Brace yourself for a big “gulp” moment. Today's mail — or perhaps the sheriff — has delivered a subpoena for you to appear for a deposition in five weeks. You'll be grilled about a claim you handled four years ago. You thought it was closed — over and done with — but as Yogi Berra said, “It ain't over till it's over.”

An adjuster may have to give a deposition for various reasons. Either he or his company may be a defendant in a bad-faith claim. Someone could be suing the insurer or the TPA over the way a claim was handled, or there could be a dispute between a reinsurer and a ceding company. There are a host of other scenarios: a primary insurance carrier and an excess carrier are fighting, or maybe the adjuster is a defendant. In other cases, the adjuster's deposition may be part of a lawyer's fishing expedition.

To prepare for the deposition, the adjuster should work closely with defense counsel, the lawyer representing the adjuster and “defending” the deposition. Make sure that attorneys get adjusters all of the information and materials the latter needs to review for any deposition. Even if the adjuster has seen the material before, lawyers can note depositions months or years after the claim was closed. No adjuster has a photographic memory in such cases, so the claim handler must review materials.