Great Tips For Attorneys Conducting Remote Legal Depositions
When it comes to explaining things in court for a case, depositions are integral. They are a way to keep facts in check and explain what happened from both sides. If you're planning to administer remote legal depositions, these tips can aid this entire process.
Ensure Everyone Is on the Same Page
Remote legal depositions are extremely convenient for the parties involved in them, but even so, it's important that you as the attorney conducting one make sure everyone is on the same page at all times. A lot of coordination goes into these remote depositions.
You must make sure all parties involved know when the deposition is occurring, where it will be located, and what equipment will be involved to successfully complete the deposition. If all parties know these details well in advance, there is less room for mistakes to pop up.
Have Deponents Test Their Equipment Prior
In order for remote legal depositions to go smoothly all the way through, the video equipment involved to show deponents must be firing on all cylinders. You want to verify that this is true with the deponents that will be giving their statements.
You can have them go through trials where they use their video or camera equipment and say a couple of words. If the picture quality is great and there don't seem to be any connection issues, that's usually a good sign that the remote legal deposition will go as planned.
Account for Outside Interference
In order for a deposition to be of value, then the deponent giving their statement needs to do so without help from another party off in the background. That could be tricky with remote depositions since you only see one angle of the deponent.
For this reason, you want to make sure there isn't any outside interference by having the deponent thoroughly show their surroundings.
You can verify that they're the only person in the room and that if they break this rule, they'll be subject to penalties that they'll probably want to avoid. If all checks out, you can proceed with the deposition as planned.
More and more attorneys today are starting to conduct their depositions in a remote way. It's efficient, but there are certain things that need to be accounted for before they officially are underway. If you're calculated and approach these unique depositions correctly, you'll avoid a bunch of complications.
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