Personal Injury Child Discovery

Brien Roche

In a case brought on behalf of a minor, the defense will probably want to take the deposition of the minor. The question for plaintiff’s counsel is whether you will allow it. It may be that you can block it. Likewise you may be able to block a defense medical exam of a minor plaintiff. 

Personal Injury Child Discovery-Motion to Quash

It may be that if you are armed with a properly worded report from the treating therapist, the court will not allow the deposition to proceed.

If you’re not planning on calling the child as a witness at trial, that certainly fosters that position.

As part of any Motion to Quash, you may want to consider an alternative of written questions. 

Other factors to consider are:

• will the discovery make he child worse
• barring any leading questions of the child
• allowing either a parent or guardian ad litem to be present
• allowing a therapist to be present and to veto any damaging questions
• creating a mechanism for making quick contact with the court over disputed questions.
• proposing that the questions be submitted ahead of time
• the deposition should probably be videotaped

Personal Injury Child Depositions-Damage to the Child

The court needs to understand that a deposition of a traumatized child could further traumatize that child. Any blunderbuss approach by defense counsel could further worsen the child’s condition. This is especially true in regards to sexual abuse cases.