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Hey Bowlers, I launched an interactive kiosk leveraging Typeform to automate onboarding and personalize customer experiences at scale.
Key features
- Rapid Checkout
- CRM Synchronization
- Integrated Slack Support
- Data Manager
Open to pessimists and optimists alike to give honest feedback on what you think about the product. In search of teaming up with a designer (with pay) if you have useful insights or better story telling abilities. (See link below)
Please and thank you.
https://www.canva.com/design/DAErzR4fnbU/94_1cMfCiV9zU_pHWhZG8w/view?website#2:take-action-now-and-receive-a-50-discount-offer-expires-10-17-21
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Any Deloitte people trade on robin hood?
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Messed up a document production. What now?
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Chief
Be extra careful to make sure you’re clear and the witness knows what’s going on, especially with documents, talking over each other, etc. Really need to be extra careful that you have a clean record.
Two biggest mistakes in depositions:
1) Not immediately marking Exhibits and referencing them exhaustively in every following question. Referring to an exhibit as it, that, or the document makes a horrible transcript.
2) Not following up for a direct answer when a deponent deflects on a question. Make sure you get a straight answer before moving on to the next question.
Don’t stress about awkward silences. They don’t show up in the record and it’s good to take your time to ask all your questions properly
I second this. It feels so awkward at the time but makes for a much cleaner transcript.
Ask witness who else is in the room, what docs might be available in front of witness or on computer. Can even ask to show you the room.
Yes with one particularly deceitful defendant, we asked him to let us watch him place his phone on the ground.
after the witness answers the question, pause before you start speaking again. Due to any hiccups with the technology, the voices can get jumbled together on the reporter’s dictation device.
Also, pausing before speaking again often makes the witness feel like they haven’t actually answered the question, they get uncomfortable and start saying more things. If it’s unresponsive you move to strike, if it’s ramble, maybe it’s helpful
Don’t be afraid to go outside of your outline and ask additional questions
This! You don’t want to get so caught up in your outline that you don’t really listen to the deponent’s answers. Follow up questions can provide more insight than sticking straight to an outline. Also, on Zoom depositions, people are already more comfortable if they are home, so you can use that to your advantage to get them talking.
Have a plan for exhibits. They either need to be sent in advance in hard copy or you need to be prepared to show them via screen sharing. If your deponent attends using a cell phone, it's gonna be hard to show those exhibits on the screen. You can ask them at the outset what device they're using and if they have a larger screen available for this purpose. Or you can try to require them to use a tablet or laptop in your Notice or subpoena, but good luck enforcing it. Judges are soft and this is new territory.
This is a great point. We have been fortunate enough that no one has tried to appear via phone. However, I do anticipate that this will become a dirty lawyer trick as we move forward with remote depositions. I would get them to agree as part of the terms that they will be using a laptop. So when we are conferring about dates and remoteness, we agree they will use a laptop. Otherwise, our remote depo company can bring them a laptop to use.
Two tips. First, as first chair, an underrated supplemental tip regarding your record- when the other side objects you should take the moment to meet and confer there and then on the record (you shouldn’t call it a meet and confer) but just talk through the objection, why what you’re asking is permitted under the code, why the objection isn’t valid, asking them for authority for that position, etc. They never have it, it’s bogus and they’re just trying to preserve some phantom issue. My favorite is to ask them if you provide the authority will they withdraw their objection? It’s always a trap.
I’ve hammered countless OC’s when we’re arguing the objections to the Court. Even had a case settle immediately after the hearing/call with the judge when some truly damning testimony is coming in.
Second tip, you need to know the rules cold. What are you allowed to do? What is the authority for such? Have a cheat sheet with you so you can cite your authority. You can make a deponent do a whole heck of a lot including make demonstrations, pull up records, etc. Use the record to lay land mines for opposing counsel to walk straight into. Most deposing attorneys may not know the entirety of the rules even if their people skills make them generally good at taking depos. As a result not many have been absolutely demolished by a deposing attorney who plays some arcane rule to their advantage.
I try to limit the depos I take to those where I think there’s some buried treasure to be had. If I get some truly damaging admissions I don’t want it held up by some ticky tack objection being decided by a judge’s (questionable) decision making. So I stack the deck such that even the most incompetent judge has no choice but to side with me.
Get the audio and video figured out before getting on the record. We had a bunch of discussion about volume levels in a couple of ours recently, with the court reporter repeatedly asking for clarification or someone to speak up.
Zoom is not great when multiple people are talking at a time, so if you have a real time transcript, check to make sure the court reporter is capturing what you are saying. This is especially true if there are objections and back and forth between counsel.
In my experience, I’ve noticed first-timers tend to let a witness get away with avoiding questions or not answering the question. My number one piece of advice is to be like a dog on a bone - not in the sense that you have to be agressive with the witness, but if the witness does not answer, tries to be cute or anything of the sort, you ask the question again. Eventually, if it’s systematic, you even call them out on it. Good luck!
Nobody’s gonna make a joke about the cat filter?!
Don't feel the need to respond/acknowledge every answer. I cannot not tell you how many times I look at a transcript where the examiner says "okay" in response to EVERY SINGLE ANSWER. I took a deposition yesterday where the examiner did it and then doubled down with "okay, okay" before asking the next question.
If you struggle with this, do some practice rounds with the interns. Get one to be the deponent, and get another one to throw something at you every time you say “ok” “uh-huh” “right” etc.
Be super careful about screen sharing (if you have a chat going or emails open you definitely don’t want to share them and I’ve seen opposing counsel inadvertently do it a few times) and also be careful with breakout rooms. The vendor accidentally had the rooms mixed up so we were in a room with opposing counsel on the breaks which could have been bad.
Zoom depos are great. We’ve taken numerous over the past year. We use centext litigation services. I always order a video taped deposition with videographer and real-time. Videographer records and also keeps track of your exhibits. Because we usually don’t know which exhibits we are going to use ahead of time I never order an exhibit technician. Rather, we just drop the exhibits in the chat and introduce them that way. Take your time, think only about the transcript. If you think your deponent is reading something, ask.
Read the statutory authority for Zoom depositions into the record when the court reporter starts the depo and states his or her identity and qualifications. Premark all exhibits with opposing counsel. Hard to do a “gotcha” exhibit, but always reserve the right to add other exhibits in addition to the premarked ones. Always ask who is in the room with the deponent; ask for the physical location of the deponent (home, whose office, etc). Tell your client to switch off his or her video (I do divorces and sometimes the clients scowl, etc, at each other…) if there is the potential for misbehavior. Don’t rush.