Spoken depositions with a court reporter transcribing the spoken word verbatim have been the standard in court reporting for decades. However, with the ever-evolving world of technology, adding video is becoming the new norm. While the written word is a powerful tool in legal depositions, it’s not as impactful as when video is included. Having the ability to actually see a person testifying opens the door to a whole new world for a jury. Being able to watch a video deposition allows a judge or a jury to see things such as body language, gestures, and overall confidence of the witness. Our expert video team wants you to be prepared for video depositions. Here are some of their tips:

Regardless of your role in the deposition, it’s key to avoid wearing bright clothing and certain patterns. For example, polka dots, stripes and plaids can be distracting on camera. Solid, light or pastels are ideal for video depositions. If you’re an attorney, make sure to pass this information on to your clients and/or witnesses. It is also important for the witness to dress as if he or she would in court. It would be a shame for the jury to see a professional expert such as a doctor or police officer show up in court in a suit or uniform, but on the taped deposition, he or she looks like they just hit the gym.

When video is involved, it’s also a good idea to conduct mock depositions with witnesses. Videos don’t lie – witnesses can be caught with eye rolls or fidgeting. By prepping ahead of time, witnesses have the ability to practice and understand how their facial expressions, body language, and verbal responses can affect the deposition. They can practice answering questions clearly and fully, not saying “yep” or using any other forms of slang. Furthermore, seeing themselves on camera may help them get a better understanding of what a video deposition will actually be like.

Maintaining professionalism during any and every deposition is key. But since video depositions are becoming more common, you’ll want to make sure you are ready and prepared to the best of your ability. At PohlmanUSA, our experienced legal videographers can ensure that your video deposition is efficient and effective. Call us at 877-421-0099 to get started or visit http://pohlmanusa.com/our-services/videography/ to learn more about our legal videography services.

PohlmanUSA’s MyCase Recognized as “Top Ranked Case Management System” in Missouri Lawyers Weekly 2018 Reader Ranking Survey

Missouri Lawyers Weekly recognized PohlmanUSA’s MyCase system as the “Top Ranked Case Management System” in its 2018 reader ranking survey of top Missouri legal marketplace providers.

“The entire Pohlman team is thrilled to have been recognized for the efficiency of our MyCase system,” said Deborah Walters, President and CEO of Pohlman Reporting Company. “MyCase was specifically designed to simplify the case management process for attorneys, and the fact that our clients are utilizing this program and benefitting from its capabilities is so rewarding.”

MyCase is Pohlman’s online interactive case management system. This tool offers a wealth of features all designed to make scheduling, monitoring, attending, and ordering depositions effective and efficient.

The Pohlman team continues to invest in and improve their services and technologies based on client feedback and changes in the litigation industry. Later this summer, clients will experience a refreshed MyCase with added efficiencies and capabilities, including more dynamic search features providing access to our extensive, fully keyword indexed transcript repository for case research and evidentiary purposes. To receive more information on the upcoming MyCase refresh, please contact Pohlman’s marketing team at 877-421-0099 or [email protected]

In last year’s survey, Pohlman’s MyRecordsRetrieval™ (MRR) was recognized as “#1 New Legal Service”. MRR is a custom records collection, management, and online distribution service. It is capable of supporting the needs of large document cases, as well as complex multi-party litigation.

To learn more about MyCase, MRR, or Pohlman’s other trial or court reporting services, call 877-421-0099 or visit www.pohlmanusa.com.

By Deborah J. Walters

When parties share copies of transcripts, it eliminates the cost-share business model that court reporters enacted decades ago. This ultimately decreases the income of talented court reporters. How does this affect you? Should copy sales of transcripts diminish over time, the result will be an increased cost of the original transcript to adequately pay reporters and/or not enough court reporters available for each deposition or trial. Court reporters proudly serve as officers of the court. With this role comes many responsibilities, one of them being to fairly distribute the costs of services between all involved parties. When clients share copies of their paid transcripts with other parties (who have not paid for a transcript), this prevents the neutral party (the court reporter) from carrying out their designated duty.

Court reporters produce accurate, timely transcripts in an easy-to-use and printable format to make it easy and efficient for lawyers to collaborate with their client and others in the law firm. The downfall of this process is that it provides the opportunity for an individual to easily distribute the paid copy of the transcript to other parties in the case whom have not paid for the rights to view or utilize the copy.

It is common for a court reporter to choose what depositions to take based on the complexity including the number of parties involved. This is how the reporter forecasts their potential payout in the case and how they potentially allocate their professional time. When transcribing a deposition with many parties, the reporter may also choose to hire a scopist to assist in typing, proofing, or preparing the final transcript, including deciphering multiple voices. If the court reporter does not then get their expected compensation for this job, based on selling multiple copies, they may prefer to take a job for a different firm in the future and may actually be paying their scopist out of pocket, losing money on this job.

How can you prevent the costs of transcripts from rising and ensure you receive the high standard of court reporters you are accustomed to? It is simple. Once you receive the electronic version of your draft/final transcript, do not reproduce, copy, distribute, or publish the transcript (in whole or in part) without first compensating the court reporting agency the standard charges. Remind your team including all attorneys, paralegals, and expert witnesses to do the same and not share the transcript copy with other parties. If you find that you wish or need to share the transcript with others, please contact the agency directly or have the other party contact the agency to pay for the copy.

Maintaining the fairness of the court reporting profession is important to the legal profession, and in keeping clients’ long-term total costs to a minimum.

The term “glass ceiling” was first coined in 1978 by Marilyn Loden but became popular in the 1980s as a term to describe women getting stuck in middle management by an unseen barrier. Today the term is used frequently to describe the elite positions women and other minorities cannot reach through an unseen but perceived limitation.

Laying the Groundwork

It seems American women lawyers have been laying the groundwork to break the glass ceiling in law firms for decades, yet still have not been able to penetrate the barrier on a consistent basis. Why is it taking so long?

Recently thirty large law firms in the US pledged to try the new “Mansfield rule” which is a variation of the NFL’s “Rooney rule”. The Mansfield rule asks that law firms consider women and minorities at a rate of at least 30 percent of the candidates for leadership and governance roles, promotions to equity partner, and for lateral positions. However, it does not require a certain percentage receive those positions. This is one step towards ending gender bias, but it is not enough.

Law360’s ranking of top law firms for women say they have been laying the groundwork for years to help women thrive in their firms. Firms that have more than 40 percent female attorneys tend to look at a more diverse recruiting pool, encourage flexible schedules, and provide leadership and professional development programs such as mentorship, according to The 2017 Law360 Glass Ceiling Report. Yet, there is a concern that the groundwork has been slow and results minimal and this won’t change without education, commitment and action by many men and women attorneys.

Forward Movement for Women Lawyers

Looking back only 36 years to 1981, there were no women sitting as United States Supreme Court Justices, and today there are three. This is a huge step forward for women lawyers. However, it may actually be female counterparts working at in-house roles that lead to the law firm glass ceiling breaking. Going back to 2011, already 36% of top legal positions in corporate legal departments were held by women according to the 2011 Minority Corporate Counsel Association survey. Corporate clients have begun asking for diversity, including that of women partners, from their outside counsel. Starting back in 1999, the General Counsel at BellSouth Corp. led a group in-house counsel to sign a statement promising to consider law firm diversity when hiring outside counsel. Today, corporate legal departments don’t just ask firms to have diverse groups of attorneys. They are asking outside counsel to put diverse attorneys in leadership positions, and they’re asking for data to back it up according to author Stephanie Russell-Kraft in her article, “Companies Use Diversity Data to Hold Law Firms Accountable.”

Recently, The American Bar Association created a model diversity survey and supplied it to corporate counsel to use to collect data from outside counsel on the diversity of their firms. One large company that took a lead in making a change was Microsoft. Microsoft revamped their diversity program and added bonus payments to diverse outside counsel according to David Ruiz, in his article, “Legal Departments Ask Firms for Diversity, Make Efforts In-House,” Corporate Counsel, April 5, 2017.

It appears, little by little, the glass ceiling in law firms is cracking but at a much slower pace than other professions and it is going to take a lot of progress to be smashed. “We say we live in a modern society, but gender inequality is still evident in several professions, including the law,” says Joyce Smithey, “Women and Legal Professional: Four Common Obstacles Faced by Female Lawyers,” January 13, 2017.

Gender Bias in Law Firms: At What Cost?

There are many concerns, both short and long term, that firms need to be ready to face if either

conscious or implicit bias exists in their firms. Some of these “costs” are economic and others are the result of lacking progressive behavior including the lack of diverse employees, the loss of clientele, and time spent re-hiring and training positions. Not only does a firm risk litigation and the opportunity to strengthen their applicant pool, if potential female applicants do not see your firm as a place they can grow and be seen as an equal to their male counterparts, you could be losing top attorneys and paying clients to your competition.

In 2016 alone, three large firms were sued by current and former female partners for discrimination including in wages. As 2017 has begun, it appears this trend of discrimination lawsuits continues. According to The Board List: September 5, “5 Reasons Why Having Women in Leadership Benefits Your Entire Company,” women are better at problem solving, are more trusted as leaders, are more collaborative than men, and make terrific mentors.

Women also tend to excel at teamwork, do better than men when it comes to initiative, as well as have better follow-through and a better focus on results, according to Geri Stengel in a report, “Forget the Glass Ceiling: Build Your Business Without One.” They also have a positive impact on workplace policies according to The Rockefeller Foundation, “Women in Leadership: Why It Matters.”

Brad Smith, president and general counsel at Microsoft, says “You need to have diverse legal teams to understand the way the world works, because the world is diverse.” “Law Firms Risk Losing Corporate Work Unless They Promote Women,” by Laura Colby, December 9, 2016.

For these reasons and more, women at the top of law firms strengthen those firms as they are facing an enhanced competitive market. Now it is time for those female and male attorneys at law firms to ask themselves, “What can I do in the quest for diverse and equal standing in my firm?”

Read our first article published in our Women in Law series, here.

We all know the famous saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Well, in today’s visually driven world, a video is worth a million. The legal profession has recognized the impactful power that videos have in both capturing interest and influencing opinions. It is because of this that videography is being used more and more in depositions.

Videotaped depositions can play a major role in the outcome of the litigation process for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons being that video depositions can serve as a substitute for live testimony. For example, if a witness cannot be present to testify in court, his or her videotaped deposition can be played during the trial. Also, in the rare, unfortunate instance that a witness becomes ill or passes away and can no longer testify in trial, a video deposition can preserve his or her important testimony.

Another key role of video deposition is that it can be more impactful to the jury than a mere reading of the deposition transcript. For example, if a witness would happen to alter his or her testimony in court, the videotaped deposition can prove the inconsistencies between the two testimonies. If the jury can actually physically watch the witness answer the same question differently, it could be much more effective than listening to the attorney read the transcript. When watching the video, the jury gets to watch the witness’s body language firsthand, which could be very telling if he or she is being truthful or dishonest.

Many attorneys and law firms are turning to video depositions because they can utilize the clips of video to create engaging, powerful presentations to play during trial. These video presentations bring cases to life, presenting key case facts, important testimony, background information, etc. These presentations can be much more compelling and stand out against the surplus of written transcripts and legal documents. At PohlmanUSA, our certified legal video specialists can create presentations that enhance and convey accurate and authentic details about your case. They can combine diagrams, exhibits, and videos to create a persuasive presentation that is sure to capture the attention of your audience.

At PohlmanUSA, we provide high quality, cost-effect videography services at depositions nationwide. However, we don’t stop there, we also offer trial support services, including: trial playback, video editing, exhibit services, and more. To learn more, call 877-421-0099 or visit: www.pohlmanusa.com.