Today was a day of two doctor depositions in Kingsport. Kingsport is only a few miles from the border of Virginia and Tennessee. Total round-trip mileage: 264.6 miles. Since I went there in the morning, driving east, and came home in the evening, driving west, I had the sun in my eyes the entire time. Somehow, I was able to time it so that I was driving at the precise time that the sun was below my car’s visors — in both directions!
It was worth it, though. I drew lots of objections from the other lawyers. In California, lawyers objected to my deposition question when I asked a bad question, or even a marginally bad question, because the general rule in California is an objection not timely made during the deposition is waived. In Tennessee, however, all substantive objections are reserved for trial, so the only objection you can make in a deposition is to the form of the question. I’ve noticed that attorneys object to questions here when the attorney asking the question is scoring points for their own team. The fact of the matter is that the form of the question is rarely an issue at all; I’ve been taking depositions for going on twelve years now, so I know how to ask questions with reasonable skill. Consequently, I take great joy in drawing lots of objections, because it means I’m getting evidence that the other side would rather I didn’t have. And as if the plentiful objections left in the wake of my questioning was not enough, the attorneys also felt compelled to ask a long series of “damage control” questions when I was done.
Now, that’s not to say I did a perfect job. I’m sure there were areas that I left uncovered; I got a preview into what one witness thought about my expert’s opinion but did not ask about his opinion of the other one simply because I did not remember to return to that area of questioning before I relinquished control of the session. And a lot of the good questioning was the result of help I got from my medical consultant, a doctor and colorful local character who is no longer in practice. “The Doc” is quite interesting to hang out with and has had quite a wide variety of experiences, including being the Knox County Medical Examiner for fourteen years. He’s also widely-travelled and has given a lot of deep thought to religious and legal issues, and is wonderfully cynical and candid in his opinions. So it was a pleasure talking with him as we made our way to and from the Tri-Cities area.
Later this week, I get to go away from the sun as the work will take me to Paris, Tennessee, which is located to the north and west of Nashville, near the Kentucky border. But it looks like I’ll be a passenger in The Great Man’s plane rather than driving my car. Will that be a a scary adventure (particularly during landing), a tedious talk session being trapped in the airplane with The Great Man with no means of escape or distraction, or could it actually be fun? Only the future will tell. But for now, I’ve had enough for one day.
