A Reminder: Depositions Should Start at 10:00 AM

It’s a new year, and everyone is returning their eyes to their litigations. There are mediations to schedule, discovery requests to serve, and of course, depositions to notice.

In light of our return to the profession from the holidays, we here at Abnormal Use feel it is necessary to remind our attorney readers of a critical unwritten rule: Depositions are to be noticed at 10:00 a.m. local time. Of late, we’ve seen a number of our colleagues serve notices setting the deposition to begin at 9:00 a.m. or even earlier. We remain aghast.

As we wrote way, way back in September of 2012:

We, as lawyers, learn many, many rules from many, many texts, including statutes, cases, regulations, and such.  But what allows a practitioner to rise above the rest is his or her knowledge of the unwritten customs of the practice of law.  These practices vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, state to state. The most universal of them all, though, is the old familiar rule:  no depositions should start before 10:00 AM local time. Really, this informal custom is part of the glue that holds our profession together.

Come on, folks. We’re obviously not talking about doctor depositions. But for parties, fact witnesses, and retained testifying experts, let’s make certain we abide by this custom.