The Attorneys at Dixon & Moseley, P.C.
Strong, Trial-Ready Advocates Protecting Your Rights
When you are a party in civil litigation (you are suing or being sued), it is common to receive a subpoena for your deposition. This means your opponent is on a “fishing expedition” to find out everything you know about the issues involved in the case. This process is done before a court reporter and you are asked all sorts…
Depositions are a way of gathering information about a case that actually involves your active participation with the attorneys. Most other forms of discovery are just through mail or electronic without both (or several) attorneys or a court reporter (who takes the deposition). A deposition is unique in nature because it allows questions to be asked of you and questions…
One of the key ways to obtain information in litigation is by depositions. In the most common scenario, these are depositions of the parties. Essentially, a court reporter and the attorneys and the litigants meet at one of the attorney’s offices or the office of the court reporter, the witness/party is sworn under oath, and questions are asked by the…
The Four Cardinal Rules You Must Follow It may seem like an odd blog post, How to “win” your divorce case in a bench trial. The law is applied to the facts by the judge who then decides the case, right? Not necessarily. Judges are impartial, but a case can be won or lost by an unprepared litigant or attorney…
In trial court testimony, it is rare that the prosecutor (if the defendant testifies on his or her behalf) or a Plaintiff’s or Defendant’s attorney gets a stunning revelation on cross-examination, such as in the 1992 movie A Few Good Men where the witness on trial in a military court—while enraged on cross—admitted he ordered the “code red” which caused…
Depositions are one of several tools available to parties to obtain information from the opposing party to prepare for trial. When a deposition is set, it is sometimes a great source of stress for the deponent. In fact, most depositions are straight forward. This blog covers some key aspects of depositions to aid readers in understanding the process and to…
Divorce trials are different from other civil and criminal trials because the events that led to the divorce are still going on and creating evidence and issues up to the point of trial. For this reason, a great deal of trial prep occurs near the time of the trial to capture the essence of the divorce dynamics. In this situation,…
When the inquiry is made about requesting the court to award attorney fees in domestic relations cases, such as a dissolution, modification of custody, paternity matter, modification of child support, or contempt issue, or protective order the standard answer is, “We can ask”. The American standard is that each party pays their own attorney fees, unless there is a contract…
Depositions of parties and third persons is common in litigation. In court a deposition may be used to impeach one’s credibility if they change their story or if they are unavailable for trial testimony. That said deponents sometimes do not know whether they should review their deposition and why. Generally, reviewing your deposition and having the chance to note mistakes…
In all forms of litigation, civil and criminal, depositions are a common form of “discovery.” Discovery is the process of obtaining information to prepare for trial. In a deposition, an attorney asks questions with the other attorney asking clarification questions to get an accurate answer. With a deposition, it is easy for a party to under- or over-answer questions. When…