One at a time, please!

I sat in on a depo yesterday that, to be honest, drove me a little bit bonkers. The deponent refused to answer questions verbally, but rather repeatedly tried to respond with nods and grunts instead. The attorneys were constantly asking her, "Was that a yes?" or "Was that a no?". She must have been gently reminded a million times to please wait until the question was completely asked before answering, or to speak clearly using actual words when she responded. This was a court reporter's nightmare. In addition, one of the attorneys was really soft spoken and so listening for his objections proved a little challenging, especially since it was just one more thing to worry about in the mix of all these constant interjections. All in all, it was a classic case of too many people speaking at once or cutting each other off mid-sentence. By the end, everyone's little nuances were starting to drive me completely nutty. The court reporter did interject only once out of necessity, and handled the entire experience in stride (probably thanks to her 30 plus years of experience.) I myself wanted to interject and yell, "Hey lady, try speaking with some actual words!!!! And everyone, please, just one at a time!" Of course, I refrained. Instead, I sat quietly taking down, as best I could, everything that was being spoken, and quietly thanking God that for this very day it wasn't me who was responsible for creating the official record.