Karen Koehler

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How to (kind of) suffer through leading questions

There is a school of thought that you should not object during trial.  Just let the bad questions go where they will.   So the jury won't think you are trying to hide something by objecting.  Maybe so.  Maybe not.

But in a video perpetuation deposition the court rules on the objections ahead of time.  And then the videotape is edited.  The jury isn't dragged through the technical details.

In this example, the defense lawyer is used to leading his witnesses by the nose through their depositions.  Enter one irritated plaintiff lawyer (moi).  Here is how it starts off.
11   Q    So when you use the term "volitional control," you
12        mean something that you can verify?
13   A    Correct.
14                MS. KOEHLER:  Object to the form of the
15        question.  Leading.
16   Q    Is that correct, Doctor, that objective refers to
17        something that can be verified?
18   A    It does.
19                MS. KOEHLER:  Same objection.  Double
20        leading.

Now this could go on all day.  Instead, after suffering through a bit more of this, I try to deal with it in one fell swoop:
 9               MS. KOEHLER:  I'm going to -- I'm going to
10        object and I'm going to ask for a side bar right now.
11                A, every question you ask is leading.  The
12        reason that I notice this is because all the Doctor is
13        doing is saying "yes."  There's no explanation.
14                So I'm trying not to object to every single
15        question that you ask, but everything that you've
16        asked is a leading question.  And so I can just make a
17        global objection to all the leading questions that
18        you're asking, but then you're not going to be able to
19        cure them if you choose to do so.  So I'm not trying
20        to be difficult, but that's the clue, is if the Doctor
21        is just saying "yes," it's a leading question.  And
22        there's just, it's one after the other, after the
23        other, after the other.  So tell me what you want me
24        to do.
25                MR. C:  I want you to make your objection
15
1        to each question if you think it's objectionable and
2        tell me the basis for it.
3                MS. KOEHLER:  All right.

Sigh.  The defense lawyer wants me to object each and every time.  And I do so.  With nicely rolled eye balls.