Deposition in United Kingdom

Definition of Deposition

In accordance with the work A Dictionary of Law, this is a description of Deposition :

A statement made on oath before a magistrate or court official by a witness and usually recorded in writing. In criminal cases depositions are taken during committal proceedings before the magistrates’ court (See committal for trial). The usual procedure is that the prosecution witnesses give their evidence on oath and may be cross-examined by the accused or his legal advisers. The statement is then written down by the magistrates’ clerk, read out to the witness in the presence of the accused, signed by the witness, and certified by the examining magistrate. The accused must be present throughout and be allowed to cross-examine. If these conditions are not fulfilled, both the committal proceedings and the subsequent trial will be null and void. There are special arrangements for depositions to be written down out of court if a witness is dangerously ill and cannot come to court, and also for depositions by childre Depositions made in committal proceedings are accepted as evidence at the trial if the witness is dead or insane, unfit to travel because of illness, or is being kept out of the way by the accused; they are also accepted to show a discrepancy between the deposition evidence and evidence given later on orally at the trial.

In civil cases the court may order an examiner of the court to take depositions from any witnesses who are (for example) ill or likely to be abroad at the time of the hearing. At the taking of the deposition the witness is examined and cross-examined in the usual way, and the examiner notes any objection to admissibility that may be raised. The deposition is not admissible at the trial without the consent of the party against whom it is given, unless the witness is still unavailable.

See also letter of request.

Meaning of Deposition

The following is an old definition of Deposition [1]: Sometimes is synonymous with ” affidavit ” or “oath;” but, in its more technical and appropriate sense, is limited to the written testimony of a witness given in the course of a judicial proceeding, at law or in equity. “Deposition” is a generic expression, embracing all written evidence verified by oath, and thus includes “affidavits;” but, in legal language, a deposition is evidence given by a witness under interrogatories, oral or written, and usually written down by an official person; while an affidavit is the mere voluntary act of the party making the oath, and is generally taken without the cognizance of hihi against whom it is to be used. Yet the terms may be convertible, as in the rules at law of the Supreme Court. Depose. Originally, to give testimony under oath, to testify; in present usage, to give testimony which is officially written down for future use. Deponent. One who, being under oath, testifies in writing. A deponent is a witness who depones (deponit), i. e., places his hand upon the book of the Evangelists while he is being bound by the obligation of an oath. Depose, deponent, and deposition related, originally, then, to the mode in which the oath was administered, not to the testimony itself as oral or written. Depositions are taken of witnesses out of the jurisdiction, or aged, infirm, sick, or going abroad, upon written interrogatories, the answers to be used as evidence in the event of their death or departure before trial, or of their inability to attend the trial. Testimony in equity, and much in admiralty and divorce, is tiius taken, as is also testimony at preliminary examinations in criminal causes; but, in the last case, is not admissible at trial, except, perhaps, by consent of the accused. See further Dedimus. The testimony of any witness may be taken in any civil cause depending in a district or circuit court by deposition de bene esse, when the witness lives at a greater distance from the place of trial than one hundred miles, or is bound on a voyage to sea, or is about to go out of the United States, or out of the district in which the case is to be tried, or to a greater distance than one hundred miles from the place, of trial, before the time of trial, or When he is ancient or infirm. Such deposition can only be read upon proof that the attendance of the witness upon the trial cannot be procured. Cases in equity are taken to the Supreme Court from the circuit courts, and the district courts sitting as circuit courts, by appeal, and are heard upon the proofs sent up with the record.”The mode of proof,” by section 862, Rev. St., ” shall be according to the rules now or hereafter prescribed by the supreme court, except as herein specially provided.” The circuit courts are not now by law required to permit the examination of witnesses orally in open court upon the bearing of cases in equity. But if such practice is adopted, the testimony must be taken down, or its substance stated in writing and made part of the record. Formerly, in England, the mode of examlniiLg witnesses in equity was by interrogatories in writing. . . At the December term, 1861, of the Supreme Court, a new practice was introduced. Rule 67 was so amended as to make oral examination the rule, if either party desires it, and examination by written interrogatories the exception. Congress has not empowered the district and circuit courts to make niles touching the mode of taking testimony. . . Depositions taken under a State law in conflict with the provisions of the act of Congress in relation thereto are not admissible in evidence. A deposition filed is the property of the court; if the testimony is material it should be used. Some courts hold that it is as competent for one party to read a deposition filed by the other party as to introduce a witness summoned in his behalf. See Interrogatory.

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Notes and References

1. Concept of Deposition provided by the Anderson Dictionary of Law (1889) (Dictionary of Law consisting of Judicial Definitions and Explanations of Words, Phrases and Maxims and an Exposition of the Principles of Law: Comprising a Dictionary and Compendium of American and English Jurisprudence; William C. Anderson; T. H. Flood and Company, Law Publishers, Chicago, United States)