Depositions - Fly the Plane

What's the best way to handle objections in a deposition? The answer, it turns out, is it's the same way you handle snakes on a plane. I'm serious.

When I was a teenager I read this article about what a pilot should do if he sees a snake in the cockpit with him. Try to whack it with a flight manual? Radio to a flight attendant to come kill it? Ask over the loudspeaker if anyone is a herpetologist? The answer, according to this article, was none of the above. What you should do if you find a snake in your cockpit is -- 𝗳𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗲! Don't get distracted; don't lose focus; just concentrate on continuing to move the ton of steel you are in control over through the air at 10,000 feet. In other words, your greatest danger is actually from not doing your difficult job, rather than from the snake.

I have no idea if this is really good advice for pilots (though it makes sense to me). But I can tell you that it is for sure the right way to handle objections in depositions, especially in your first few years of taking them. Opposing counsel interjects: "Objection, asked and answered, I mean are you seriously going to keep at that; he's answered it like five times." Do you say: (a) "Counsel, speaking objections are prohibited; please limit yourself to proper objections"; (b) "What do you mean asked and answered; he refuses to answer the question!"; (c) "Asked and answered is not a form objection; stop trying to coach your witness."

The correct answer is none of the above. The correct answer is to fly the plane.

In other words - ignore the objection.

Specifically:

• maintain eye contact with the witness
• let opposing counsel finish the objection
• say politely to the witness "you can answer" or, if it was a long objection, "do you need me to repeat the question"

That's it. You came here with a mission -- to get answers from this witness. Getting distracted from that single mission is a mistake, and one that is likely to do more harm than any coaching, obstruction, or record-making your opposing counsel is trying to do.

Ignore the snake; fly the plane.