You’re a lawyer. You probably didn’t realize you should have studied event coordinating as well. Trying to get everyone in the same place at the right time can be a feat in and of itself. Finding the right team of people to run your deposition is another bag of worms.
Accuracy is paramount. You want to be able to focus on the case and the deponent, not worry about the skills of your stenographer and video team.
How can you find a court reporter and enlist video deposition services you can trust? How can you remove a headache before it starts, and find those professionals you can rely on quickly? Here are a 5 quick tips to find a court reporter and video deposition services, to put you on the right track.
1. Know Your Court Reporter
Every city has a list of Certified Shorthand Reporters and Licensed Court Reporting Firms to help you find a court reporter discoverable through a google search. But, nothing can really beat a referral.
If you’ve received a glowing testimonial from a colleague the main tip would be to vet that individual. The most basic starting place is checking his/her credentials. At least in California, the Department Of Consumer Affairs offers a search of the Court Reporters Board Of California.
You can easily search by name, license number, city, or county. Only one field is required allowing you to either look up a referral by name and attain all pertinent information or just browse all Certified Shorthand Reporters within a given city.
2. Delegate It All: Get Video Deposition Services On Demand
Find a court reporter and by delegating it to a litigation services company like www.DiscoveryLit.com and stop worrying about the logistics completely. From booking a conference room to deposition videography, providing court reporting, and high definition video streaming of the deposition to authorized remote viewers. A full service, one stop shop for deposition services will allow you to put your focus back on your case.
3. Make It Easy And Straightforward
The right video deposition services firm will be able to handle your needs from start to finish from scratch. They will be experienced in handling all of the coordinating and the technology involved. Just as in researching any purchase of product or service, the more convoluted the pricing structure and scheme, the more fees and hidden expenses, the worse the experience the potentially worse the service as well.
Experienced professionals know what it takes to provide you with what you need at a definite price point. An experienced professional is clear and to the point. They are not out to trick you into spending over your budget.
Ask how they price their services and gain an understanding of why they charge what they do. Make clear all of the costs associated with the service, so nothing is a surprise down the line.
4. Get Quizzical! And Ask A Lot Of Questions
Don’t be afraid to ask all of the questions upfront. When it comes to tech, you need competent individuals with the know-how to make it work even when life is working against you.
You’ve coordinated a neutral meeting space, vetted and booked your court reporter, now you need a reliable deposition videographer. A problem, the deposition now needs to be streamed to other individuals who are unable to attend in person. Can your video guy get it done?
Be clear on what your Video Deposition Service is offering to do. Do they offer popular features Picture-in-picture video? Will they sync the written transcript to the deposition video for easy review later? Do they charge for that? Can they offer HD Streaming for remote viewing of the deposition to someone across the country who only has a smartphone on hand? Are they experienced in the technologies and equipment they are claiming to provide?
5. When Failure Is Not An Option. How Do They Recover?
Ask how they plan for failure. When it comes to any technology particularly video equipment, especially when networking and streaming get involved, something will go wrong which will threaten the timetable of your deposition.
Have you ever struggled with a DVD player? Then you know how powerless you can feel when something so seemingly simple ruins movie night with the family. Technological difficulties should never be a valid excuse. And when you’re paying a professional to run it smoothly, everything just needs to work. You need that assurance. What contingencies do they offer? What backups do they have on hand?
To Sum Up...
Keep just a few things in mind in your search for a court reporter and video deposition services, and you’ll be on the right track from the very beginning. You should be worrying about your case, and hiring the right professionals will free you from worry to do just that.
