition are by their nature going to be intrusive.
If a lawyer asks what we feel to be an inappropriate question, under the rules, we can only instruct the client not to answer the question for only one of two reasons: either the answer to the question is protected by the attorney-client privilege or the question qualifies as harassment.
When we’re making that decision on whether a question is harassment, it’s a judgment call. Even though we may instruct a client not to answer a question that we feel is intrusive, we can always deal with it after the fact by filing a motion asking the court to exclude that question at trial and to exclude the answer as being beyond the scope of the action.
The long and short of it is that just because something is said in the deposition doesn’t mean that it’s going to come into the trial. We are there with our clients before the deposition, then also during the deposition to object when necessary, and to be there with them after the deposition so the client is never going it alone.
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