Prepping for the unsavory details

Time to prepare a client for the upcoming deposition:

Me: What opposing counsel is going to do is try and piss you off. Make you lose it and thus, make you lose the case. The way they are going to do that is try and make you feel guilty about your past. Your past is what it is, nothing you can do to change it. This can’t be used against you, so just tell the truth.
Client: Sounds good.
Me: Just so you are prepared for it, we are going to go through your past...run ins with the law… Looking at the records, you were arrested for drug possession in 2005.
Client: Yep.
Me: You’ve got an assault and battery from early 2006…
Client: I forgot about that.
Me: And you had a resisting arrest, drunk in public and public indecency in late 2006…
Client: (laughs)
Me: Finally, there was the Christmas 2006 DUI.
Client: I had forgotten about that one!
Me: Why’d you do these things?
Client: It happens.
Me: Don’t have anything else to add?
Client: Nope.
Me: You’re going to be great.

Stupid, brilliant or a combination of the three.