Depositions: no boxes -- or your physical presence -- required

Depositions will never be "virtual." The witness, defending attorney, opposing counsel and other key legal team members must appear. Certainly, the court reporter must mark exhibits for the attorney to introduce, yet since the digital era is well underway, the "appear," "mark" and "introduce" aspects can indeed occur virtually. How does that play out? When the parties juggle their schedules to arrange depositions (and other proceedings requiring court reporting services), they need only be available; they don't have to travel to be on-site. Here's a scenario: The taking attorney in Berlin is asking questions of the witness in Boston, where counsel, the court reporter and videographer are present. Live Internet streaming connects the participants across the Atlantic. Legal teams for each side can see the witness, hear the responses, and follow the text of testimony in real-time. Eventually, the attorney will instruct the witness, "Please review this exhibit, marked 108." There's a shuffling of papers as everyone makes sure they are referring to the same diagram. Of course, that means producing and distributing courtesy copies in advance to participants in Boston, Berlin and perhaps co-counsel in other cities. Even emailing scanned PDF exhibits can be cumbersome. Large files can take quite a long time to send and, once received, are usually printed. Innovations in court-reporting technology have launched the era of paperless depositions. Instead of banker's boxes ricocheting around the world, packed to the brim with thousands of exhibit copies, every exhibit can be now be marked, presented and circulated electronically. Litigators can slip an iPad or laptop into their briefcase and have access to every exhibit. Conducting a paperless deposition with electronic exhibits is not complex. The process parallels and streamlines the familiar hard-copy version while offering tangible efficiencies and savings that in-house counsel expects. Scanning, printing, collating, packing and shipping thousands of pages are eliminated, along with the worry that the shipment will go astray. Instead, electronic exhibits are uploaded in advance to a secure server, ready to enter into evidence. Once the deposition is underway and the attorney asks "please review this exhibit," a tap on a tablet or laptop screen simultaneously sends the exhibit to the witness and all participants. Then, if asked to identify or annotate a particular section, everyone can see the witness do that electronically. Moreover, as exhibits are introduced for the record, legal team members can confer through a chat feature, annotate and save their own copies, just as they would mark up paper copies. The veracity of the original, official exhibits remains intact, and they are linked to the final certified transcripts that are distributed to counsel. As the case proceeds, exhibits and transcripts from all depositions are always accessible on the iPad or laptop. Paperless depositions are not limited to this example. All parties can be present in the same conference room for a deposition or arbitration and present documents electronically. As with any routine that varies from the way it's always been done, paperless depositions may require getting used to. But before long, the speed and efficiency of the virtual route will be the only way to get it done. ----- Kenneth Zais is president and owner of O'Brien & Levine Court Reporting Services in Boston. Published: Thu, Jan 22, 2015