Video Transcript
Interviewer: Will I have to testify in court?
Attorney Reuben J. Donig: You will only have to testify in court if your case actually goes to trial. Almost all cases get settled. So, in almost all cases, you will not have to testify in court. About half the cases that I get, if I get them soon enough, we’re able to get them solved before you even have to file a lawsuit. So there’s no testifying at all.
In the other half, a lawsuit needs to be filed either because we are unable to get to the bottom and make a reasonable prognosis of the person’s injuries by the two-year statute of limitations when the lawsuit has to be filed, or there’s just no ability to accommodate with the other side. If your case goes into litigation. Once it gets to the point where the other side’s hired an attorney, in almost every case, there are going to be some depositions taken and you will have to submit to a deposition. That is a form of testimony. It is testimony just like testifying in court is testimony, but a deposition is not done in court. It’s done in the lawyer’s office, and that’s where he asks the questions.
So if the question is, “Will you have to testify in court?” Ninety to ninety-five percent of the cases that I get, get settled without going to court. So, in those cases, you don’t have to testify, 5% of the time you will but the chances are about 50/50 that you may have to give a deposition.
