Lawsuit Update

• A's deposition was taken today, so my lawyer grilled her (very nicely) for 1 1/2 hours. Luckily they agreed to not have Mike present.
  
• A contradicted herself quit a bit, and I think she got frustrated when my lawyer seemed to be asking the same question again, for clarification.
• Interestingly enough, A said she had never seen the deed to the house which supposedly had her signature on it. She said it didn't look like her signature and she didn't remember signing it.
• My lawyer was pleased that she agreed that I had taken wonderful care of Mary and done everything for her.
• A agreed that Mary thought of me as a daughter.
• A said that she had known that Mary was leaving her the house in her will of 2002 and had not known anything about the will of 2005 and that in her opinion, Mary was not of sound mind enough to change her will in 2005, that I had coerced her and that in her opinion the will was invalid. She said that both I and Mom knew that Mary was not of sound mind in 2005. That will be very interesting if they have to prove that in court!
• My lawyer said that he'd be in contact with me in about 2 months, unless A's lawyer asks to deposition me before then. He said that he felt better about the case after A's deposition but that a lawsuit is always a crap-shoot. He told me to consider whether I'd be willing to give the matter over to a mediator and settle out of court so as to maintain some control instead of completely being at the mercy of the jury's decision and to consider how much I'd be willing to pay A to drop her claim on the house. Personally, I'm not inclined to settle. Perhaps I'm just being stubborn, but I'd rather not give A the satisfaction of my appearing to say that she was right. I never asked Mary for her house or her money or tried to influence her in any way to leave anything to me, I didn't bring a lawyer in to have her make a new will, and Mary knew exactly what she was doing when she made her last will. I was not even in the house when she signed it.