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Depositions - Practical Matters

Before embarking on any exercise to obtain evidence (take depositions) in England, please call us to discuss the matter.

Similarly, if you or your clients are the recipient of an Order, we can advise on whether there are realistic prospects of challenging the Order or modifying it to deal with concerns raised by the Order. There is a 7-day time limit from date of service for applying to set aside such an Order, so it is important that you contact us immediately if you wish to consider applying to set aside or modify the Order.

The conduct of the examination (deposition) is also governed by stringent rules and we often represent witnesses at US depositions conducted in England to ensure that the examination is conducted in accordance with the rules.

We will work with US attorneys to ensure that the Letter of Request, or Letters Rogatory, will comply with the requirements of English law and procedure, to ensure that the substance of the request is acceptable to the English Court and that the request as a whole, and particularly document requests, is in a form, that does not infringe any of the requirements set out above.

We will work within whatever time constraints there are, but it is advisable,when seeking to take depositions or obtain documents from witnesses in England, to allow a reasonable amount of time to draft the request, ensure that it comports with the English requirements, obtain an Order from the English Court, serve the Order personally on the witnesses (and, if necessary, deal with any request to set aside the Order).

With the right preparation and advice, the whole process should be smoother than rushing at the last minute to beat a deadline and ensuring that the request is made in a manner which is acceptable to the requesting court (in the United States) and the English Court, which willendeavour to assist the US Court if it possibly can.

"It must be remembered that it is the duty and pleasure of the English Court to respondpositively to a letter of request if it can. It is also in the public interest thata court (on either side of the Atlantic) should have all relevant material available to it when it decides a case."

United States of America v. Philip Morris and Others.

For more general information, please see Depositions.