Depositions
Under the Rules of Court in most jurisdictions either party has the right to take the deposition of the other party and the deposition of witnesses. A deposition is simply a statement given under oath in response to questioning by an attorney. Depositions are normally conducted in the office of one of the attorneys involved in the case and a verbatim transcript is taken by a court reporter.
During the course of a deposition there is no judge present to rule on objections. Attorneys may make objections during the course of the deposition but the general rule is that the only objections that need to be stated on the record are those objections that go to the form of the question. These types of objections relate to defects in the way the question is worded which could be cured by the other attorney simply by rewording the question.
Depositions in general are used to discover what parties and witnesses know about the facts of the case so as to allow the attorneys to streamline their case for presentation at trial.
