Jack Keating, Staff Reporter The Province

Superstar singer Sarah McLachlan was caught in several contradictions and inconsistencies in B.C. Supreme Court yesterday during an aggressive, day-long cross-examination.

Lawyer Jonathan Simkin, representing musician Darryl Neudorf in a lawsuit against McLachlan and Nettwerk Productions, questioned her on Neudorf's role in her 1988 debut CD Touch.

Simkin seized on a lack of criticism of Neudorf in transcripts of a 1996 examination for discovery that preceded the civil trial.

"There was never, ever any mention that he [Neudorf] was coming out here to write with me," McLachlan told Justice Bruce Cohen and a packed courtroom.

Simkin then produced her discovery transcript from August, 1996 in which she said: "I had never written any songs before and [Neudorf] was basically brought out here to guide and help me."

She was asked: "In the song-writing process?" She replied: "Yes."

McLachlan also said yesterday that she arranged the song Out of the Shadows on her own in Halifax before coming to Vancouver in September of 1987 to work on her first CD.

Again Simkin produced an affidavit in which McLachlan stated: "[Nettwerk co-producer] Mark Jowett and I did the arrangement on Steaming in Halifax in the summer of 1987."

When Simkin raised the contradiction, McLachlan said: "Perhaps I talked out of line today."

Neudorf, 34, is suing for song-writing credit on four songs on Touch -- Steaming, Vox, Sad Clown and Strange World -- and for copyright infringement and a share of royalties and co-production credit.