New York Court Reporters Blog

Video depositions have a variety of uses by an attorney both in preparing for a trial and during the course of a trial.

Video depositions are used by attorneys in preparing for a trial to see and analyze a witness’ demeanor in terms of how this witness would relate or not relate to a jury or a judge. In reviewing the video deposition, using various different types of software, an attorney can search the video deposition for specific areas of testimony he is most interested in.

During the course of a trial, an attorney can also select certain portions of the video deposition to present to the jury in the context of other visual presentations he will be making. He can also select a frame to create a still shot of a witness that he wishes to show the jury.

A video deposition can be used during the course of the trial if the witness is unavailable to appear due to geographical or health issues. Sometimes getting to trial will take so many years that there can be a queestion whether the witness will still be alive or alert enough to testify down the road.

A video deposition is a valuable part of an overall litigation strategy used by attorneys in lawsuits in preparing for the trial and during the actual trial itself.

The percentage of video depositions taken over the past 10 years has grown tremendously. In the past, the main purpose to take a video deposition was if there were a question about the availability of the witness to testify at trial. A video deposition of the witness’ testimony could then be offered at trial in lieu of the witness actually appearing due to geography or medical reasons

Video depositions are still taken if there is a quesiton whether the witness will be available to testify at trial. However, the real rise in the number of video depositions taken today is a function of being able to videotape depositions in digital format. The digital format of the video deposition allows the legal videographer to use a variety of softwares to prepare the video deposition to be introduced as part of an overall trial presentation strategy.

The growth in the popularity of taking video depositions in New York, California, Illinois, Texas, Florida and many other states nationwide has forged a new and very important partnership between court reporters and legal videographers in the past few years.

A video deposition is when a court reporter in a legal deposition or court deposition takes down sworn testimony and a certified legal videographer records the proceeding. The video deposition can then be burned onto a CD-ROM or DVD.

Synchronization of a video deposition is a technology used to synchronize the testimony taken down by the court reporter and the video shot by a certified legal videographer.

A video deposition occurs when a deposition is being recorded simultaneously by a court reporter and a legal videographer. The written product produced by the court reporter is called a transcript, and the videographer produces a video which visually records the witness testifying. In addition, the audio of the other parties speaking on the record, ie, attorneys present, court reporter, et cetera, is heard. Synchonization of video depositions occur when the text of the video deposition recorded by the court reporter is synched to the video recorded by the videographer.

This sychronized video deposition now shows not only the witness and the audio of the other speakers, with a clock showing the time elapsed, but also the court reporter’s written text. This written text can now be searched for specific testimony given during the course of the video deposition. The ability to search a video deposition enables an attorney to immediately get to testimony which he is interested in.