30(b)(6): Deposing Corporations, Organizations & the Government, Second Edition

When a party is an institution, discovering facts is often laced with obstruction, evasion, and frustration. Rule 30(b)(6) offers real assistance but only if well understood. Mark Kosieradzki’s book provides an engaging, accessible, and thorough exploration of the rule and explains essential steps for using it. Mark’s book will likely be seen as intended for plaintiffs’ lawyers, but it offers insight for defense attorneys and would be a good read for law students too.

For years, I have followed Mark Kosieradzki around the country to attend his presentations on 30(b)(6), eagerly awaiting the release of this book. His writing and teaching style are content-rich but accessible to even a novice attorney. A well-planned and well-executed 30(b)(6) can win a case, and the techniques I learned from Mark allowed me to take 30(b)(6) depositions at a skill level far beyond my years of practice and win my first civil jury trial. You could spend decades trying to harness the power of 30(b)(6) on your own, or you could read this book.

If your case involves a party with a name ending in ‘Inc.,’ ‘Corp.,’ ‘PA,’ ‘LLC,’ ‘Partnership,’ ‘Trust,’ ‘Dept. of,’ ‘Gov’t. of,’ or if knowledge from any of these bears on your case, (virtually any case being litigated today), this book is pure gold. Kosieradzki’s 30(b)(6) is not only plainly written with straightforward advice, examples, and supporting case law, but a delight to read. I wish he had written it twenty-five years ago.

Deposing a corporate representative is one of the most powerful tools available to a trial lawyer. Mark Kosieradzki’s book is the owner’s manual that shows you the correct way to use it. WARNING: Failure to Follow the Manual May Result in Serious Damage to Your Case!

Mark’s book is an absolute must-read for every lawyer, whether a beginning trial lawyer or a seasoned practitioner who is undertaking a 30(b)(6) deposition. A brilliant work with something of value on virtually every page. A road map to success.

Far too many lawyers practice law using folklore. This book helps those of us who want to read and understand the rules. There aren’t many silver bullets, but this book is one.

Mark has spent twenty years developing a 30(b)(6) roadmap to make it easier and more efficient to use these depositions as part of our discovery. Anyone who deposes corporations, organizations, or the government should read this book.

Mark has taught me how to get documents that the defense would never produce. By speaking directly to the source, I have found boxes of unproduced documents and neutralized objections before the defense can utter them. They are helpless. I use these tools with every commercial defendant and have generated incredible results for my clients. I am forever indebted to Mark for teaching me how to be a ‘Rebel with a Kos.’

In over forty years of law practice, I’ve never read a better practice manual. Mark Kosieradzki has distilled decades of hard work and experience in this single volume. Build off Mark’s experience and improve your results when litigating with corporate or governmental entities that want to play ‘hide the ball.’

In 30(b)(6), Mark Kosieradzki provides a unique approach and a roadmap for truly fact-finding corporate and government depositions. Over more than thirty years, Mark has refined the art of the 30(b)(6) corporate representative deposition. His well-honed techniques will make you a better advocate for your clients. I have been eagerly waiting for this book.

Lawyers often—and wrongly—think of the federal rules as restraints. They are wrong to do so. When understood and prudently applied, the rules provide flexible, economical, and effective ways to marshal the facts and bring the law to bear on a contested case. A hard-litigated case is a real fight, but it’s a structured fight. The rules provide the structure. Mark Kosieradzki shows you how Rule 30(b)(6) cuts through corporate or governmental fog. He teaches the steps you need to get to the facts and the people who know them. His book provides lawyers with powerful tools to build and win their cases.

Thorough, detailed, and comprehensively researched, this book reminds every lawyer that 30(b)(6) depositions are the overlooked and misunderstood gem of discovery. Kosieradzki opens his briefcase, hands you his notes, and then explains in detail exactly how to use them to defeat the enemy. Don’t reinvent the wheel: Kosieradzki’s wheel is better and already battle tested.

Canadians, don’t be fooled by the title. American and Canadian discovery rules are the same. The computer systems that store documents in America are the same as those in Canada. I have been using Mark’s techniques in Canada for years to get information I would never otherwise have uncovered.

Practitioners have long recognized the power of a 30(b)(6) deposition. Even if the opposing party comes empty-handed, a well-taken 30(b)(6) deposition can lead to the discovery of dispositive facts. Mark Kosieradzki’s work offers practical advice for ensuring that your 30(b)(6) deposition lives up to its potential.

In truck crash litigation, the 30(b)(6) deposition is one of the most potentially powerful weapons in the plaintiff lawyer’s arsenal—but only if you issue notices, prepare for them, and take them properly. Mark has been the go-to authority on 30(b)(6) depositions for years and with this book he shares his innovative work with us all. Look out world.

I’ve worked with Mark and seen first-hand the power of his techniques to force corporate defendants to answer questions they don’t want to answer. This book is an excellent step-by-step guide so that you, too, can cut through the evasiveness of corporate wrongdoers. You need this book. Your clients need you to have this book.

Mark Kosieradzki’s book covers the law and strategy for dealing with every possible question about 30(b)(6) depositions. No matter how obstructive the opposition, this book gives you the path and the strategy to prevail.

Mark Kosieradzki has taken the rather mundane 30(b)(6) corporate representative deposition and created one of the most important books for plaintiff lawyers in the last twenty years. Using Mark’s techniques will bring you a treasure trove of information that the generic 30(b)(6) deposition and requests for production would never get. This is a ‘must have’ book for all plaintiffs’ lawyers.

Mark Kosieradzki, an outstanding trial lawyer, wrote this book with his almost four decades of experience. This comprehensive and easily readable book combines illustrations, examples, and summaries; legal analysis of the nuances involved in the rule; and is supported by detailed authority.

Mark Kosieradzki’s new book not only reveals how to spell his last name, but also walks you through the entirety of 30(b)(6) depositions. He focuses on the technical basics and purposes of these essential depositions, and guides you to using them skillfully. If you’re new at it, Mark’s thorough book takes you from zero to sixty with extraordinary clarity. If you think you know all about 30(b)(6)s, Mark’s book will still fill in gaps you don’t even know you have. This is not just another strategy book; it is an essential primer of the technical skills that will help you maximize the benefits of a well-executed 30(b)(6).

Tired of corporate defendants giving you the runaround and producing nothing useful in discovery? Mark Kosieradzki’s book is the key to unlocking the vault where defendants hide the secret documents you need to win your case. This book is an invaluable resource you will use every time you do a 30(b)(6) deposition.

This book allows every plaintiffs’ lawyer in any state or jurisdiction to become an expert on taking corporate representatives’ depositions. Stop the wild hunt for the right witness.

Long before a presidential candidate told us, ‘Corporations are people too,’ the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure required corporations to testify through a single human voice. This rule blocks corporations from putting up a thicket of know-nothing witnesses who hide the corporation’s knowledge behind ‘not me.’ The great weapon that is 30(b)(6) finally has a great explainer and brilliant teacher in Mark Kosieradzki. All advocates for people up against big entities owe heartfelt thanks to Mark for opening his toolbox to the rest of us.