Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers cloud software for paperless deposition exhibits that gives you precise control over what the deponent sees and which can generate a hyperlinked report of all marked exhibits (see article below). In addition, you'll find links to the previous 11 TL NewsWire features, including our coverage of billing and task management software designed to handle any financial model you devise, including the option to outsource drudgery such as mailing bills, a major practice management update, including a new Android and iOS app that automatically captures time for calls and email, and much more. Don't miss the next issue.
For a discovery tool designed to elicit important testimony, depositions often resemble an arts and crafts project. Printing exhibits is time consuming and can get expensive. When you need to travel for a deposition so do your exhibits, which may require shipping them. Given that laptops and iPads have practically become a birthright, it seems like a good time to switch to paperless deposition exhibits.
eDepoze … in One Sentence
eDepoze is a paperless deposition exhibit service that works in web browsers and in a dedicated iPad app.
The Killer Feature
When you depose a witness, you want as much control as possible. You don't want a witness paging aimlessly through an exhibit you just handed out. It's also important to avoid creating a confusing record that fails to capture a witness' interactions with an exhibit.
eDepoze addresses both of these challenges. In presentation mode, you can control which page of the exhibit the deponent sees, and zoom in to make it easier for the deponent to focus on what you're asking about.
Annotation tools such as arrows, highlights, circles, and freestyle drawing can help clarify the deponent's testimony and create useful evidence. During my demo, Division President Jeremy Lindahl showed me how a deponent could mark on a photo where an accident occurred.
"Our goal at eDepoze is to change the way corporations and law firms approach the deposition exhibit process," Lindahl tells me. "Paper is outdated, limited, unsecure, extremely wasteful, and simply unnecessary. eDepoze gives you a better option. Features like Presentation Mode give you more control over your depositions."
"eDepoze actually makes me want to take depositions," says Joseph Baghat, managing attorney of The Privacy Firm.
Other Notable Features
Before your deposition, setup the case in the WebManager, designate the upcoming event (e.g., deposition, witness prep, arbitration) and create deponent case folders. Then upload your exhibits from your desktop or import from Box or Dropbox cloud storage services. In the iPad app, you can add photos from the Photos app. eDepoze supports PDF and text documents as well as common formats for audio, images, and video.
In the case folders for a deponent, choose which documents you may want to use during the deposition and arrange them to correlate with your outline. For physical evidence, eDepoze offers a placeholder so that you can record the exhibit number when introduced. If a previously unknown document surfaces at a deposition, you can add it on the fly. Some eDepoze users have a paralegal monitor the deposition remotely in case they need any additional documents.
During a deposition, you can stamp exhibits before or after you introduce them using any alphanumeric sequence. You can also pass control of eDepoze to other lawyers at a multi-party deposition. eDepoze offers a chat feature that everyone except the witness can use. This enables you to communicate with a colleague without leaving eDepoze. After each deposition, generate an Exhibit Log Report listing all the exhibits you introduced with hyperlinks to each document.
What Else Should You Know?
eDepoze offers two pricing options. You can pay $300 per deponent per day without any subsequent commitments. This makes it easy to bill your client for the eDepoze service as a flat cost. Alternatively, eDepoze offers an annual subscription with unlimited depositions that costs $400 per month. Learn more about eDepoze.
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