They say practice makes perfect. This certainly applies to depositions in any type of case, including injury and employment / wrongful termination cases. One of the best things you can do to prepare for your deposition and to also make sure that you are not overly nervous during your deposition is to practice answering the most difficult questions that you and your attorney think you might be asked. If you are ready to handle the most difficult questions, the rest will be much easier. Practicing will also help make sure that there are fewer or no surprise questions for which you are not ready.
Consider asking your attorney to schedule a mock deposition session with you. During that session, you should go over your answers as well as your demeanor during your testimony, and discuss those aspects of your testimony and demeanor and can / should be easily improved. Here is just one quick example of running through the typical “at-will employment” pattern questions. The purpose of this questioning pattern is to make sure that the witness doesn’t trip up on those questions for no reason, and doesn’t engage in some type of unnecessary argument with the deposing attorney over issues that make no difference whatsoever to his case.
When you make it clear during your testimony that you are well prepared, it sends a strong message to the other side that they will not be able to break you with their questions. More importantly, your solid deposition testimony will show that you are ready for trial, and the opposing side better seriously consider settling your case for fair compensation. Otherwise, you are likely to put on a very convincing case at trial, which is likely to result in a significant verdict in your favor.