SciTechDaily has a story "A new method of lie detection shows that lie-tellers who are made to multitask while being interviewed are easier to detect.". This is probably not a surprise. If I may quote a part of the article:
You find a lawyer whose first words are "That will be a $5,000 retainer and please, do have a seat, and what was your name again?".
...
Your lawyer gets to go first. He asks your opponent the standard "name, rank, and serial number" questions and then after peering solemnly over his lawyerly half-glasses, says "Mr X, when you were 3 years old and you got a handful of feces from your diapers and you smeared it all over your little sister, did you enjoy licking your fingers afterwards?" (His - your - Private Investigator discovered that tidbit - for more bucks) Your opponent will say "I'm not going to answer such insulting questions".
Your lawyer will slide his glasses down to the tip of his nose, peer over them and say to opposing counsel, "Counselor, please instruct your client to answer the question". He'll do so. If your opponent still refuses to answer, the attorneys will call each other names (they have drinks together afterwards - it's just a game) and maybe they'll pull out the speakerphone (all lawyers have speakerphones) and call a judge who will decide whether or not your opponent has to tell whether or not he likes the taste of crap. This will go on for a couple of days. Then your lawyer will do the same thing to the other guy's expert witnesses and any other witnesses they've slated to testify. And then the tables turn and you get it ALL back. Except that the other lawyer is now play-pissed at YOU (never at his drinking-buddy) so HE asks YOU if the crap stuck to YOUR teeth!
A couple of days later, you have a pile of transcripts that are big enough to use as a printer stand along with a court reporter's bill that is strictly COD. THEY know how the system works too. You and your attorney sit down (you know the old $5k line by heart by now.) and do a post-mortem of the transcripts. You then realize why lawyers ask you about the taste of crap - it serves as a diversion to make you drop your guard for when they ask the real questions. The thought "Did I REALLY say that?" recurs over and over. You spend a LOT of time trying to figure out damage control.
UPDATE: Douglas2 found the link, in the comments.
2 comments:
I wish I could be as focused on my own work as I am when I see a challenge such as the above.
But anyway, I think this is the article that you mentioned not being able to find:
https://groups.google.com/g/misc.jobs.contract/c/VJ-LbQ0QDqc/m/vaDpwBbLqmAJ
He gives a little advice in the usenet post, and then reposts his article from Midnight Engineering.
"This is one in a series of articles on the subject most midnight engineers don't want to talk about - what not to do in your business -
particularly when those mistakes end up involving lawyers. Having paid a
life's tuition to the School of Hard Knocks, I hope I can share some
experiences with you and help you avoid a similar fate."
That's the one, dual posted to two usenet groups. I'll make a clickable link out of it. https://groups.google.com/g/misc.jobs.contract/c/VJ-LbQ0QDqc/m/vaDpwBbLqmAJ
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