Not every attorney is the same. Not every court reporter is the same. We have a team of court reporters who specialize in realtime court reporting. Realtime court reporting services offers lawyers a key advantage in a deposition setting. The ability to view the live testimony of a witness in realtime on your own computer screen as it is being written by the court reporter offers outstanding benefit.
Some litigators don’t use realtime reporting because they either are not familiar with the technology, believe it may be too expensive or feel that it may be distracting. However, consider the benefits and value realtime reporting can offer through immediately providing comprehensive information:
Instant access – you will have at your fingertips instant access to the testimony as well as the ability to go back and search earlier testimony – LIVE! By using realtime, one has access to testimony at any time during the day from anywhere with internet access. You can immediately review what has been said rather than asking the court reporter for a readback. In addition, you can review during a break or at lunch the exact testimony instead of relying on your recollection of the testimony or cryptic notes you may have made during the proceedings. Really, how quickly and accurately can you write anyway?
Improved comprehension of the testimony – Various studies have shown that when one is reading AND hearing testimony, their comprehension of that testimony increases… dramatically. This can result in time savings to you when questioning a witness as it can avoid repeating of questions and allow you to be more direct in the areas pertinent to your case. This also helps to ensure ascertaining the desired responses to questions now and not before it is too late.
Strategy and confidence – Gain strategy and confidence in knowing that everything being said is right in front of you and can be easily retrieved anytime from anywhere. This can put the witness or other counsel on the defensive and let them know that you’re in charge of the room.
Flag key testimony – The ability to flag key testimony during the questioning of a witness is crucial. Realtime allows you to mark the live testimony so that you can quickly jump back to it or search for it during the day. Another advantage of this is opposing counsel will never know what has been marked since this can be done very discreetly.
View the realtime testimony anywhere in the world – Maximize your time away from the office or while travelling and get the examination for this key witness dealt with as efficiently and effectively as possible. One way is to have a realtime stream sent back to your home office so that another lawyer or your support staff can view the live testimony and provide you with additional points to put to the witness.
Or, do you even need to attend the examination of this witness in the first place? Are you only attending so that you can gain knowledge as examining of the other parties? Did you know that you don’t even have to be physically present at a deposition to view the realtime feed?
In addition, you can send secure instant messages to other remote attendees in your group without other counsel knowing. This technology can save considerable time and money by reducing the need for everyone involved to attend in person and allows for improved collaboration among members of a team handling the litigation.