New Deposition Technology: How to Get the Most Out of Your Next Deposition

Preparing for your next deposition often begins with reviewing past depositions. Finding exactly what you need in a sea of transcripts can be an uphill battle when you try to do it by hand, but web portal tools make it breeze. Without using any additional outside software, online portal tools allow you to search past deposition transcripts by keyword, date range, or any other specific criteria such as defendant, plaintiff, or exhibit number. Online portal tools even allow you to run wildcard searches, connectors, fuzzy searches, and exclusion searches, making it easy to find whatever you need in a matter of seconds.

Thanks to wireless technology, attorneys can now easily see deposition transcripts in real time, as the court reporter is typing. In the past, you needed a jumble of wires and adapters to make that happen, but today all you need is an iPad app.

It would be nice to attend every deposition in person, but the time and cost involved in travel (even in your own city) don’t always make it worthwhile or possible. With virtual deposition tools, anyone can remotely participate in a deposition, as long as they have a webcam-enabled device and an internet connection. Virtual deposition tools allow you to view witness demeanor, chat with other participants, and annotate real-time transcripts. When in-person attendance isn’t feasible or possible, virtual depositions are the next best option.

Depositions have traditionally come with piles of boxes containing file upon file of paper exhibits. Today, technology such as Veritext’s Exhibit Share have replaced those mountains of paper, allowing you to electronically introduce deposition exhibits, eliminating the effort of lugging boxes and the costs associated with printing, scanning, and transporting documents. Paperless depositions also allow for clearer organization and remove the guesswork of deciding just how many copies of everything to bring with you.

Modern depositions often involve a variety of electronic documents, from spreadsheets and Word documents to medical images and other visual evidence. Exhibit Capture allows you to display your electronic evidence to your witness and record how the witness reviews and manipulates that evidence. Technology now lets you to capture things like keystrokes, mouse movements, drop-downs, formulas, and inter-cell calculations in real time and sync them to the transcript when the deposition is complete. Exhibit Capture can be used with a broad range of file types to accommodate nearly every kind of case.

Today’s lawyer is a mobile lawyer. Attorneys are no longer tied to offices and desks, and a huge range of legal apps make it possible for you serve your clients anytime, anywhere. Apps exist to help you with nearly every aspect of your practice – reviewing and marking up transcripts, annotating PDFs, scanning documents, preparing and delivering trial presentations, presenting trial evidence, and vetting potential jurors are just a few of the things you can now do on the go as long as you have your iPad in hand.

Video has rapidly made its way into evidence and depositions. To make the most of video, you need to be able to prepare concise clips that present just the evidence you want to focus on. Creating video clips used to require a professional video editor, but today all you need is free software and apps. Editing and preparing the perfect video clips is as easy as clicking a button from your computer or mobile device.