Legal Research

"Dealing With Greased Pigs and other Similar Witnesses"

This post was written by Stewart Weltman: "...What should you do when you are confronted with what I will call the greased pig witness at a deposition?

The greased pig is someone who answers your questions with slime.  By that I mean, if you ask a question you never get an answer.  You get something else that may touch on the subject matter but is not responsive or the witness acts as if they are answering your question but it is actually a filibuster answer that is non-responsive and you have just wasted five minutes of your seven hours listening to an artful dodge.

These are not easy depositions.  Witnesses who can pull this off are rare.  Some can do it for a while but don't have the ability to keep it up for hours on end.  But there are some witnesses who are skilled at question avoidance [it is a skill that can rarely be taught by mere coaching from opposing counsel - it, like hops in basketball and fast guitar playing, is a natural skill - if one can call obstructing justice a skill].

So other than jumping across the table - after a few hours of this stuff - and grabbing the witness by the scruff of neck ,what should you do?..."

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Source: Lean and Mean Litigation Blog, 22 April 2010, reproduced with permission of the author.

Full post as published by Stark County Law Library Blawg on April 26, 2010 (boomark / email).