More on Depositions and Family Law Discovery

I started discussing depositions back in Family Law Discovery: Depositions. Reading Deciding Who To Depose [Part II] from Lean and Mean Litigation Blog made think it was time to get back to the subject:

A high burden to say the least but its spirit is dead on. Depositions should only be taken when absolutely needed. In any event, regardless of what burden you adopt in deciding whether to depose someone, here are some threshold questions that must be asked about every potential witness:

(1) how will the witness' testimony further the ball in our preparation for summary judgment and trial?

(2) are there other means of establishing what this witness is going to say - e.g. via the written documents, a declaration/affidavit?

(3) what are the key questions we intend to ask and what do we believe will be the witness' answers?

(4) will asking these questions and receiving the anticipated answers help in our preparation for summary judgment or trial or are we better off waiting until trial to ask these questions?

All of these are spot on, and I have to say that anything else is wasting the client's money.