24 of the Best ‘Gotcha!’ Moments Lawyers Have Experienced in a Courtroom

‘I subpoenaed her rewards card records…’
24 of the Best ‘Gotcha!’ Moments Lawyers Have Experienced in a Courtroom

Though most courtroom proceedings don’t play out like that one scene in Legally Blonde, there are times when real-life lawyers rival the cunning of Elle Woods. For instance, one Redditor recalled the time their grandfather was a lawyer in a small Georgia town, where the plaintiff claimed to have received “whupneck” from a car accident. When the Redditor’s grandfather asked for clarification on what “whupneck” was, the plaintiff responded by saying, “It’s when you can’t move your head like this,” and proceeded to demonstrate how easily he could shake his head back and forth. 

The case was dismissed. 

Other Redditors have remembered the “gotcha!” moments they’ve witnessed unfold in a courtroom, and it appears that a lot of people are incriminating themselves on social media.

Barbie_and_KenM 5y ago My client's house burned down from an explosion in the fuel oil tank used to heat the house. It was clearly the oil maintenance company's fault, but his homeowners insurance (from a very reputable company) still refused to pay out, citing a ridiculous technicality in his policy. Essentially, the policy covered damage caused by the oil heater but they claimed that it was the storage tank that exploded and wasn't part of what was covered. So they deny his claim, which was about 1.2 million, and then I get involved. During a deposition with the claims adjuster
asoiahats 5y ago I acted for a plumber who ripped up a tile floor to replace a pipe. Не installed new tile on top but warned the owners not to walk on it for 48 hours. Не emphasized not to let their kids or their dogs walk on it either. They walked on it but alleged the defects were caused by improper install. We had an expert do a report which confirmed that it was consistent with proper installation but people walking on it too soon. Crazy homeowners still went to trial on it. In their evidence disclosure they included
EunuchsProgramer 5y ago I had client whose 60k car was ruined by a shop that put in the wrong oil. We couldn't prove it at first, the engine blew up, oil leaked out and evidence was lost. I subpoenaed their bank records, figured out they bought their oil from Costco. Called Costco and got the their prices for the last two years. I then worked out the amounts they were spending, did some backhand math, and showed based on the values it was impossible they had ever bought the right oil. They settled in full immediately. + 32K ...
lawgirl3278 5y ago Lady got into a minor fender bender with a truck in a casino parking lot (she backed out of a spot into him). My guy said she parked and went inside the casino for a few hours. At her deposition, she testified that she was so hurt she went right home and to a hospital. I asked if she was a frequent visitor of casino, and if she had a rewards card. She was happy to tell me she did and she had gold status, and showed me the card. I subpoenaed her rewards cards records, and
 5y ago I was deposing a guy in a large breach of contract/fraud action. I asked him if he'd ever been convicted of a crime, he said no. later in the dep I asked him the question again and there was no objection and he answered no. I then whipped out his indictment for felony fraud and his conviction for misdemeanor conspiracy and he denied it was him until I started asking about his co-conspirator (his son) and then he gave me the oh yeah I remember something about that..... + 16K ...
M_Cicero 5y ago - Edited 5y ago I was suing a landlord who failed to make serious repairs in order to force the tenant out. The hard part is proving bad intent instead of mere idiocy so you get higher damages. Code Enforcement was involved, so I request those records. The landlord left a voicemail to the enforcement department saying to hold off on the fines, they will make the repairs as soon as the tenant is forced out. That was an easy case. + 23K ...
Freeiheit 5y ago The first case I ever did, opposing counsel misplaced the copy of my client's drivers license. Rather than admitting his mistake and asking me to resend it, he filed a motion to compel, claiming we never sent it. Well I was able to provide proof that we'd sent it to him like 8 months ago, so the judge was rather displeased with his antics + 14K ...
 5y ago . Plaintiff had an x-ray of an allegedly broken arm. It seemed off to me and the dates didn't make sense (I was in-house at an academic medical center). I looked at the case more closely and discovered the Plaintiff was a x-ray tech at another hospital. After that, it was all over. 4.6K ...
Prahksi 5y ago Plaintiff alleged he was so injured in an auto accident that he couldn't work, do any regular activities, or pick up his young kids. Не then posted on his public FB profile him doing the Ice Bucket Challenge. If you're not familiar, he basically lifted a huge cooler filled with ice water over his head. His attorney had no idea he had posted it. 10K ...
aulstinwithanl 4y ago Parent termination case I was prosecuting. Dad went on how he has changed his life around and worked the AA program. Asked him what step he was on, and he proudly proclaimed 3. Asked him what step three is, he had no idea. Then asked him step two was. Again, no idea. Parental rights terminated. + 3.9K ...
DeaconFrostedFlakes 4y ago Edited 4y ago I worked on a case involving defective processors. In discovery we got emails from the defendant's engineers that had worked on the processors. They were in an Asian country but the emails were in English because they were going to US executives. One of the more senior engineers basically laid out the exact defect we were suing over, explaining what the problem was and why it was their fault, and finishing with this is big problem, we ship CRAP to customer! Needless to say we hit them over the head with that in mediation,
Lawschoolishell 4y ago I trapped a defendant pretty badly one time. Не testified in a depo he had a green arrow for his left turn and that my client ran the red. Unfortunately for him, the additional turn lane arrow was installed 2 months after the wreck. Case settled for policy limits a week later + 30K ...
rgk234 4y ago Edited 4y ago When I found a video on Facebook of the plaintiff squatting 300 pounds the month before his deposition. That was a good one. Oh he was saying he couldn't work and had back injuries after a minor car accident. Edit: Just as a follow up: I sent the video to his attorney afterward the deposition and the case immediately went away. Не also adamantly denied being able to workout or doing any lifting during his deposition. It was a big lie.
 5y ago Stand up to cross examine - but it was one minute to lunch and the judge suggested we break off. I asked if I could just ask 2 questions. (The guy had been grooming his neighbours daughter and getting her to delete their FB chats.) I asked for his FB username and password. Не asked the Judge if he had to answer. The jury actually laughed. + 1.1K ...
 4y ago Gas station chain had one of their stations gas tanks leak and pollute a church playground. They tried to say they weren't liable because the pollution didn't start seeping up through the ground until years after it happened + 199 ...
lamtherainking77 4y ago I had a ton of these when I used to do Family Law. Off the top of my head: my client's husband was alleging she had been high and nude in public. As I'm crossing him I get him to admit that she was in fact changing out of her bathing suit at the beach and covered by a towel at all times. Не says: well, she was naked... under the towel, I come back with: just like you're naked under your clothes right now? Even the judge chuckled. 846 ...
Phoenix_Left 4y ago I had a client who was accused of taking a young woman's car and then crashing it/fleeing the scene. The girl testified at trial that she had given him the keys that night because she was drunk and would never, ever drink and drive. Apparently she was not aware that I had requested and obtained a copy of her driving record which showed she received a DUI a month after the incident. I still remember the look on her face when I handed her driving record to her and said Except for that one time you got
jaymdee 4y ago Edited 4y ago This was actually fairly recent. I was in a deposition of a fact witness to an automobile accident in which my client was killed. The defendant's attorney had called the deposition and over the course of an hour and a half or so elicited a lot of testimony which seemed to place my client partially at fault, which would impact my client's (edit: financial) recovery. After sitting quietly for an hour and a half I asked less than a dozen questions, the last of which was about the specific location of my client when
Zdarnel1 4y ago I was an attorney for an insurance company defending a lawsuit where the plaintiffs were two girls who claimed they were irreparably harmed and their lives would never be the same because severe back injuries kept them from being active. They forgot to set their Instagram accounts to private and the accounts were full of pictures of them riding jet skis, dancing, and pictures of them at the gym. The underage drinking pictures were just icing on the cake. 493 ...
 4y ago I knew the cops beat up my client and framed him. They described a knife in his possession that caused them to fear for their safety. Oddly, they never seized it. We won the criminal case and filed a civil rights case. While deposing one, he described the knife in detail. No more than three minutes later, he slipped up and claimed his partner told him my guy had a knife, but he never saw it himself. I told him, that's not what you just said, and saw him panic. His lawyer panicked too and asked to
JournalofFailure 5y ago I was representing the mother in a custody dispute. The father and his new wife were arguing that she was a bad influence on the kid because she posted lewd photos of herself on Facebook. They weren't able to produce these photos of my client, but I easily found the new wife's semi-nude pictures on her Facebook page. When I presented them to her on cross-examination she admitted they were hers and that there was nothing wrong with them. But she still insisted my client was a slut. We won. 212 ...
ScatterclipAssassin 4y ago My grandfather was a small town Georgia Lawyer and he told of a time he was representing an insurance company in a civil suit after a car accident. The plantif claimed to have received whupneck from the accident, supposedly caused by my grandfathers client. Pop asked him what exactly he meant by whupneck, and the plantif, wearing a neck brace, proceeded to answer: It's when you can't move your head like this and then he shook his head back and forth. The judge promptly dismissed the case. 331 ...
katatvandy 4y ago Found on tax returns she had tens of thousands allocated to unreimbursed business expenses, including thousands of miles in vehicle travel. Her job was distributing the mail in a high rise to the various suite. No driving involved in the job. 151 ...
hitchinpost 5y ago Had a client accused of leading the cops on a high speed chase. The cop on the stand estimated he was going 90 mph, but never actually clocked him. Then the cop identified where the chase started with me, and where it ended. It lasted about 2 miles. Then we went through his log of when it started and when it ended. About three and a half minutes. Once you walk through the math on that, the average speed of this chase was 35 mph. Client got acquitted really quickly after that. + 24K ...

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