Checklist: AI-Ready Depositions

Before: Prepare Your Witness Research

• Run expert witnesses' prior testimony, published papers, and public positions through AI to surface inconsistencies with their expected testimony in your case.

• Process prior deposition transcripts and public records for fact witnesses to build a complete picture before they sit down.
• Feed the complaint, answer, discovery responses, and prior transcripts into AI to identify gaps and contradictions worth probing.
• Run your draft question set through AI to check for angles you may have missed.

During: Build a Cleaner Record

• Establish a consistent name or term for each person and entity at the outset and stick to it throughout.

• Ask witnesses to spell out or define uncommon terms and acronyms on the record.
• Keep questions singular; compound questions produce answers that can't be cleanly attributed to either part
• Anchor dates and times explicitly. Avoid relative language like "around then" or "a few months later."
• State exhibit introductions out loud and continue referencing exhibits by name or number throughout.
• If a witness answers sarcastically or ambiguously, ask them to confirm their answer on the record.

After: Extract More From the Transcript

• Use AI to cross-reference testimony across all transcripts in your case file and flag timeline conflicts between witnesses.

• Prompt AI to compile every statement a witness made on a specific subject for impeachment prep or motion support.
• Run transcripts through AI before trial to generate summaries and surface key passages. This is especially useful for depositions taken months or years earlier
• Share AI-generated summaries with the full team to establish a common baseline, including anyone who joined after the deposition was taken.