When Taking Depositions or Making Oral Arguments, Beware Pronoun Soup

In law school, my Contracts professor would turn red when we used too many pronouns in answering his questions about case facts. "They! Who's they? He? Who's he? Quit using pronouns!"

Though we all had a hard time reprogramming ourselves not to use pronouns, my Contracts professor was right: in some situations, pronouns get in the way of comprehension.

I was thinking about my contracts professor last week, when I heard lawyer after lawyer telling a judge during motion hearings that "they" did this and "he" did that until the judge threw up his hands.

"They! Who's they? He? Who's he? Be specific when you're telling me the facts."

Pronouns are even more insidious during depositions. It's almost impossible to use any single answer for impeachment if the question contains a pronoun:

Q. Were you present when he signed the contract?

A. Yes.

Q. Did you see him sign it?

A. Yes.

If you've to go back three pages to find out who "he" and "him" refers to, it makes the deposition transcript very unmanageable as an impeachment tool. While "you" clearly refers to the deponent, every other pronoun does nothing but muck up the works. That's why I try never to use pronouns when taking depositions. It feels completely unnatural at first, but it's possible to learn to do it, especially if you get into the habit of imagining your questions printed on paper as you're saying them to the witness.