Alex Rodriguez’s attorneys are working to ban the Yankee from sitting for a deposition video in his malpractice case—or at the very least, to prevent the video from going viral.
A-Rod’s lawyers, who have said that a videotaped deposition “would cause unreasonable annoyance, embarrassment and disadvantage,” filed the motion for a protective order in advance of the malpractice suit against New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center and Christopher Ahmad, the Yankee’s team doctor.
“I’m arguing that if (a judge) were to allow this, that there be a confidential bar on its dissemination, and that it never, ever can be opened up to the world, and it can never be used for anything but a trial,” attorney Alan Ripka said.
The announcement, which noted that such a tape could cause harm if it became “widely disseminated,” came days after Justin Bieber’s video deposition caused a stir among the online media.
The lawsuit alleges that Ahmad was aware of the presence of a labral tear in A-Rod’s left hip due to an MRI taken in October 2012. The third baseman’s lawyers attest that Ahmad did not tell him of the injury and “knowingly cleared the Plaintiff to resume playing” during the 2012 AL playoffs.
Critics of the motion have pointed out that video depositions are often necessary in cases of unreliable witnesses. This could apply to Rodriguez, who walked out of a hearing to address the circumstances of his drug-related suspension last November.
