Do you know what a photocopier is? Congratulations, you are smarter than the acting head of information technology for the recorder’s division of the Cuyahoga County fiscal office. At least that’s what this dialog between him and a plaintiff’s lawyer, suing over “whether deeds and other records at the county recorder’s office…should be readily available at reasonable cost,” would lead you to believe.

As first highlighted by the Cleveland Plain-Dealer:

Plaintiffs’ lawyer: During your tenure in the computer department at the Recorder’s office, has the Recorder’s office had photocopying machines?

Deponent’s Lawyer: Objection.

PL: Any photocopying machine?

Deponent: When you say “photocopying machine,” what do you mean?

PL: Let me be — let me make sure I understand your question. You don’t have an understanding of what a photocopying machine is?

D: No. I want to make sure that I answer your question correctly.

/snip/

D: When you say “photocopying machine,” what do you mean?

PL: Let me be clear. The term “photocopying machine” is so ambiguous that you can’t picture in your mind what a photocopying machine is in an office setting?

D: I just want to make sure I answer your question correctly.

PL: Well, we’ll find out. If you can say yes or no, I can do follow-ups, but it seems — if you really don’t know in an office setting what a photocopying machine is, I’d like the Ohio Supreme Court to hear you say so.

There’s 10 pages more of this stuff. Perhaps the real reason law school applications are dropping is that this and mind-numbing document-mining is what the work is really about.

Identifying photocopy machine poses problem for Cuyahoga County official [Cleveland Plain-Dealer via WSJ Law Blog]

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