Monday, October 23, 2006

Carehouse Convalescent Hosp. v. Superior Court (Cal. Ct. App. - Oct. 23, 2006)

Friends. Countrymen. Lend me your ears. Thou shalt not be allowed to depose the other side's lawyer. It ain't gonna happen. Even when you (rarely) convince the trial court, the Court of Appeal may well step in and grant a writ. A peremptory writ, even. As Justice Sills does here.

It's a punchy and short opinion, albeit a bit long on generalities. It's certainly a great opinion to cite the next time someone threatens to take your depo. And it assuredly reveals the extreme judicial reluctance to allow depositions of counsel. For those reasons alone, it's worth the five minutes it takes to read the thing.

The end result of all this is that attorney Kippy L. Wroten -- a Western State Law School graduate (who got her undergraduate degree at Cal State Long Beach, the alma mater of my good friend Dan Rodriguez) -- doesn't get her deposition taken. And Robert John Chavez -- a double graduate of USC -- doesn't get to take it.

Go forth and prosper, my friends.