Careful when testifying

• Author: Daniel D. Swanson
• Pages: 6-6

A QUIET PLACE

I’m deeply grateful

to Philip N. Meyer for

“Sounds of Silence,” July,

page 22, reminding us of

President Barack Obama’s

2015 eulogy for the Rev.

Clementa Pinckney.

Obama’s speech, includ-

ing his eloquent use of

silence, moved me to tears.

Strategic silence definit ely

has a role in litigation. At a

deposition years ago, one of

my transit agency’s drivers

was asked how much time

had elapsed between when

he first noticed a stal led

car in front of his bus and

when he skidded into it. He

responded “about a min-

ute”—which, if taken liter-

ally, meant he’d had plenty

of time to avoid the colli-

sion. On redirect, h is law-

yer pulled out a watch and

sat silently as 60 seconds

slowly ticked by. The driver

then explained that “a

minute” was just a figure

of speech. The elapsed

time had in fact be en only

a few seconds .

Rolf G. Asphaug

Denver

COURTS BATTLE

OPIOID OVERLOAD

With regard to “Opioids,

Justice & Mercy,” June,

page 36, since the biggest

contributor to the opioid

crisis is Big Pharma , the

solution is simple: Have

the FDA examine the num-

ber of legitimate prescr ip-

tions for opioids written

in, say, 2017, and limit pro-

duction to the number of

pills doled out. Anyth ing

over that and the produc-

ing drug company(ies) get

hit with enor mous fines.

James C. Bliwas

Toronto, Canada

CAREFUL

WHEN TESTIFYING

In “Rethinking

Woo dshe ddin g,” Ju ne,

page 22, I thought Edna

Selan Epstein’s article wa s

thoughtfu l and entertain-

ing—but fatally flawed.

The entire premise of

the writer’s advic e to focus

and simplify the deposition

preparation process was

based upon the deposition

of her Fortune 500 CEO

client. I am sure her client

was a highly intelligent,

educated, sophisticated

and able witness.

Over the last 40 year s,

I have represented hun-

dreds of witnesse s in

connection w ith their

depositions. The over-

whelming majority of peo-

ple who I represented were

not Fortune 500 CEOs.

The writer does provide

a lot of good, basic advice.

Ms. Epstein is right that

keeping the deposition

preparation process

focused and simple is

import ant.

Equally importa nt is

first knowing and u nder-

standing who the person

is and then tailoring the

process around that indi-

vidual’s attributes and

deficiencies as a w itness.

Daniel D. Swanson

Southfield, Michigan

www.legaltalknetwork.com

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