Deposition Question Development

Develop deposition question sets from Relativity-exported PDF productions using a user-provided legal theory. Use when tasks involve reviewing opponent-produ...

Relativity Deposition Question Builder

Overview

Analyze one or more Relativity-exported PDF productions against a legal theory and generate deposition questions organized by document ID. Each question includes a reason for asking and a document quote that can be used if the witness denies.

Required Behavior

• Ask for the legal theory first before producing analysis or questions.
• Ask for PDF path(s) if not already provided.
• Extract page-level document IDs from the bottom-right area of each page.
• If two numeric IDs appear in that area, choose the smaller number as the page document ID.
• Keep quotes verbatim and include source file plus page number for each quote.
• Group outputs by document ID and place each question under its document ID heading.
• Under every question, include:
  • Reason why we ask this question
  • Quote from the document to use in deposition in case the opponent party denies

Workflow

1. Gather inputs.
   • Confirm the user's legal theory.
   • Confirm PDF source path(s).
   • Optionally gather witness name/role and priority topics.
2. Extract per-page text and document IDs.
   • Run:

     python scripts/extract_relativity_pages.py \
       --input <pdf-folder-or-file> \
       --recurse \
       --output <relativity_pages.json>
     

   • Review pages where selected_document_id is null and flag for manual check.
3. Build a relevance map for the legal theory.
   • For each page, classify relation to theory: supports, undermines, neutral.
   • Focus question drafting on supports pages first, then undermines pages for impeachment.
4. Draft deposition questions grouped by document ID.
   • Use short, concrete, single-issue questions.
   • Start with authentication/foundation, then admission and contradiction questions.
   • Use direct quotes from page text for denial follow-up.
5. Return output in required structure.
   • Follow references/deposition_output_template.md.
   • Keep document IDs in ascending numeric order.

Output Rules

• Do not merge different document IDs into one section.
• Do not omit Reason or Quote sections under any question.
• If no reliable quote exists, mark:
  • Quote from the document to use in deposition in case the opponent party denies: [No direct quote located - manual verification required]
• Prefer quotes that are short, specific, and tied to one factual proposition.

Resources

• Extraction tool: scripts/extract_relativity_pages.py
• Output template: references/deposition_output_template.md

Dependencies

Install once if missing:

python -m pip install --user pdfplumber