To tell the truth: Falsehood dooms lawsuit

The law requires that both sides to a lawsuit play fair. When that’s not the case, the side playing fast and loose with the rules gets punished. For a recent prime example, read on.

Deposition falsehood!

After Daniel’la Deering was fired from her job as an in-house lawyer for Lockheed Martin, she sued for unlawful retaliation and claimed lost back wages. During her deposition, she testified that she was currently employed but that the pay wasn’t very good. She testified that although she was looking for a better job, it was “exhausting and disheartening to keep applying for jobs and not get anything,” so she had stopped her job search. Guess what? At the time of her deposition, she had already accepted a job elsewhere that paid her a lot more money.

Deering later doubled down on the falsehood when she submitted documents to the court, including her resume, and failed to list this great new employer. The point: Her claimed backpay damages were higher than what she was entitled to because the law requires that compensation earned from new employment be used as an offset against claimed lost wages. In short, the less she earned, the greater the lost wages she could recover. Oops!

Falsehood revealed!