Editorial Team Managing Perjury Risks in Personal Injury Depositions
In personal injury law, your deposition is often the whole ballgame. It’s where your sworn testimony can win your case or sink it completely. But giving sworn testimony opens you up to a huge risk: perjury. Lying under oath isn’t just a bad look for your lawsuit. It’s a crime that can lead to felony charges and ruin your credibility for good. Anyone with a personal injury claim needs to get a handle on this risk from day one, because protecting yourself is the only way to make sure the case gets decided on the actual facts.
Key Takeaways
- The single best way to avoid misspeaking in a deposition is to do your homework: go over every single document and think through the questions you’ll be asked.
- You need to know exactly what perjury means in Georgia. It’s not just any mistake. It’s knowingly telling a lie under oath about something important to the case.
- Your lawyer’s job includes making sure you understand the serious penalties for perjury, we’re talking felony charges, big fines, and prison time under O.C.G.A. Section 16-10-70.
- Keep your story straight. Any inconsistencies between your testimony and your medical records or the police report will be found by the other side’s lawyer and used against you.
- If you realize you said something wrong during the deposition, fix it immediately on the record. That shows it was a simple mistake, not a lie.
Understanding Perjury in Georgia Law
In Georgia, you can’t just stumble into perjury. It’s a specific crime. Under O.C.G.A. Section 16-10-70, you commit perjury when you’re under oath and you “knowingly and willfully” make a false statement about something “material” to the case. The key words there are “knowingly” and “material.” An honest mistake or getting a trivial detail wrong, while you want to avoid it, isn’t going to be prosecuted as perjury.
It’s all about the difference between an honest memory slip and a deliberate lie. People forget things in depositions. You might misremember a date or get the sequence of events slightly wrong. As long as you correct those human errors when you realize them, it’s not perjury. What is perjury? Deliberately lying about a major injury, wildly exaggerating your symptoms to get more money, or denying a history of medical problems that are directly related to your current claim. The prosecutor has to prove you intended to deceive the court about a fact that could actually change the case’s outcome.
Imagine a plaintiff in a car accident case swears they had a perfectly healthy back before the crash. But then their medical records surface, showing years of treatment for a chronic back condition. That’s a huge red flag. If it’s clear the plaintiff knowingly hid that information while under oath, they could be looking at a perjury indictment. Courts like the Cobb County Superior Court don’t mess around with this stuff, because false testimony poisons the entire justice system.
The Deposition: A High-Stakes Environment
A deposition is designed to get to the facts, but it’s also a minefield for mistakes. You’re not in a courtroom with a judge, so it can feel less formal, but that oath you take is every bit as binding. The opposing lawyer’s main goal is to find cracks in your story, attack your credibility, and get you to say something that they can use to wreck your case at trial. When you combine that adversarial pressure with hours of questioning, it’s easy to get tripped up.
In personal injury cases, the questions can go everywhere. They’ll ask about the accident, of course, but also your entire medical history, your job history, what you do for fun, and even your state of mind. This means you have to accurately recall an incredible amount of information. Any topic that touches on your injuries, what caused the crash, or the money you’ve lost is almost certainly “material.” For instance, if you have prior workers’ compensation claims for the same body part, that’s highly material. If you try to fudge your history, the State Board of Workers’ Compensation in Georgia has detailed records that will expose the lie in a second.
And remember, a court reporter is typing down every single word. There’s no “off the record.” It’s all permanent. Because your testimony is set in stone, preparation is absolutely essential. A witness who hasn’t prepared is going to get flustered, start guessing at answers, and say something inaccurate that the other side can later twist into an accusation of perjury.
Strategies for Mitigating Perjury Risks
You start avoiding perjury risks long before you walk into the deposition room. The only real strategy is to be completely and totally prepared. Here’s what that prep looks like:
- Thorough Document Review: You have to review everything. The police report, all your medical records and bills, your work records, photos, emails, anything related to your injury. If you have a thick file from a place like Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, you need to read it to refresh your memory on treatments, dates, and what the doctors actually said.
- Understanding the Case Narrative: You need to know the theory of your own case and where your testimony fits. This isn’t about making up a story. It’s about understanding which facts are most important and how your statements support the claims you’re making.
- Practice Question-and-Answer Sessions: Role-playing the deposition with your lawyer is a huge help. It gets you comfortable with the format and lets you practice answering questions honestly and without rambling. It also exposes the areas where your memory is a little weak.
- Honesty and “I Don’t Know”: Your lawyer will tell you this a dozen times: it’s always better to say “I don’t know” or “I don’t recall” than to guess. Guessing is how you create contradictions and open yourself up to a perjury accusation.
- Clarifying Ambiguous Questions: Don’t answer a question you don’t understand. If the other lawyer’s question is confusing or vague, make them ask it again in a different way. Rushing to answer a poorly-worded question is a recipe for inaccurate testimony.
- Correcting Mistakes Promptly: If you realize in the middle of the deposition that you said something wrong, fix it. Right then. On the record. This shows you’re trying to tell the truth, not trying to deceive anyone. Yes, you can correct the written transcript later, but fixing it in the moment is always better.
Your lawyer has to be blunt with you about the consequences. Under Georgia law, perjury is a felony. According to O.C.G.A. Section 16-10-70(b), a conviction can put you in prison for one to ten years. This is a life-altering felony, not some minor ticket. When you fully grasp how serious it is, you understand why complete honesty is your only option.
The Role of Counsel in Ensuring Truthful Testimony
A lawyer’s job goes way beyond just prepping a client. We have an ethical duty to the court itself. An attorney can’t knowingly let a client lie on the stand (that’s called suborning perjury). If we think a client is about to commit perjury, we have a professional obligation to try and stop them. It can be a tricky ethical line to walk, but the core principle is simple: the truth is more important than winning.
In the deposition room, your lawyer is your shield. While we can’t tell you what to say, we can object to improperly phrased questions and protect you if the other lawyer starts harassing you or digging into private matters that have nothing to do with the case. This protection helps lower the stress, which allows you to think more clearly and give truthful answers.
A good lawyer also coaches their client on the art of testifying. For example, sometimes a simple “yes” or “no” is an inaccurate answer to a complex question, and you need to know when it’s okay to explain. We also teach you the most important rule: listen to the question, answer only that question, and then stop talking. Volunteering extra information is a classic mistake that just gives the other lawyer new topics to grill you on.
In the end, our goal is to help you come across as what you are: a credible, honest person. We do that by building your confidence, explaining the process, and drilling home the absolute need for truthfulness. A well-prepared client working with a good lawyer is the best defense against a perjury accusation.
Working through Discrepancies and Inconsistencies
Even if you prepare for weeks, inconsistencies can pop up. Memory is a funny thing, and the pressure of a deposition doesn’t help. The important thing is how you deal with them. An honest mistake that you acknowledge and fix is one thing. An intentional lie is something else entirely.
You can bet the opposing lawyer will have a checklist, comparing your testimony to every other piece of evidence they have: your medical records, the police report, your social media posts, and anything you’ve said before. If you testify that you were so injured you couldn’t do any chores, but your Facebook page has pictures of you at a weekend festival in Decatur, you’re going to have a problem. That’s the kind of inconsistency that can kill a case.
If you’re confronted with something like that, stay calm and be honest. Explain the discrepancy if you can (“That was a good day, but most days I was in bed”). Or, if you were just wrong, admit it. The legal system has room for human error. It has no room for deliberate deception. A willingness to correct yourself, even when it’s embarrassing, actually makes you more credible in the long run.
For instance, you might testify that you missed three full weeks of work. Then the other lawyer shows you pay stubs that prove it was two weeks and three days. The right move is to correct the record. Say, “You’re right, looking at this document refreshes my memory, it was two weeks and three days.” That shows a commitment to accuracy. The wrong move is to double down on the lie, which makes it look like you’re trying to mislead everyone and pushes a simple error into potential perjury territory.
The entire foundation of your personal injury claim rests on your truthful testimony. Avoiding perjury isn’t just about staying out of jail. It’s about preserving the integrity of your case so that you can get a fair result.
Getting through a personal injury deposition successfully comes down to preparation, honesty, and good communication with your lawyer. If you make truthfulness your top priority, you protect your own credibility and the value of your claim.
What is the legal definition of perjury in Georgia?
Under Georgia’s O.C.G.A. Section 16-10-70, perjury is when you are under oath and you knowingly and willfully tell a lie about something that is important (or “material”) to the case.
What are the penalties for committing perjury in Georgia?
It’s a big deal. Perjury is a felony in Georgia. If you’re convicted, you can face one to ten years in prison, plus fines and a felony on your permanent record.
How can a deponent avoid accidentally committing perjury?
Prepare with your attorney by reviewing all your records. During the deposition, if you aren’t 100% sure of an answer, just say “I don’t know” or “I don’t recall.” Don’t guess. And if you realize you made a mistake, correct it immediately.
Is it acceptable to say “I don’t know” during a deposition?
Yes, absolutely. It’s much better to say “I don’t know” than to guess and give a wrong answer. An honest “I don’t recall” is a perfectly acceptable response that protects you from making a false statement.
What should a deponent do if they realize they made a mistake during their testimony?
You should fix it as soon as you realize it. Tell your lawyer, and correct the mistake on the record right then and there. This shows you’re trying to be truthful and that the first statement was an honest error.
