So I needed to take an affidavit today from an employee of one of my business clients involved in litigation. The boss drove the guy over and we all sat down in my office. I explained that I wanted to find out what was going on, and that I was going to take his information and put it down on paper. Then, he’d review it, make sure it was correct, and sign it under penalty of perjury.
The whole time, the guy was visibly squirming in his seat. “I want to make a call before I do anything, he said.” I figured, well, he’s got a friend or a relative who’s a lawyer, or maybe a cop, and he wants to ask them what’s going on. So I let him step outside to do that.
After a few minutes, he hadn’t come back. I got up to look for him — he was gone. “Dude! He ditched us!” The client then taught me some new combinations of words you can’t say on network television.
Later, I found out that the guy had called a friend for a ride. He went back to the business, gathered his things, and left without even saying goodbye. He literally abandoned his job rather than give me an affidavit.
He’s created delay and uncertainty, which is an expensive annoyance. Now, I’ll have to wait until I can tag him with a subpoena and depose him to find out what he was trying to hide. But sooner or later, I will find out what was so important that he had to bail out of his job rather than admit it.
