Synchronize watches
During the BankAmerica case, it became apparent that defendants’ witnesses were incredibly well-prepared. Maybe we could surprise a witness once, but as soon as we asked a question or used a document, every witness from that point forward knew about the question or the document and was prepared with an answer. It was amazing.
Jonathan Andres had determined that a particular piece of information could be extremely important to the case. There were two senior employees of the bank who would have personal knowledge of the issue. Jonathan thought it was likely that defendants would not anticipate the area of inquiry and he wanted to make sure that we got the unprepared testimony of both employees.
So we decided to double-track the two depositions — that is, to take them at the same time. Jonathan would take one and Joe Jacobson the other. And we coordinated the time at which we would ask questions relating to the issue:
Jonathan and Joe would both ask the same questions of their respective witnesses immediately after a break so that they could complete the questions without being interrupted by a break which might allow defense counsel to confer.
Both depositions broke for lunch. Jonathan and Joe went to their respective depositions, which were in different areas of the same law office, immediately following lunch, and asked the critical questions. When they met later in the day, they compared answers and saw that they had struck gold. Not only were the answers uncoordinated and different, each was beneficial to the case in a different way.