You can use this skill to get an initial outline of topics and questions that you can ask a witness in a deposition. Just enter a sentence or two describing an upcoming deposition, and CoCounsel will recommend topics and questions that you can include in your deposition outline.
Step-by-step instructions:
(1) Launch “Prepare for a Deposition”: To get started, select the “Prepare for a Deposition” button from the Skills menu. Once you’re selected this skill, the following dialog box will appear:
(2) Describe your upcoming deposition: The dialog box asks users to describe the circumstances regarding their upcoming deposition, just as they would explain the deposition to a colleague. You can use natural language when describing your deposition; you do not need to worry about Boolean operators or a particular format or syntax for your query.
For best results, we recommend including the following information when describing your deposition to CoCounsel:
Specify the type of deposition (e.g., expert, fact witness, Rule 30(b)(6) representative, or Person Most Knowledgeable)
Briefly describe the type of case and claims at issue (example: “This is an antitrust case involving price-fixing claims in the market for legal research software”).
Note whether the witness is adverse or any other relationship to the witness (example: “This is the lead witness for the opposing party,” or “This is a third-party witness”).
Note anything else you would like CoCounsel to consider when generating deposition questions (example: “This witness is known to be untruthful,” or “This witness may have spoliated evidence”).
Be concise: We recommend that you include these specific points in your query, but your query does not need to be more than a sentence or two. Our AI does best with concise, specific language. An example is included below:
After you finish describing your deposition circumstances, click on the blue “Generate topics” button.
(3) Refine your topics: Based on your description, CoCounsel will prepare a list of deposition topics. You can delete any recommended topic by clicking on the trash can icon. You can ask the AI to recommend additional deposition topics by clicking on the button that says, “Generate more topics.” You can also add your own topics by clicking on the button that says, “Insert our own topics.”
Once you approve the list of topics, click on the button that says, “Generate questions,” and CoCounsel will generate 4-5 questions that you can ask pertaining to each deposition topic.
(4) Review your results: CoCounsel will generate a list of topics and questions for you to include in your deposition outline. A portion of the output will be displayed in the chat window, and you can expand to see the full view” by clicking on the upper right hand corner, as shown below:
Once you are in the “full view,” you can copy the text or download the output to Word by clicking on those options that appear in the bottom right corner, as shown below: