Sunbelt Blog

Video Deposition Tips

Video depositions are invaluable tools that serve several purposes including discovering information and preserving testimony for trial. In both cases, videotaping the deposition is a smart move. However, the process is stressful enough for those involved and the presence of video equipment could add to the stress. Fortunately, you can help your witnesses by following these video deposition tips.

Preparing the Witness for Video Depositions
No doubt, you’ll prepare the witness for the deposition process beforehand. While you’re at it, prepare the witness for the video camera so that when it’s time to shoot, there won’t be any surprises. Let your witness know that the camera isn’t expecting a performance; it is merely a tool to document the process.

That said, appearances do matter because the video could be played in court. Because of this, the witness should dress appropriately. Instruct the witnesses to dress the way they would dress for a court appearance. For example, men should wear a jacket and tie while women should wear a jacket with an understated blouse. Both genders should avoid tiny patterns, bold colors, stripes, and shiny (or noisy) jewelry.

Depending on the case and the witness’s profession, professional attire may add credibility. For example, a doctor wearing a lab coat reinforces the witness’s credibility. The same is true of a police officer in uniform.  

Where to Shoot Video Depositions
While shooting video depositions in your law office’s conference room may be customary, there’s no reason why you can’t shoot a video deposition at your witness’s office or home or at a crucial location related to the case. Shooting the video deposition at your witness’s location can help to put the witness at ease as it is less intimidating than law offices. In addition, the witness does not have to drive through rush-hour traffic, locate parking, or sit in a lobby waiting for you – all of which adds stress and contributes to nervousness.

No matter where the deposition will be filmed, try to keep the background neutral, professional looking, and non-distracting.

Video Deposition Seating Arrangements
Once you’ve staged an area for the video deposition, pay attention to where you and the witness will be sitting. For example, seating the witness in front of a window will create a silhouette-like effect which is undesirable. You should sit as close to the camera as possible so that when the witness answers questions, she is looking toward the camera, not off to the side. Make sure to have a glass of water handy for the witness to sip as needed.

Ideally, you should have the shooting area, camera equipment, and all other details in place before the witness arrives. This ensures that the witness has less time to fidget and worry. When the witness arrives, remind her of what to expect in a calm reassuring tone.

Video depositions are regular events for legal professionals, but for witnesses they are brand new. By preparing your witness for what’s to come and choosing a non-stressful location, your witness will be more relaxed in front of the camera.

Benefits of Real Time Court Reporting

Court reporting has gone high tech with real time court reporting technologies. Gone are the days of waiting for stenotype machine printouts or voice recordings to be transcribed to text and distributed. In their place, live, real-time transcripts appear on computer monitors and televisions in courtrooms, depositions, and other legal venues.

How Real Time Court Reporting Works
Here's how real time court reporting works: The court reporter uses a stenotype machine to document the activities just as they have done for dozens of years. However, these new generation machines are electronic, linked to computer systems, and work in conjunction with computer aided transcription technology. The result: real time captioning. As soon as the court reporter keys in the shorthand key combinations, the software translates the inputs and displays text on the computer screens of legal participants - all in real time, and wherever in the world the participant happens to be.

Benefits of Real Time Court Reporting
Real time court reporting brings with it numerous benefits. For one, there's no waiting for transcripts. In fact, as the legal proceeding is taking place, lawyers can make annotations as necessary. Since the information is captured and stored electronically, note-taking during legal proceedings can be scaled back dramatically. In addition, attorneys can quickly search for keywords and jump back to previous discussions.  With just the touch of a key, the attorney can highlight specific passages or mark telling testimony for later review.

In addition, the attorney can quickly impeach live testimony because the live transcript is literally at his fingertips. For example, during a deposition, a remote attorney can communicate with local attorneys, challenging a key point or asking for clarification. This can avoid additional time, expenses, and hassles of secondary depositions.

If sound quality in the room is poor, if a participant mumbles, or if a participant has a heavy accent, the onscreen transcription aids others in understanding what was just said.

With this technology in place, professionals related to a case can easily be kept informed. For example, an attorney can copy and paste sections of the transcript into an email or fax and then send the pasted text to a colleague for review, additional research, or for informational purposes. Imagine being able to send a portion of a witness's testimony or deposition to a research assistant while the testimony is taking place! With real time court reporting, this is possible.

In addition, you can quickly research an entire database of transcripts, assemble on-screen reports from all of the case's transcripts, and summarize the entire case. Best of all, you don't even need to be in the courtroom to download live text.

For videotaped proceedings, a court reporter's real time reporting output can be recorded simultaneously with the video. While the completed videotape looks much like a closed captioned program, there's another benefit to synchronizing the real time transcription to the video: searchability. We all know how difficult it is to fast-forward or rewind a video to find a specific point where the witness is discussing a given topic. However, by searching the text record for keywords, you'll be able to find the exact point in time where the desired topic was discussed. From there, you can simply navigate the video to that exact time period using the synchronized timecode. The text transcripts are also useful for editing portions of the video. By using the text document, you can easily create a list of start and stop points for the video on paper before handing everything over to your video editor.   

Several options are available for real time court reporting including:

• Receiving a text version of the proceeding on a computer disc. With this option, the lawyers do not use a computer during the proceedings.

• Viewing the live transcript via a direct computer link to the court reporter's computer. With this option, the lawyers view the testimony as it occurs.

• Litigation support link. With this option, the lawyers link to the court reporter's computer and are able to view the current testimony as well as take notes or mark issues.    

Real time court reporting has come of age. It's here and being used to good effect. How are you using this exciting technology? We'd love to hear your thoughts.

Pitfalls of Offshore Legal Transcription

The offshore transcription offers come flooding in, promising professional legal transcription services at the fraction of the cost that you are used to paying. But should you use an offshore transcription company? While the cost savings are certainly attractive, outsourcing your legal transcription projects and placing your trust in a company located on the other side of the global has its pitfalls. Before you agree to an offshore transcription arrangement consider the downsides including lack of control over your data's integrity and security, language barriers, reliability, accuracy, and accountability.

Whenever you release data, its integrity is at risk. What types of internal controls and security measures has the offshore legal transcription service put in place to ensure that your confidential data remains uncompromised? How is the data transmitted to and from the transcriber? Is it encrypted? Are the transcription company's computers secure? What is the transcription company's privacy policy? Does the service handle the transcriptions in a secure facility or does it use work-at-home transcribers? These are but a few of the many questions that you must be concerned with when you outsource transcription, whether the transcriber is located across the street or in another continent. While an offshore legal transcription company may have a professional looking Web site with professional looking photos, unless you can visit the facilities in person, verification is difficult.

Language barriers are also of concern. The English language with all of its nuances is difficult enough for non-native speakers to master and transcribe accurately. Add in complex legal terms and the potential for transcription errors grows. Even if the final transcribed product is technically acceptable, language barriers can lead to other misunderstandings such as expectations and due dates.

Closely related is the issue of accuracy. How accurate are the transcription services offered? Will your final documents be free of errors or will you need to spend additional time correcting errors?

What about ethics? Are the offshore stenographers certified as legal transcribers or court reporters? Do they adhere to a code of ethics comparable to the same ethical standards expected of onshore transcribers?

A good legal transcription service, local or otherwise, must be reliable and accurate as well as secure and dedicated to protecting the integrity and confidentiality of your data. You need to know that the job will be done promptly, correctly, accurately, and on time - every time. Will an offshore legal transcription company be as reliable as a local one? Possibly. However, it's important to understand how the service you are considering operates. Is the service a small company with one or two transcribers? Is it a large company, operating much like a call center with hundreds of transcribers working on projects as they come in? If multiple transcribers are involved, will your law office be assigned its own transcriber? Can you request transcribers that have performed well for you in the past?

Finally, what happens when a problem occurs? Will you get the runaround or will the company step up and be accountable? What mechanisms are in place to confirm that your data has been received and is being processed? How will you be informed if there's a delay, or worse, a security breach?

While many of these same considerations exist when hiring a local legal transcriptionist, distance and language barriers tend to magnify the issues. Privacy laws and ethical standards also vary from one country to the next, making the question of security, confidentiality, and data integrity a major consideration.