As A Court Reporter, How Will You Tackle The Telephone Deposition?

A court reporter would like to get his telephone deposition go extremely smooth the very first time. He knows that he will not be seeing the involved parties and this can be a tricky situation. The court reporter will have to listen attentively for any modular changes in the voice, and it becomes difficult for him to latch on to any mistakes fast. The lawyers have to help the court reporters in this situation.

Lawyers have to ensure that a decent connection is prevailing with the telephone line and that all the legal matters concerning the telephonic deposition have been meticulously looked into.

Telephone depositions may be time saving and less expensive for the courts. Yet they present many challenges. There are certain cases where a witness may be living out of state. Then, the parties will have to get the deposition done over the telephone.

Legal telephone depositions are easier to arrange as the parties involved do not have to take the commuting time into consideration and they find it easy to fit these proceedings into their agenda. The depositions are mostly arranged ahead of time so that material exhibits can be sent out to all concerned parties.

The conference call has to be set up and the parties have to be informed of the correct way to connect to the call. The deposition begins when everyone is present. It is easy for lawyers to attend a legal deposition by telephone. It is not the same for a court reporter because he is required to supervise the oath to the deponent. Some state jurisdictions allow court reporters to give the oath over the phone whereas some other states want a notary public in addition to the court reporter to give the oath in the presence of the witness.

Technical problems can surface during the deposition. The parties can be cut off while using the speaker phones if they are not speaking loud enough or when someone else begins to talk in between. It becomes very hard for the court reporter to maintain exact record of who is saying what. If two people begin to speak simultaneously, it is not easy to document both the statements with accuracy and it becomes extremely difficult to ascribe statements to the correct parties.

Telephone depositions cannot be rejected because they do save time and money. One great advantage of a telephone deposition is that the lawyers can get a good testimony from the witness as the opposing attorney cannot harass the witness over the phone.