legal deposition

December 11, 2014 By Dawn Houghton

How to Prepare a Legal Deposition Notice

As a legal professional, there may be a time when you need to prepare a legal deposition notice. Preparing a notice of deposition is not a difficult task as long as you know what to include in the notice.

What Is a Notice of Deposition?

A document directing a witness to appear to answer questions under oath is called a notice of deposition. The notice includes a time and place where the examination is to occur. The notice is sent to all parties in a lawsuit so that everyone involved has been given notice of the event.

How Do I Prepare a Notice of Deposition?

In our experience, most legal professionals learn how to create a deposition notice by referring to one their firm has used in the past and using it as a template. Many law firms and attorneys have preferences for the exact language that will be used in the notice. However, if you have never prepared a notice of deposition and you have not been given a sample, we have some simple instructions to get you started.

First it is necessary to understand the parts of a deposition and what should be included.

Caption

The full caption of the case should be included at the top of a notice of deposition. This will include the jurisdiction in which the case has been filed, the file number, and name of plaintiff(s) and defendant(s).

Names and Addresses of Attorneys

The names and addresses of each attorney of record should be included on the notice. Be sure to include the attorney’s bar number and designate which party the attorney is representing. You should also include the name of an attorney’s law firm, full street address, telephone number, fax number and email address.

Type of Notice

The title of the document should include the type of notice you are preparing. There are several types of deposition notices and including the title will provide clarification of which type you are preparing.

Date, Time and Location

The date, time and location should be prominently included in the notice language. Using bold type is a nice way to draw attention to this information on the notice.

Signature Block of the Requesting Attorney

Including the requesting attorney’s signature block at the end of the notice allows everyone to be clear on who is calling for the deposition.

Putting It All Together

Below is a simple Notice of Deposition sample showing you all of the pieces put together to create the full document.

November 14, 2014 By Dawn Houghton

Easily Connect to Your Court Reporter’s Realtime Transcription

At O’Brien and Bails, we have been providing realtime transcription for quite some time. Our clients find great value in viewing the transcribed spoken word as it is happening. If you’ve never connected to realtime in a deposition before, you may think it is technically difficult. But connecting to realtime is actually simple. Once you know what is involved, you will see that using realtime in your next deposition can be easy and of great value to you and your clients.

What is Realtime Transcription?

In a nutshell, realtime transcription is a system whereby the spoken word is recorded by the court reporter and delivered as text on a computer screen within a few seconds of the words being spoken.

Valuable Features of Realtime Transcription

A rough draft of the written record is available shortly after the proceeding has ended.
You have the ability to search for keywords in the text.
Text can be copied and pasted into other documents or emails.
Transcripts can be shared by the Internet or email.
During the deposition, reference can be made to previous testimony.
Drafts can be used to organize the next deposition you may be taking.
Answers can be reviewed immediately, giving you the opportunity to ask for further clarification if necessary.

How to Connect to Realtime

Connecting your computer to realtime is not difficult. Each court reporting firm may use different software and the process may vary from system to system. It is a good idea to call your court reporting firm before the deposition and ask for a set of instructions for connecting to your court reporter’s specific software.

At O’Brien and Bails, we use two software programs to deliver realtime transcription; Eclipse and CaseViewNet. Some of our reporters use Eclipse, and others use CaseViewNet. These software programs allow us to provide instant realtime text. No matter which program your court reporter is using, you will not need to purchase software or tokens in order to connect to realtime.

Connecting to realtime is easy. Here are the steps involved in connecting with a wireless connection that your court reporter will provide. The first set of instruction is for CaseViewNet. The second set is for court reporters using the Eclipse software.

CaseViewNet Software Realtime Connection

1. Connect to the court reporter’s wireless network.

Verify that your computer is WiFi enabled. View or connect to the available wireless networks by right-clicking the wireless icon on your Windows taskbar.
Choose the court reporter’s wireless network from the available networks.
If required, enter the network key (pass phrase) provided by the reporter.

2. Connect to the court reporter’s realtime system.

Start CaseViewNet client software.
Click the Connect button.
Follow instructions in the Connection Wizard.

3. Provide your log-in credentials and connect to the event.

Use your name and the name of your organization.
Provide the event password as provided by the court reporter.

Simple instructions for connecting are provided by CaseViewNet on their website. They also provide instructions for connecting by serial port if wireless is not available.

Eclipse Software Realtime Connection

If your court reporter is using Eclipse software, the following instructions are the ones you will follow to gain a realtime connection on your computer:

1. Go to https://connect.eclipsecat.com.

2. Click the lightening bolt symbol in the lower left-hand corner of your screen.

3. Scroll to find the transcript with which you wish to connect.

4. Enter the password you have been given from your court reporter.

We Make it Easy for You to Connect

Realtime transcription can be a huge benefit to attorneys when preparing cases. We strive to provide realtime in a way that is easy and uncomplicated. If you haven’t connected to realtime transcription in a proceeding before, as you can see, it is a simple process. Your court reporter is available to assist in making the connection so you can receive realtime transcription on your computer and reap the benefits in your next deposition.

January 7, 2014 By Dawn Houghton

This Court Reporting Life…The Mysteriously Missing Court Reporter

As the owner of a court reporting firm, I am always trying to anticipate things that may go wrong when sending court reporters to depositions. But sometimes things come up we don’t expect. We always want to make the appropriate arrangements and avoid any mishaps that might occur, but sometimes it just isn’t possible to avoid some situations.

One day we got a frantic call from our client stating that our court reporter had not arrived for the deposition. They were ready to begin but had no court reporter. This is something no owner wants to hear. We pride ourselves on showing up for every deposition, not just on time, but early. We try to never, ever show up late. We also have several steps in our scheduling process to ensure that no deposition has slipped through cracks in our system. It is hectic to scramble to find a reporter to get to a deposition that has already been scheduled to begin, and we definitely don’t want that issue ever to occur.

So to find out we had a room full of attorneys without a court reporter was very bad news and our office went into action immediately to discover what happened.

This particular deposition was scheduled to take place at a local hotel conference room. I placed a call to my reporter to assure myself she was at the deposition location. She indicated she was. This made no sense at all. How could she be at the deposition, yet the scheduling attorney was calling asking why they didn’t have a court reporter?

My next step was to call the hotel staff to see if they could shed any light on the situation while at the same time my reporter was tracking down the staff at the hotel about the situation. We found out that the hotel had mistakenly set up two conference rooms for this one deposition. Some of the parties were taken to one room upon arrival and some of the participants were led to a second room. My court reporter was able to locate the other participants and all parties convened in one room. The deposition started later than scheduled but otherwise happened as planned.

So even though we try to anticipate every mishap that can happen, there are still situations that surprise us. Who could have predicted there would be two rooms for one deposition? Now we know what to do if the situation arises again.

If you found this article interesting, you might also like “The Court Reporting Profession is Alive and Well.”

October 6, 2013 By Dawn Houghton

Do I Need An Internship Before Working As A Court Reporter?

Sitting in with a court reporter or interning with an agency is required by most court reporting programs as a requirement of graduation. Although many agencies do not offer an internship program, they do allow students to sit in with reporters and observe what a typical job may be. Sitting in with a reporter provides valuable experience. It can serve as motivation to pass out of school faster, provide extra practice time, help show what the profession entails and what a real-life job may be like. Learning procedure in class and practicing to a teacher’s dictation is not the same as experiencing it first-hand.

Benefits of an Internship

Sitting in court or depositions with a court reporter provides extra practice time and can motivate students to pass out of school faster. Working reporters may even share tips on how to write efficiently and accurately. Some fortunate students meet reporters who are willing to take them under their wing in a non-official or official mentor capacity. Oftentimes, reporters will share their own experience with school and offer helpful advice in how to succeed in school and beyond. These connections you make with reporters can serve as potential contacts in helping you find work after graduation. It always helps to be friendly and ask questions.

Hands-On Experience

As any reporter or student interning can tell you, a teacher’s dictation can be one-dimensional. If there is only one person doing the voice of two or three different people, practicing colloquy can be unrealistic. This is not the teacher’s fault. They are just simply one person. Experiencing colloquy while sitting in will help acclimate a student to a professional setting where you may have multiple attorneys, sometimes speaking over one another. It’s good to see how the reporter handles those types of situations and to also imagine what you may do. In times like those, you may want to stop the attorneys and ask them to take turns speaking since you can only take down one person at a time. It’s always good to prepare yourself for unfamiliar situations that school hasn’t prepared you for.

Not only does interning prepare you with colloquy, but it also helps prepare you with filling out job sheets, reading and understanding captions, writing under pressure, and transcribing and editing transcripts. Many students struggle with these aspects of reporting since schools usually focus more on attaining speed. Transcribing can be one of the most beneficial things a student can do. Becoming familiar with how your CAT system works, such as hot keys, include files, etc., will significantly cut down on transcription time upon starting work. An internship can offer you the experience you need to become a successful reporter.

Finding Internship Opportunities

When looking for an internship opportunity, there are a few things to keep in mind. Finding a good agency to intern with is crucial. Although any experience is good experience, you should also think of interning as a form of networking and finding potential employers. Spend your time interning with reputable and established agencies for whom you would like to work. Once you have found a few that you would like to intern with and potentially work for, call the agencies, explain that you are a court reporting student, and ask if you could sit in with one of their reporters. Most agencies will say yes. Others will ask you to call back another day when they have work for you to sit in on. Either way, be persistent.

Interning is probably one of the best things a student can do for themselves while at school. It gives you hands-on, real-life experience that schools simply can’t offer. A student who pushes back interning or doesn’t intern enough is severely disadvantaging themselves when they enter into the workforce. It is better to invest the hours now to learn the foundations of working in the real world than to work in the real world and be unprepared.

If you found this article interesting, you might also like “Freelance Court Reporting versus Official Court Reporting.”

September 10, 2013 By Dawn Houghton

Freelance Court Reporting Versus Official Court Reporting

When people ask what I do for a living and I respond, “I am a court reporter”, it usually merits one of these two questions:

“Which court do you work in?”
“So, you work in courtrooms like those people on Law & Order that I see typing on machines, right?”

But little do they know that there are actually two main types of court reporters, freelance reporters and official reporters and there is a huge difference between the two.

Freelance Court Reporters

Freelance court reporters can be considered independent contractors, which means you are technically “self-employed”, or employees, depending how the court reporting firm is structured. Freelancers work for court reporting agencies which are hired by law firms, attorneys, corporations and other organizations. These agencies work with freelancers to cover depositions, examinations under oath, hearings and board meetings.

Freelance court reporters are typically on-call. Most agencies call a reporter one day in advance of an assignment. One perk of being a freelancer is that you usually travel to different locations. Some reporters enjoy this aspect and prefer not to work in the same location every day. Another benefit of freelancing is that you get to return home after the job is done to work on transcription, and you can work comfortably in your own home. However, a downside of the job is that freelancers usually don’t receive benefits such as health insurance.

Official Court Reporters

Official court reporters are employed by the courts and are sometimes assigned to a particular judge or courtroom. They can cover a variety of court cases, from lower court cases to high-profile cases, depending on which district or court they work in. Many jurisdictions require official reporters to pass certifications, such as the RPR (Registered Professional Reporter) and CRR (Certified Realtime Reporter), that test their written knowledge and skills before qualifying to work in the courts. But even upon passing the required certifications, being accepted for an officialship normally takes time. It is common for reporters to wait years before being considered since courts receive a high volume of applicants. Many reporters desire an officialship since it offers more stability as opposed to freelancing. Official reporters have set salaries, set hours, and benefits such as health insurance and pensions. There are also opportunities to earn additional money on top of your set salary, such as when attorneys order transcripts.

In May 2012, Forbes listed a court reporter/stenographer position as one of the best paying jobs that do not require a four-year degree. There are many pros and cons to both positions as a freelance court reporter and an official court reporter. Being an official court reporter provides the stability that many freelancers covet. On the other hand, reporters who value their flexibility tend to enjoy being freelance court reporters.