"I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE I ANSWER YOUR QUESTION CORRECTLY": Via the WSJ Law Blog (and HT: @jonhyman), how the deposition question of "During your tenure in the computer department at the Recorder’s office, has the Recorder’s office had photocopying machines?" leads to an epic conversation about the parlance of our times.
Do make sure to click through to the fuller transcript, because anytime a deposition gets to "If you feel stupid, it's not because I'm making you feel that way," you know you're somewhere special.
As the son and nephew of Court Reporters, I think every deposition should dissolve into pages and pages of minutia like this.
ReplyDeleteReading through the more complete excerpt, if he had only started with the term Xerox, apparently this would have moved more quickly. It really does feel like who's on first. It should have been, "I'm in your office, okay?" "Sure." "I take a piece of paper." "Right." "I want to make a copy." "No problem, we make copies." "So I go to make a photocopy." "No, you don't, we don't make photocopies." "SAME AS YOU."
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, if he'd started with Xerox, a slippery witness would have gladly said no, on the grounds that, guess what? They don't have Xerox-brand machines there.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure I'm not alone here in saying I've taken that deposition a dozen or more times. I'm getting ready to take it again, and very much like the plaintiffs' lawyer in that case, I'm going to make the witness tell me he doesn't know what I'm talking about when I use a commonly understood term.
ReplyDeleteThat made me laugh, and also reminded me of the Bill Gates depo in which he spent approximately three days questioning every question.
ReplyDeleteThis is only tangentially law related: As many of you know, I'm in law school and we made a video for our law musical (Fordham Follies) that deals with studying in the library. I would love it if you all would watch - I am the curly-haired zombie!
<span><span>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v</span><span></span>=DTrTqK1n0RM</span>
Watch it, remember how you felt on hour 12 in the library, and be thankful that you are no longer in law school.
PL: Have you ever seen on a device the words PC Load Letter?
ReplyDeletePL: identify, in decreasing order by size, the largest objects in your office that plug into an electrical outlet. I will stop you when we get to the one I want.
ReplyDelete