Sat in on a deposition at the King County courthouse and saw a paralegal catch a witness in 3 lies

I had to go downtown last Tuesday for a property dispute deposition. This one paralegal from the other side kept flipping through old emails quietly while the witness answered. She waited until the witness said they never got a notice, then slid a printout across the table with the date and time stamp. The attorney just nodded and moved on, but everyone at our table caught it. Has anyone else seen a paralegal do something that basically won the case on the spot?

3 comments

3 Comments

lopez.simon2mo ago

3 times I've seen a paralegal save the day but my favorite was when I was on jury duty and this young guy quietly handed his boss a napkin with a math problem on it. The attorney read it, then asked the witness to recalculate their timeline. Numbers suddenly didn't add up and the case basically fell apart. I can barely find my car keys in the morning so watching people that organized is humbling and terrifying at the same time.

troy8322mo ago

Gotta hand it to the support staff who quietly save the day like that. I once watched a legal secretary catch a typo in a contract that would have cost my buddy's company about twenty grand. She just circled it with a red pen and slid it back across the table without saying a word. Totally agree with you, @lopez.simon, seeing someone that sharp while I can't remember where I put my phone is both humbling and a little scary.

patriciareed1mo ago

Hold on a second, isn't this kind of thing what happens when a case is weak on facts and you have to resort to getting a clerk to dig up a technicality? Catching someone in a date stamp lie doesn't mean the whole case is won, it just means the witness was sloppy with their paperwork, not that the other side is right. Honestly, I'd rather see a solid argument win a case than a gotcha moment with a printout, because that just proves the witness was a bad witness, not that the paralegal was a genius.