If you lie in a deposition, you expose yourself to federal or state perjury charges carrying up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, obstruction of justice charges that can reach ten years, court sanctions that can dismiss your civil case outright, contempt penalties, and a credibility hit that follows you into every future proceeding. A deposition is sworn testimony, and the law treats a lie told in a conference room the same as a lie told on the witness stand.
Perjury Charges Under Federal and State Law
Two federal statutes cover deposition lies. The general perjury statute criminalizes willfully stating something you don’t believe to be true while under oath, so long as the statement is material to the case.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 1621 – Perjury Generally A separate statute criminalizes knowingly making a false material declaration in a proceeding before or connected to any federal court.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 1623 – False Declarations Before Court or Grand Jury Prosecutors can charge under either. Both carry a maximum of five years in prison.
The government has to prove you lied deliberately, knowing the statement was false. A faulty memory, an honest mistake, or an answer shaped by a confusing question is not perjury. The lie also has to be material, meaning it had the capacity to influence the proceeding.3United States Courts for the Ninth Circuit. Manual of Model Criminal Jury Instructions – 24.14 Perjury – Testimony (18 U.S.C. 1621) A lie about something irrelevant to the case does not qualify.
On fines, the federal ceiling for an individual felon is $250,000, and $500,000 for an organization. If the false testimony produced a financial gain or caused someone a financial loss, the court can instead impose a fine of up to twice that amount.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 3571 – Sentence of Fine
Every state has its own perjury statute. Maximum fines range roughly from $1,000 to $25,000, with prison terms that vary by jurisdiction and sometimes rise if the false testimony affected the outcome of a criminal case. The elements track the federal version: deliberate, under oath, material.
Obstruction of Justice and Coaching Someone Else to Lie
A deposition lie can also support an obstruction of justice charge, which sweeps more broadly than perjury and carries a heavier ceiling. Federal law makes it a crime to corruptly influence, obstruct, or impede the administration of justice, with a maximum of ten years in prison plus fines.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 1503 – Influencing or Injuring Officer or Juror Generally Courts sometimes treat obstruction as an aggravating factor alongside a perjury charge.
Persuading someone else to lie under oath is a separate federal crime called subornation of perjury. It carries the same maximum penalty as perjury itself: up to five years in prison, a fine up to $250,000, or both.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 1622 – Subornation of Perjury Preparing a witness is legal; telling a witness what to say when you know the truth is different is not.
Civil Sanctions That Can End Your Case
In a civil lawsuit, the court doesn’t need a criminal conviction to punish deposition dishonesty. Rule 37 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure gives judges a wide menu of sanctions when a party fails to deal honestly with discovery.
- Ordering the dishonest party or the attorney to pay the other side’s reasonable expenses and attorney fees caused by the misconduct.7Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 37 – Failure to Make Disclosures or to Cooperate in Discovery; Sanctions
- Instructing the jury to treat certain facts as established against the lying party, or informing the jury about the failure to provide truthful discovery.7Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 37 – Failure to Make Disclosures or to Cooperate in Discovery; Sanctions
- Striking pleadings, barring claims or defenses, dismissing the case entirely, or entering a default judgment against the offending party.7Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 37 – Failure to Make Disclosures or to Cooperate in Discovery; Sanctions
In practice these are often the most painful consequences. A perjury prosecution may never materialize. A dismissal or default judgment delivers an immediate, concrete loss of the lawsuit you brought or the defense you were building.
Contempt of Court
Federal courts also have broad authority to punish contempt by fine or imprisonment, including misbehavior that obstructs justice and disobedience of any lawful court order.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 401 – Power of Court Rule 37 separately allows a court to treat a party’s failure to obey a discovery order as contempt.7Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 37 – Failure to Make Disclosures or to Cooperate in Discovery; Sanctions
Civil contempt is designed to pressure you into compliance, and the penalty ends when you comply. Criminal contempt punishes conduct that already happened. A court-ordered deposition that produces false testimony can trigger either.
If You Already Lied: Correcting the Record
If you realize after the fact that you said something false, you have two narrow paths to limit the damage. Both close quickly.
The 30-Day Errata Period
Under the federal rules, if you or your attorney requests review before the deposition ends, you have 30 days after the court reporter notifies you the transcript is ready to submit a signed statement listing changes and your reasons for them. The changes can be in form or substance, meaning you can correct typos and substantive answers alike.9Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 30 – Depositions by Oral Examination The original answer stays in the transcript next to your correction, and opposing counsel can question you about why it changed. State rules typically allow a similar window of 20 to 30 days.
Rewriting damaging testimony wholesale through an errata sheet draws scrutiny. Judges and opposing counsel can tell the difference between fixing an error and taking back a bad answer, and sweeping changes can themselves become evidence of bad faith.
The Recantation Defense
Federal law also provides a specific escape hatch under the false declarations statute. If you admit the statement was false during the same continuous proceeding, that admission bars prosecution, but only if two conditions are met: the false statement has not yet substantially affected the proceeding, and it has not yet become manifest that the lie has been or will be exposed.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 1623 – False Declarations Before Court or Grand Jury You have to come clean before the lie does damage and before anyone catches you. Recanting after opposing counsel confronts you with a contradicting document does not qualify.
This defense exists only under the false declarations statute, not the general perjury statute, and the timing requirements make it hard to use in practice.
Impeachment: How the Lie Follows You to Trial
Even without a criminal charge, a deposition lie can gut your credibility in front of a jury.
If your trial testimony contradicts your deposition answer, opposing counsel will read the deposition aloud, often with the transcript on a screen, confirm you were under oath when you gave it, and ask you to explain the contradiction. Jurors tend to decide that a witness who lied about one thing cannot be trusted on anything, so the damage spreads beyond the specific inconsistency.
A perjury conviction is worse. Under the Federal Rules of Evidence, any conviction for a crime involving dishonesty must be admitted to attack a witness’s credibility, and the court has no discretion to exclude it. This treatment lasts for ten years after the conviction or release from confinement, whichever is later.10Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Evidence Rule 609 – Impeachment by Evidence of a Criminal Conviction For a decade, any lawsuit where you testify opens with the jury hearing that you were convicted of lying under oath.
Professional Licensing and Other Collateral Fallout
A perjury conviction is a felony involving dishonesty, which is the worst category for anyone holding a professional license. Attorneys face disbarment or long suspensions because bar associations treat offenses involving dishonesty or interference with the administration of justice as reflecting directly on fitness to practice.11American Bar Association. ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct Rule 8.4 – Misconduct – Comment Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, accountants, financial advisors, and real estate licensees all operate under rules that require disclosure of criminal convictions and permit revocation for crimes involving fraud or dishonesty.
A felony conviction also carries the usual civilian consequences: loss of voting rights in some states, loss of firearm rights, lost eligibility for certain government contracts or security clearances, and the standard employment application question about felony convictions, which a lying-under-oath conviction answers in the most damaging possible way.
How Often Perjury Is Actually Prosecuted
Perjury prosecutions are uncommon. No federal agency tracks statistics on perjury and false-statement charges, and the volume of inaccurate testimony far exceeds what prosecutors have resources to pursue. The hard part is proving intent. Memories are unreliable, and lawyers often ask ambiguous questions that produce misleading answers without any dishonest motive.
Rarity, though, is not safety. Prosecutors look for cases where the lie is provably deliberate, usually because documents, recordings, or other testimony leave no room for a memory defense. And criminal charges are only one of several bad outcomes. Case dismissal, a default judgment, an attorney-fee award, and a jury impeachment at trial all happen without a prosecutor ever getting involved.