The strength of the plaintiff’s argument in a personal injury lawsuit depends, to a great extent, on the quality of the presented evidence. The lawyer-client team must work to identify and collect the evidentiary material.

Sources of evidence

• The exchange of information between the 2 disputing sides
• Depositions: the questioning of witnesses
• Written requests for evidence
• Interrogatories: written questions that are sent to specific witnesses.
• Verifications of stated facts
• Proof of the authenticity of important documents

What subjects can a lawyer ask about, when performing a deposition?

• The identity of the individuals that have information about the accident
• The nature of the documents that relate to the case
• The inspection of physical objects and property

What is privileged information? That contains facts that do not have to be shared with those at a discovery session, or a trial.

• Confidential conversations are viewed as privileged information.
• Conversations between a husband and wife
• What a lawyer-client team has discussed
• What a patient has shared with a doctor
• Conversations between a religious adviser and an advisee

Someone that is being deposed cannot be asked to share privileged or private information.

What is private information?

That is something that is not knows, and something that would normally be shared rarely, namely when speaking with a family member or an intimate friend. What are some examples of private information?

• Any sexual experience that the deposed person has had would qualify as private information.
• The health of the person being deposed should get viewed as private information.
• Each deposed person has the right to hold in confidence any information about his or her religious beliefs.
• Facts that concern the family relationships in the family of the person being deposed should be kept private.

In what situations is a different privacy protected?

Those are situations during which a Personal Injury Lawyer in St John’s for one side questions a 3rd party. A third party is someone that is not involved in the lawsuit. For example, an expert witness that has been asked to comment on observations recorded in the medical report would qualify as a 3rd party.

The court protects the privacy of any 3rd party, in order to encourage the disclosure of valuable insights from a 3rd party source. If the same expert were to write a book or a paper, then that document would need to offer a listing for the source of the information.

In contrast to that requirement, an expert witness does not have to give the source of any facts that have been stated by the same witness. The removal of demands for sources of information is supposed to protect the expert witness’ privacy. Hence, an expert’s life experiences contribute to that same expert’s store of information.