McLachlan's Lawyer Attacks Plaintiff's Key Witness

VANCOUVER (CP) -- Singer Sarah McLachlan's lawyer attacked the credibility Tuesday of a key expert witness used by the man suing the singer for more credit and money.

Lawyer Jennifer Conkie said the testimony last autumn of musicologist Gerald Eskelen should be given "little weight" by the judge in the case.

Conkie, who was delivering her final arguments as the lengthy trial nears an end, said Eskelen's report to the court inaccurately portrays McLachlan as wanting to take all the credit for her first album.

Eskelen's report was the main evidence supporting Darryl Neudorf's claim that he was not given the appropriate compensation for his work.

"Why he (Eskelen) thinks that way is because counsel for the plaintiff fed him the most biased and outrageous facts I've ever seen," Conkie told Justice Bruce Cohen in B.C. Supreme Court.

Neudorf's lawyers told Eskelen that McLachlan was struggling and needed major assistance and that opinion was reflected in the musicologist's testimony, said Conkie.

Eskelen is a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles and a former Grammy award nominee with the L.A. Jazz Choir.

Neudorf claims he helped McLachlan write four songs for Touch, which has sold 625,000 copies worldwide.

McLachlan attended the proceedings Tuesday. She was in court during most of the earlier testimony, but has been absent for final arguments.

She sat at the defendant's table less than two metres away from Neudorf, although they never exchanged glances or acknowledged the other's presence.

The judge, who is hearing the case without a jury, isn't expected to deliver his judgment until the fall.

Conkie told court the evidence suggested Neudorf was hired to help McLachlan, but his assistance was not significant enough to warrant being a co-producer or co-songwriter.

"It boils down to Darryl Neudorf helped Sarah McLachlan with part of one verse on (the song) Steaming," said Conkie.

"Dr. Eskelen is of no assistance on who did what because he wasn't there."

On another song, Vox, Conkie said McLachlan adapted a suggestion by Neudorf that a guitar riff she conceived be complemented by violins.

"So what if Darryl Neudorf suggested violins, too. It was Sarah McLachlan's melody."

The hearing began last November and included testimony from McLachlan, singer Bill Henderson, formerly of Chilliwack and The Collectors, and other artists, producers and executives.

Neudorf was paid a salary, expenses and received a credit for his work on Touch.

McLachlan, a Juno and Grammy-award winner, has just released her latest album, Mirrorball, while preparing for the concert tour Lilith Fair that will take her across North America.

If Neudorf wins this case, a second trial would be held to calculate specific damages.