I have just been notified of a lawsuit against me. The first deposition is coming up. What are the rules about who can attend? Is this considered a "public" event? The corporation suing me has considerable enemies in the journalistic field. Would a journalist be allowed to attend/

Typically the only people allowed to attend the deposition are you, the defense attorney, the plaintiff attorney and a court reporter. There are some cases, usually injury type cases, that the injured person is allowed to attend.

It all really comes down to what kind of case it is.

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Originally Posted by shortblonde44

I have just been notified of a lawsuit against me. The first deposition is coming up. What are the rules about who can attend? Is this considered a "public" event? The corporation suing me has considerable enemies in the journalistic field. Would a journalist be allowed to attend/

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Where are you? Depositions in my area are held in an Attorney's office, not in a public Courtroom so, no, they are not open/public events.

Usually you have - Attorneys for both sides; Plaintiff; Defendant; Court Reporter or Court Reporters; sometimes support staff to hand papers around, make copies. Usually witnesses and parties are separated, one not in the room while the other is giving testimony.

What kind of case - as J9 asked - ?

[QUOTE=Comments on this post
J_9 agrees: Wow, you said what I said, but easier to understand. This was exactly how I set up depositions.?[/QUOTE]



I always forget you have a "legal" past (which is better than an "illegal" past).

I recently was in a law firm's office while a deposition was going on and both sides demanded their own Court Reporteer so there were two CR's there, sitting next to each other, both taking statements. Now I would guess someone is going to have to compare the two transcripts and see if they are identical.

I couldn't believe my eyes (and ears) and both parties are going to have to pay for their portion of both transcripts!

No one seemed to know the reason for the (basic) distrust.

Well, it keeps CRs working.

Thanks, that's all I need to know.

They can also be held at the Court Reporter's office as well. I have also scheduled depositions at the courthouse itself but in an unused office. Those were for criminal cases generally. For civil depos like yours I would venture that it would be held in the attorney's office conference room or the court reporter's office with a minimum of people in the actual depo room with you.