deponent:

(also, especially in American usage: ‘affiant‘; plural: ‘deponents‘)

(a deponent taking an oath before making a deposition)

a person who makes a written statement on oath for use in a court of law, called ‘deposition’, before the actual trial of a case begins;

one who gives evidence voluntarily, usually in a court of law, before the actual trial of a case begins;

an attestor, because he attests some statement; a deposer, because he gives a deposition; a testifier, because he testifies something,

(lawyers preparing depositions for their deponents at a video conference table)

e.g.

To put it in a nutshell, a deponent is like a witness — a person who makes a statement on an issue before the actual trail of the case begins, usually at a lawyer’s office, is a deponent, and a person who testifies something or makes a statement at the time of the trial of a case in a court of law is a witness.

A deponent may be called on as a witness at the time of the actual trial of a court case.

Whether a person is a deponent or a witness, he/she must be extremely careful and watchful of what he/she says or what the lawyers ask him/her because if a deposition signed by a deponent or a statement made by a witness is proved wrong or false, the deponent or witness is liable to be punished… punished severely in some high profile criminal cases!

For an excellent article on what a ‘deponent’ is, please click here, for some guide lines to a potential deponent, please click here, and for an item of news that shows us how we encounter this word in our daily readings, please click here.
Note: ‘Deponent verbs’, are a group of verbs in Latin which are found in passive form but are active in meaning. For an article that gives us some idea of those verbs, please click here.

About the Author:BC Kumar

BC Kumar, an English Language Teacher, taught in numerous countries including Ethiopia, Oman and India, shares his knowledge and passion for the English Language. Disclaimer: This is a free educational website and all content has been compiled by the author. All copyrights to images and videos belong to their respective owners.

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