Welcome to the New Normal
As we’ve done thousands of remote depositions in the past few months, we’ve all pretty much adjusted to the new normal. Here’s a few things we’ve learned.
Security Concerns were Overblown
There were some early security concerns about using Zoom. It turns out these were largely unfounded, as the ‘Zoom Bombing’ phenomenon seems to have been largely the result of individual passwords being stored incorrectly. Nonetheless, Zoom has increased their security, people have stopped sharing their links, and the issue has basically gone away.
But Sometimes Security is Essential
That being said, sometimes security really is essential. For these special circumstances, we’ve implemented a FedRamp approved, wholly U.S. located solution. If you find yourself in need of the highest government level security, give us a call, we’ll walk you though it.
Courts Have Largely Cooperated
We’ve been pleasantly surprised by how quickly courts & states have adopted to the new reality. There are state by state regulations that you need to be aware of (based on your filing state), but in general the entire system has been extremely cooperative in recognizing that remote depositions are essential to keeping the legal industry moving forward.
Marking Exhibits is Easy
At first, and especially for some attorneys & court reporters who were not as familiar with remote platforms, there was some nervousness about how remote exhibits would get marked. Are we going to have to print, tag, and Fedex everything around the country? Nope. There is a tagging feature in Acrobat that works great. Push a button & done.
How do you go off the Record?
We’ve seen all sorts of techniques for this, and they all work. Some attorneys use the mute function, some turn off both their audio & video. When they want to rejoin the deposition, they simply turn their audio/video back on. It’s pretty simple actually. For court reporters, some point their camera down to their keyboard so that all parties can visually verify that the official transcription has been paused.
Try it, You’ll Like it
We can’t say how many times in the past few months we’ve heard an attorney say, “Well, this is my first remote depo, we’ll see how this goes.” Once it’s over, we’ll often hear that same attorney say something like “Wow, this is life changing.” It really is, and we think once this pandemic is over, remote depositions will be here to stay. They’re just so easy and so cost effective. If you haven’t yet, try it. We bet you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
