Walked into a deposition in Cleveland and got told I was wrong about a clause

I spent two weeks prepping for a shareholder dispute, feeling pretty good about our argument. We were in a conference room at a law firm downtown, and the opposing counsel asked if I'd read Section 7.4 of the operating agreement. I said yes, but he pointed out a subclause about voting thresholds that completely changed the case. I had missed it during my review. He didn't rub it in, just showed me the line and waited. That moment stuck with me because it taught me to slow down and check every single reference myself. Now I triple-check every agreement before I step into a room. Has anyone else missed something obvious in a contract that bit you later?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_hugo20d ago

Watched my buddy from law school spend three months building a case around a lease renewal clause. He was so sure he had it locked down, wrote his whole opening argument around this one section. Day before trial, the other side's paralegal casually points out he missed a "provided that" condition buried in an appendix. His whole case fell apart. He still jokes about it but I can tell it stings every time he brings it up. Now he reads every contract out loud to his cat just to catch that kind of stuff.

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ninab9519d ago

My buddy Steve did something similar but with a house flip contract. He spent weeks negotiating what he thought was a ironclad inspection clause, bragged about it at poker night. Then the seller's agent pointed out a tiny sub-clause that let them back out if any permit was missing, which basically covered their whole old wiring situation. He ate the cost of two months of holding the property before he could even start the work.