By Sach Oliver
We use a corporation’s official policies and procedures in almost every single deposition we take, but even more so in depositions with corporate representatives.
The key to using them successfully is to think of them like a large, well-grilled ribeye steak –you don’t eat the whole thing at once; you take it in bite-size pieces.
The wrong way, and I see this all too often, is to hand the defense witness a policies and procedures manual that’s 70 pages front and back, say, “I’m going to ask you some questions about this,” while assuming they know the answers.
They won’t know the answers, and you’ll look like the bad guy for expecting them to recall the details of a two-inch thick manual.
We go to the deposition with a copy of the complete version of the policies and procedures, of course, but we seldom use it in our interviews. Instead, we create visual aid exhibits of the very specific parts we need to discuss with the witness.
Those exhibits are blown up and highlighted so they are easy to read, and we hand the witness the one we want to discuss when we’re ready to discuss it. Then we ask our questions knowing that the witness has the answers we’re seeking right in their hands.
By using bite-size policies and procedures, we consistently get great concessions and admissions and we lay the foundations for other things we want to accomplish with the witness.
