I've been deposed, in a case involving my employer of twenty years ago. The defendant was trying to invalidate a patent; one of several at play in a multi-billi

I've been deposed, in a case involving my employer of twenty years ago. The defendant was trying to invalidate a patent; one of several at play in a multi-billion-dollar infringement case. The fraction that someone will spend on lawyers in order to avoid a multi-billion-dollar judgement buys a lot of research. The attorneys had everything I'd ever published, for a very loose definition of “published”. They had every article anyone else had published, that mentioned me or thanked me in the acknowledgements. They had papers I didn't know existed, where I'd been credited. I was asked about the content of all of these, and about the history and content of my communications with their authors. I had also been asked to deliver all relevant documents from my time of employment. Nothing had survived all my de-clutterings / house-cleanings from the intervening years. I can only imagine that if I had been able to supply additional fodder for questioning, I would have been deposed for many days instead of just one. I would also have had a greater chance of accidentally giving contradictory answers somewhere in there, by trying to reconstruct events from twenty years ago instead of remembering always to say “I don't recall”. (Learning not to be helpful in conversation was the bulk of the “deposition training” that the plaintiff's attorney provided me, the day before the deposition.)