The hard questions, before they’re on the record.

Prepared witnesses change how cases end, but deposition prep eats attorney days. With Truss, your witness practices against a realistic AI examiner with the exhibits, pace, and pressure of the real thing. You get a report showing exactly where they need work.

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ExaminerREC 58:12

Dana Reyes

Exhibit 4shown 13:52

Q. When did you first see the March claims file?

Transcript

Q. And you'd agree the delay was unreasonable?

A. “That's not a judgment I can make.”

helddid not adopt phrasing

Q. When did you first see the claims file?

A. “I would assume March, if it was in the folder—”

▶ 14:07speculation

Q. So it's fair to say the process was sloppy?

A. “No. That's your word, not mine.”

held

Q. What did Ms. Calder tell you afterward?

A. “We talked about the meeting, and also the budget issues, and—”

▶ 19:32volunteered

Q. Isn't it true you never checked? …(silence)

A. “Could you rephrase the question?”

asked for clarification

Q. You didn't not review the addendum, did you?

A. “Can you ask that again in plain terms?”

double negative challenged

Q. Let's look at Exhibit 7, third paragraph.

A. “(Exhibit 7 appears on the witness's screen)”

exhibit shown 31:16

Q. And you'd agree the delay was unreasonable?

A. “That's not a judgment I can make.”

helddid not adopt phrasing

Q. When did you first see the claims file?

A. “I would assume March, if it was in the folder—”

▶ 14:07speculation

Q. So it's fair to say the process was sloppy?

A. “No. That's your word, not mine.”

held

Q. What did Ms. Calder tell you afterward?

A. “We talked about the meeting, and also the budget issues, and—”

▶ 19:32volunteered

Q. Isn't it true you never checked? …(silence)

A. “Could you rephrase the question?”

asked for clarification

Q. You didn't not review the addendum, did you?

A. “Can you ask that again in plain terms?”

double negative challenged

Q. Let's look at Exhibit 7, third paragraph.

A. “(Exhibit 7 appears on the witness's screen)”

exhibit shown 31:16

Why practice

The deposition decides the case. Preparation decides the deposition.

<1%

of federal civil cases reach trial. For the rest, the deposition is the only testimony that will ever exist.

U.S. Courts, Judicial Business FY2024

1 of 10

factors tested reliably swayed jurors: how confidently the witness answered, not what they knew. Confidence is trainable.

Cutler, Penrod & Stuve, 1988

14–21 hrs

of attorney time to prepare one witness for a full day of deposition, by the profession's own rule of thumb.

ABA Litigation Journal; federal 3:1 rule

How it works

You direct the examination. Truss runs it.

Scope it once and send a link. Your witness gets the reps on their own time. You get the findings in minutes, not a day in a conference room.

01 / Scope

Dana Reyes — documents & topics to drill

Policy no. 4417 (2019).pdfassigned

Claims file — March.pdfassigned

Board minutes.pdfnot visible

topic: Exhibit 4 timingtopic: coverage decision

Scope the matter

Upload the case documents, name the witnesses, and mark the topics each one needs to drill.

02 / Practice

ExaminerLIVE 22:41

Exhibit 4

Q. When did you first see the March claims file?

The witness practices

Send a private link. Your witness faces a live video examiner that asks the questions you scoped, and puts exhibits on their screen when it names them.

03 / Review

Session 2 — transcript

▶ 22:41

Q:You reviewed it before the meeting, correct?

A:I would assume so…

Speculation

Answered past personal knowledge.

▶ 24:10

Q:Anything else you haven’t told me?

A:No, not that I recall.

Scope

Declined the catch-all.

Review and go again

When the session ends, see exactly where your witness needs work, decide what to drill, and run the next session with a tighter scope.

The report

Then you get the record.

Every session becomes a report tied to the transcript. Each answer is measured against the discipline you’re drilling and flagged where your witness guessed, volunteered, or adopted the examiner’s words, with a jump link to the moment in the recording.

TrussAll mattersMatters

Reyes v. Meridian Ins.Dana ReyesM. OkaforCalder v. Northgate

Dana Reyes — Practice session 2Recorded Sep 4 · kept 7 days

Examiner

Dana Reyes

142 questions141 answers18 avg words/answer

Readiness3/5

Steady on the timeline, but speculates when a question reaches past personal knowledge.

•Guessed at dates twice on the Exhibit 4 stretch
•Assumed what a document said rather than reading it

Answered only the question
Didn't guess or speculate
Consistency
Didn't adopt counsel's framings
Asked for clarification

Transcript16 marksMarkedFull

▶ 13:52

Q:Exhibit 4 is your email of March 3. You had read the schedule attachment before that meeting, correct?

A:I would assume so, if it was in the folder—

Speculation

“I would assume” answered past personal knowledge instead of declining.

Characterization

Examiner paired a document fact with an assumption the witness could only guess at.

▶ 16:41

Q:Earlier you said the March 3 schedule was the current one. Was it?

A:I think so. That’s the one I remember seeing.

Consistency

Hedged restatement of an earlier answer, leaving two versions on the record.

▶ 19:32

Q:Anything else about the March meeting you haven’t told me?

A:No, not that I recall.

Scope

Declined the open-ended catch-all without adding to it.

Exhibit 4 shown on witness screen at 13:52Jump to 13:52 →

Built for practice at a law firm

The guardrails are built in.

Truss is designed around the ethics of witness preparation. It drills composure and discipline, never content.

Peer-reviewed studies find that prepared witnesses make fewer errors on compound and leading questions under cross-examination, and are rated more credible by jurors. Boccaccini, Gordon & Brodsky, Behavioral Sciences & the Law (2005); Wheatcroft & Ellison, Behavioral Sciences & the Law (2012).

Counsel stays in charge

asks only what you scoped

The examiner only asks what you scoped. Truss drills composure and discipline. It never feeds a witness testimony.

Documents stay scoped

unassigned documents stay hidden

Each witness sees only the documents you assign to them. Exhibits appear on their screen exactly when the examiner names them.

Recordings expire

you set the retention window

Session recordings are kept for a retention window you set per matter, then deleted automatically.