I've unfortunately been deposed for a day and a half and they are very weird things. First, as the deponent, your goal is twofold: to not fuck up your case by

I've unfortunately been deposed for a day and a half and they are very weird things. First, as the deponent, your goal is twofold: to not fuck up your case by saying anything stupid and to run the clock. Many depositions are limited to X hours. And at least our lawyers were very clear: answer exactly the question, nothing but the question, do not elaborate, and answer minimally. Also, opposing counsel gets to use notes while you don't. In my case, I was questioned about emails that, printed, where most of a ream of paper. They where trying to trip me up, get me confused, etc, and I was essentially being quizzed on the emails, content, and timeline of very stressful events that occurred over two years -- all without notes. I really wanted to point out that I write things in emails because my memory is fallible. That's why date stamped written records are useful. My lawyer also had me answer all date questions in a formula, again to avoid misstating things. Instead of saying, eg, X happened in August, I had to say X happened around august, or around fall, etc. It seemed like clarity was your enemy -- opposing counsel could get you to make mistakes on minor details (did X happen at the end August or the beginning of September? who knows; that's why I use a calendar) and then use that to claim the major details where unreliable.