Deposition Tips & Traps

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How to Protect Your Fathers’s Rights and Mother’s Rights at a Deposition

A deposition is part of the discovery process in a custody trial.  Your spouse’s lawyer gets to ask you a lot of questions, some rude or embarrassing, at his or her office, in front of a stenographer who is taking everything down to be used against you at trial.  You are in the hot seat and it may take all day.

The lawyer has usually done this hundreds of times and knows a lot of tricks, trips and traps.  And the lawyer gets to ask the questions.  You have to answer them.

Here is the number one thing I tell my clients before their deposition.  Repeat the question in the form of a declaration, pause, and finish the sentence.  Put a period at the end of it and then stop talking.  Wait for the next question.

So the lawyer asks, “Where were you on the night of August the 7th of this year?”

You say, “On August the 7th of this year…I was at work.”

This approach has several benefits.  It gives you time to think.  It keeps you focused on the question asked.  It keeps you from talking too much.  It keeps you from guessing.  It keeps you calm.  And it might keep you from saying something that can be used against you at trial.

/by James J. Gross

Divorce Attorney Reviews Fathers’ Rights Book

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A Chicago divorce attorney decided to review our father’s rights book. It did not go as she had planned.

“Thus, it was with a smirk that I picked up the book titled Father’s Rights by James J. Gross. I intended to flip through it, roll my eyes and pity the poor father who would take such a BS book seriously.”

That’s from Chicago divorce lawyer, Marie Fahnert, at JustDivorceBlog.Com.

But, after reading the book, she says in her three part review, “To my surprise the book is very good!”

/by James J. Gross

Father’s Rights Book Published

Fathers’ Rights (A Legal Guide to Protecting the Best Interests of Your Children) by James Gorss, published by Sphinx Publishing.

There is much demand for information about father’s rights out there, and little available. The stakes are high, emotions are tense, and confusion abounds.

So I wrote my book for the average dad, who is trying to find his way through a child custody case, and do what is best for his kids.

I will also try to explain the law of fathers’ rights on this blog, clearly and concisely, in plain language, with a little humor and wisdom thrown in as well. I welcome your questions, comments and suggestions.

/by James J. Gross