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In When and How to Object During Deposition, Art of Advocacy blogger Paul Mark Sandler writes that in civil litigation, “objection-free depositions are unheard of.” Attorneys often make unnecessary objections or fail to make them properly when dealing with parties in the case and the opposing expert witness. Sandler says attorneys sometimes waive objections by failing to raise them in a deposition and offers some helpful guidelines for knowing when and how to object.

4. Grounds

How should an objection be made? To be effective, an objection cannot be vague or unclear. Although Maryland Rule 2-415(g) states that the grounds for an objection “need not be given unless requested by a party,” this language presents a trap. If counsel objects to a deposition question that can be immediately cured, the lawyer must state the grounds to avoid waiving it. The objecting attorney must give enough detail to “provide the questioner with the opportunity to obviate the mistake while the deposition is taking place.” (See Davis, 117 Md. App. at 403-04.) This protocol affords the party taking the deposition the chance to re-word the question and cure any problems in it.

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In Evidence – Handle With Care, fire expert witness and Principal of PyroCop Inc., Robert Rowe writes that:

In a subrogation action filed by a prominent insurance company (plaintiff) for damages it paid to its insured’s as the result of a fire that occurred in the laundry room of the insured’s residence, Plaintiff claimed the fire was caused by an exhaust fan manufactured by Defendant.

The fire expert retained by the insurance company to conduct the initial investigation returned to the scene with a forensic electrical expert to analyze the electrical appliances, components, and wiring at the residence. Once the inspection was complete, the Plaintiff advised the home owner that they could begin repairs to the fire scene.

The Plaintiff then referred the insurance claim to its subrogation unit with the intent to pursue recovery against the Defendant and faxed the Defendant a letter a notifying the Defendent of the fire and Plaintiff’s belief that the Defendant’s fan was a cause of loss and offered the Defendant an opportunity to inspect the fire scene prior to repairs. By that point, however, repairs had already begun and the fire scene had not been preserved.

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In When and How to Object During Deposition, Art of Advocacy blogger Paul Mark Sandler writes that in civil litigation, “objection-free depositions are unheard of.” Attorneys often make unnecessary objections or fail to make them properly when dealing with parties in the case and the opposing expert witness. Sandler says attorneys sometimes waive objections by failing to raise them in a deposition and offers some helpful guidelines for knowing when and how to object.

3. Privilege
If the deposing attorney asks a question that invades a witness’s privilege, such as the attorney-client privilege, the opposing attorney may instruct the witness not to answer. Maryland Discovery Guideline 6 states that where an attorney asserts a claim of privilege at a deposition, the attorney “shall identify during the deposition the nature of the privilege (including work product) which is being claimed” and shall provide certain information about the allegedly privileged communication, including the date and general subject matter of the communication.

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In Preventable Medical Errors, medical expert witness Perry Hookman, M.D., writes that cancer outpatient medication errors may be more common than previously thought. As an example Dentzer states that:

During congressional hearings in 2004 that unleashed a torrent of this type of coverage, a safety officer for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), David Graham, singled out five drugs on the market whose safety should be “seriously looked at. Some newspaper reports the next day featured graphic spreads on the “Five Most Dangerous Drugs” – the acne drug isotretinoin, the weight-loss drug sibutramine, the cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor valdecoxib, the lipid-lowering drug rosuvastatin, and the asthma drug salmeterol. Four years later, all but one of these drugs (valdecoxib) are still on the market, although black-box warnings were strengthened or added for most and a new safety-oriented distribution system was created for isotretinoin.

Few news reports at the time noted that Graham’s list was just that – his own personal list of worrisome drugs, not the FDA’s or anyone else’s. Web sites such as Public Citizen’s WorstPills.org feature literally hundreds of concerns about dozens of drugs. But, we all know that almost no drug on the market is without risk.

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In When and How to Object During Deposition, Art of Advocacy blogger Paul Mark Sandler writes that in civil litigation, “objection-free depositions are unheard of.” Attorneys often make unnecessary objections or fail to make them properly when dealing with parties in the case and the opposing expert witness. Sandler says attorneys sometimes waive objections by failing to raise them in a deposition and offers some helpful guidelines for knowing when and how to object.

2. Incurable Defects

Many substantive objections cannot be resolved by a simple rephrasing. If an attorney asks about irrelevant matters, the questions will usually be objectionable no matter how the attorney poses them. For such an “incurable” defect, a timely objection is not necessary under Maryland Rule 2-415(g).

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In Preventable Medical Errors, medical expert witness Perry Hookman, M.D., writes that cancer outpatient medication errors may be more common than previously thought and asks “has the pendulum swung too far?”

The Implicit Message Communicated To The Public [i.e. Medical Malpractice Potential Jurors] Is That Many Drugs On The Market Are Neither Safe Nor Effective – And That Federal Drug-Safety Regulators Are Generally Incompetent.

Notwithstanding the above a decade’s worth of unprecedented drug recalls and other worrisome developments in drug safety or efficacy have appropriately pushed many journalists into aggressive coverage of pharmaceutical issues. The downside of the drumbeat of coverage, however, is the implicit message communicated to the public that many drugs on the market are neither safe nor effective – and that federal drug-safety regulators are generally incompetent,” reports Susan Dentzer [Dentzer S. “Communicating Health Care News-Pitfalls of Healthcare Journalism.” NEJM 2009,36[1]:1]

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In When and How to Object During Deposition, Art of Advocacy blogger Paul Mark Sandler writes that in civil litigation, “objection-free depositions are unheard of.” Attorneys often make unnecessary objections or fail to make them properly when dealing with parties in the case and the opposing expert witness. Sandler says attorneys sometimes waive objections by failing to raise them in a deposition and offers some helpful guidelines for knowing when and how to object.

1. What objections are necessary?

At a deposition, an attorney is required to object to those defects that are immediately curable–that is, irregularities that opposing counsel can correct at the deposition. Such defects include procedural matters, such as the manner of taking a deposition, the form of questions or answers, the oath or affirmation, and the conduct of the parties.

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In Preventable Medical Errors, medical expert witness Perry Hookman, M.D., writes that cancer outpatient medication errors may be more common than previously thought.

Adverse Drug Events [ADEs]

In a study by Hernández and Vargas (Adverse Drug Events in Ambulatory Care. NEJM.2003;349:303-305), of four primary care practices, the authors found that one-quarter of outpatients had adverse drug events during a three-month period. Of these events, 13% were serious, 39% were either ameliorable or preventable, and 6% were serious and preventable or ameliorable. Ameliorable adverse drug events were attributed to poor communication: the physician’s failure to respond to symptoms reported by the patient or the patient’s failure to report symptoms to the physician.

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In Evidence – Handle With Care, fire expert witness and Principal of PyroCop Inc., Robert Rowe writes:

“Spoliation of evidence” as defined in the National Fire Protection’s Guide to Fire and Explosion Investigations (NFPA 921), is “the loss, destruction, or material alteration of an object or document that is evidence or potential evidence in a legal proceeding by one who has the responsibility for its preservation.”

“Spoliation” may occur when evidence is moved, modified, or destroyed during examination and/or destructive testing. Therefore, extreme care must be taken during the examination of a fire scene as any action on the part of the fire expert that impairs the opportunity of other interested parties (other fire experts, attorneys, etc.) to obtain the same “evidentiary value from the evidence.

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From the blog of medical expert witness Dr. Barry E. Gustin, MD, MPH, FAAEP:

Locality Rules and Qualifying Medical Experts

When it became clear by the 1980’s that hospitals were being built in rural areas, that demographic trends indicated sufficient medical staffing in rural areas, that mass communication and mass transit eliminated the disadvantages of isolation, that all U.S. physicians were held to the national standard for their respective specialty, then the original rationale for the locality and state rules had disappeared, and the courts began to rely on national standards for each given specialty.

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