Ferguson v. JONAH – Hoffman Video Transcript

Transcript of video-recorded testimony (excerpt of deposition) of Jonathan Hoffman played in court June 22, 2015 (Trial Day 10).

Full transcript for June 22, 2015, see here.
See links to all trial transcripts here.

A note about the video-recorded testimony:

Several of the defendants’ “success story” witnesses testified at trial by presenting excerpts of testimony videotaped earlier at their discovery depositions. These videos don’t present testimony in the sequence one might usually expect in trial testimony (i.e., direct, cross, then redirect) because at the time they were originally produced it wasn’t clear they would be used in lieu of live testimony.

Defendants did not clarify before the close of discovery depositions which, if any, of their “success story” witnesses would testify at trial, and of those that would, which would testify live. It was not until closer to trial that defendants clarified which of these witnesses would appear by video rather than live.

After it was settled that video testimony would be used, both sides were able to make designations from any portion of the deposition without regard to which side asked a particular question at the deposition. So if one party’s attorney asked a question on the tape, the other party might have asked for that question and answer to be included in the video designations. Then, all designations were played for the jury in sequential order from the original depositions. This is why questioning at times appears disjointed within the context of trial because of the original context of a discovery deposition and because the jury was not shown the entire depositions.