Court Reporting Services That Benefit Large Companies

Court reporting agencies are known for supplying legal assistance to law firms, but their assistance is also valuable to companies. If your company needs the services below, you will find them at an agency that offers a full range of court reporting services.

Transcript Production

In addition to recording the language of depositions and legal trials, court reporters also record the language of official company meetings. If a company needs the language of an official meeting recorded in the form of a transcript, a reporter is the ideal candidate for the job.

Record Retrieval

Performing document retrieval in-house is an expense that most companies wish to avoid, and using a reporting agency to retrieve documents is an easy way to avoid it. Most large companies retrieve a significant amount of documents annually, from medical records for workers comp claims to financial records for audits. Agencies regularly retrieve the following types of documents, among others: medical records, financial records, criminal records, police records, and legal records.

Early Case Assessment

Early case assessment evaluates the potentialities of a legal case from several perspectives, most importantly:

How much a case would cost How much exposure the case would bring to the parties involved Whether the case would be winnable in court How long it would take to resolve the case The resources needed to help give the case a favorable outcome

Early case assessment is often performed concurrently with deposition services, as the information that is gathered in depositions is crucial for determining the things listed above. Early case assessment helps a company's general counsel make educated decisions about important legal matters.

Document Review

Document review is one of the court reporting services that law firms use the most, but it can also help companies review a large volume of documents for an upcoming legal case, assess the value of a potential business merger, or gather the information needed to respond to a regulatory inquiry. Agencies supply the legal staff and document review suites that companies need to review a large volume of documents in a short period.

Complex Litigation Support

Several scenarios make litigation complex, such as a short time to resolve a case, a large volume of complex information surrounding a case, and a large number of witnesses who must be deposed before a case can go forward. When a case has at least one of these elements, the attorneys who handle it may need support in the form of a document review team, additional paralegals or attorneys, and reporters that specialize in real time reporting. An agency provides these types of support and more.

Conclusion

Reporting agencies provide court reporting services to law firms. These services are also valuable to companies that need the language of meetings recorded and preserved in transcript form, help assessing the potential outcome of a legal case, or assistance supplying a legal team with crucial types of legal support. For more information about recording the language of depositions or other types of proceedings, contact a reporting agency today.

Tips for Selecting the Best Legal Staffing Agency   Judgment Debtor Exemptions And Timelines   Should You Outsource Your Judgments?   How A Wireless Expert Witness Can Help You   Legal Placement Services: The Difference Between Court Reporters and Paralegals   

Guidelines for Expert Witnesses in Court Proceedings

Before an expert witness can be admitted to court to make a testimony, he should be able to demonstrate his authority in his area of expertise. He must establish his expertise by his years of experience or practice in the field, and years of training and education to hone his knowledge base.

Legal Duties of an Expert Witness

Expert witnesses are required by the court to uphold certain standards when giving their testimony before the judge or jury. These standards can be summarized into the following legal duties.

1. Truthfulness

An expert must be truthful at all times. The court is relying on an expert's opinion to determine whether a certain piece of evidence can be admissible in court, or whether or not the plaintiff can be entitled to compensation.

2. Objectivity

An expert must be objective at all times. He must not favor any of the parties (defendant and plaintiff). He must answer all the questions asked of him without bias and subjectivity.

Guidelines for Expert Witnesses in Court Proceedings

The court takes the above-mentioned legal duties seriously. Many expert witness's testimonies were labeled inadmissible because the court doubted the expert's truthfulness and/or objectivity.

So if you are testifying in court as an expert witness in the next few days, here are some guidelines to heed for an effective testimony.

1. Make sure that your tone/voice is not argumentative.

Remember, you are summoned to help the court understand a technical concept. Let the lawyers take care of the arguments. Your job is to find a way to explain a difficult concept in the simplest possible manner.

2. Give your expert opinion and reasoning (or basis) for each in a detailed report.

Your opinion should be backed by facts, tests, or experiments that you did. All these should be clearly stated and detailed in a report. Also, you must not forget to attach relevant documents that can support your opinion.

3. Stay within your area of expertise.

There are some questions that may fall out of your area of expertise. Sometimes, these questions are tricky and might compromise your reputation or expertise. So if you are asked questions outside of your expertise, it's best not to answer them.

Above all, you should be honest. Answer all questions thrown at you, sticking to your line of expertise. After all, you are obligated to assist the court to come up with the best resolution for a dispute.

Tips for Selecting the Best Legal Staffing Agency   Judgment Debtor Exemptions And Timelines   Should You Outsource Your Judgments?   How A Wireless Expert Witness Can Help You   Legal Placement Services: The Difference Between Court Reporters and Paralegals