Neal Hall, Sun Court Reporter Vancouver Sun

Canadian pop star Sarah McLachlan spent her third day of cross-examination Monday at her civil trial deflecting suggestions that she has taken sole credit over the years for writing songs that others had a hand in creating.

But she maintained if Darryl Neudorf had co-written songs on McLachlan's 1988 debut album he would have been given credit.

"If I thought he had written songs, I would have no problem giving him credit," McLachlan, 30, told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bruce Cohen, who is hearing the case without a jury.

It was McLachlan's fourth day on the witness stand at the trial, now in its fifth week. She attends every day and signs autographs for her fans, who pack the courtroom at the Vancouver Law Courts.

Neudorf, 34, a songwriter and former drummer with the Vancouver band 54-40, claims he co-wrote four songs on McLachlan's first album, Touch, which has sold more than 625,000 copies worldwide. He also claims he co-produced the album with producer Greg Reely.

He claims he wasn't fairly compensated for his work in early 1988, when McLachlan had moved to Vancouver from Halifax after signing a five-record recording deal with a fledgling Vancouver record company, Nettwerk, in October 1987. At the time, she hadn't written a complete song before.

McLachlan testified she felt Neudorf's contribution to the songs fell into the realm of arranging and producing. She recalled her understanding that Neudorf was hired by Nettwerk to produce her demo tapes before entering the recording studio in March 1988.

Neudorf testified earlier he had to help McLachlan finish songs in the back of the recording studio because she didn't have enough songs to record.

Although McLachlan admitted Neudorf spent weeks helping develop songs by re-arranging parts and making small changes to the chords, beat and telling her what not to play, McLachlan said it wasn't enough to deserve songwriting credit.

She noted she has given her producer, Pierre Marchand, songwriting credit for co-writing a number of songs in recent years.

But Neudorf's lawyer, Jonathan Simkin, pointed out McLachlan didn't credit Marchand in her acceptance speech at the Juno awards this year when she won for the song Building a Mystery, which Marchard co-wrote.

"No, I didn't and I felt horrible afterwards," McLachlan admitted. "I didn't expect to win and didn't have a speech planned. Frankly, I'm always nervous when I have to speak publicly."

Simkin also noted that a member of her band, Dave Kershaw, wrote some lyrics on the song Strange World on the debut album but was never credited.

"I did ask Dave Kershaw if he wanted credit and he said, 'No, no, no,' " McLachlan recalled, adding Kershaw didn't feel he wrote enough lyrics to deserve credit.

McLachlan will face continued cross-examination today, when she is expected to play her guitar to demonstrate a point she was making about Marchand changing a chord on one of the songs from her album Solace, released in 1991.

The judge was also told the trial, originally scheduled for three weeks, will continue next week with the cross-examination of Bill Henderson, a music expert retained by McLachlan and the other defendants. Henderson's testimony was interrupted by his leaving town on business.

Neudorf is suing McLachlan, her record company, her manager Terry McBride and his business partners Mark Jowett and Ric Arboit.