Rush Deposition Summary Requests: What to Ask For First

"Can we get the full summary by 9 a.m.?" It's a fair question at 4 p.m. the day before a deposition. It often gets you less than you need.

A full summary of a long transcript takes careful reading, and squeezing all of it into one night puts the most pressure on exactly that. The better ask comes in two parts: first, the testimony the attorney needs for tomorrow, organized and cited; then the complete deposition summary, finished to the usual standard. You get something usable tonight without trading away accuracy on the rest.

Here's what to put in that request, and in what order.

Name tomorrow's use

Start the request with what the summary is for and the exact time it's needed. "Treating neurologist's deposition, 10 a.m. Eastern tomorrow" tells a reviewer far more than "urgent." So does "hearing on the motion to compel, Thursday at 2."

The use shapes everything after it. Testimony needed to question the next witness is read differently from testimony needed for a settlement call, and a reviewer who knows which one it is can skip straight to the pages that feed it.

Pick three to five issues

Next, list the topics the attorney will actually use. If tomorrow is the treating physician's deposition and the rush is on the plaintiff's transcript, the list might be:

• What the plaintiff said about symptoms before the accident
• Gaps in treatment and the reasons given
• What the plaintiff said about the treating physician's advice
• Work restrictions and when they started

Five is a good ceiling. Past that, the excerpt starts turning back into a full summary, and the time advantage disappears. If you already know roughly where in the transcript a topic comes up, add the page range. It saves real time.

Part one: the issue excerpt

The first delivery is an issue excerpt. Under each of your topics, it gives the witness's answers in short entries, each tied to its page and line. Key admissions are quoted word for word. Anything the reviewer couldn't confirm in the time available is marked as unconfirmed rather than left out.

It's short by design. Usually that's a few pages, and it's built to be read in the half hour before questioning starts.

If the certified transcript isn't back yet, part one can come from the rough draft, as long as every citation is labeled provisional. The reasons are covered in summarizing from a rough draft transcript.

Part two: the full summary

The complete summary follows on a normal schedule. It should absorb part one rather than sit beside it, so there's one document per witness in the file when the rush is over. Ask for any entry that changed between the two, such as a corrected citation or a fuller quote, to be marked, so nobody relies on the earlier version by mistake.

What never gets cut

Some parts of a summary are what make it safe to use, and a deadline doesn't change that. Even in part one:

1. Page and line on every entry, so the attorney can read the testimony itself before relying on it.
2. Exact wording for admissions and concessions. A paraphrase of a key answer is the easiest thing to get wrong when time is short.
3. Who said it. Answers from the witness, objections from counsel and colloquy stay clearly separated.
4. Drug names, body parts and dates checked against the transcript. A wrong spinal level in a rushed excerpt can derail a line of questioning.

What can wait

Plenty can move to part two without costing the attorney anything tomorrow:

• Formatting to the firm's template
• The full exhibit log
• Testimony outside your listed issues
• Comparisons with other witnesses' testimony

If several transcripts are due at once, rank them before asking for a rush on any of them. We walk through that in which deposition gets summarized first. And the upload itself should still carry the exhibits and names list from our post on what to send with a transcript, because a missing exhibit costs the most time when there's none to spare.

LezDo TechMed's deposition summary services can split a request this way, with medical and paramedical professionals reading the clinical testimony and the same three-layer quality-control process applied to both parts.

When a rush isn't worth it

Sometimes the fastest route skips the summary altogether. If the testimony you need sits in 20 or 30 pages, reading those pages tonight may be quicker than waiting for anything. In that case, ask for a topic locator instead: a list of page ranges where each issue comes up, with no summary text. It's usually much quicker to produce than any summary, and it points the attorney straight to the testimony.

Whichever you choose, which issues matter and what gets used tomorrow are the attorney's decisions. The request just has to make them clear. Four lines usually do it: the use and the time, the issues, part one first, and what can wait.