Whose Responsibility Is It?

The following article was published in the October 2008 JCR. CLVS Chair Deborah Kreigshauser, RMR, CRR, CLVS, discusses the respective roles of the court reporter and legal videographer. View the complete Members Only article.

Life is grand in a perfect world when we all get along. However, sometimes people seem to overstep their boundaries. If you want to be successful when dealing with videotaped depositions, it’s important to know your respective roles.

The court reporter is generally the one in most cases (not all) who receives the call requesting a court reporter and a videographer to shoot a videotaped deposition. Thus, that court reporting agency, in turn, arranges for contacting and confirming that a legal videographer will be present for the deposition on a particular date (preferably a Certified Legal Video Specialist who has been properly trained by NCRA’s CLVS Council). A good court reporting agency will see to it that the legal videographer receives a copy of the deposition notice as soon as one is available so the videographer has a hard copy of the deponent’s name, correct address and time for the scheduled deposition.

The legal videographer is responsible for knowing their video equipment and the proper set-up of all the cables and audio/video-recording devices. A legal videographer should understand how important it is to arrive early at a videotaped deposition to set up before the designated time of the deposition, particularly when you’re dealing with doctors and expert witnesses who charge some pretty hefty fees per hour. The videographer will perform a test recording prior to the arrival of the deposition participants to ensure the video equipment is working properly. A legal videographer generally supplies the necessary equipment to produce a back-up audio for the court reporter to take at the conclusion of the deposition. There is nothing wrong with requesting the court reporter to return the backup media to the videographer once the transcription of the proceedings is completed.

The court reporter is, likewise, responsible for setting up their court reporting equipment, whether it be just a steno machine or other related equipment, such as a laptop and realtime cabling. If a deposition notice has not been provided ahead of time, a good court reporter will procure the necessary information from the attorneys and share that information with the legal videographer.

The legal videographer will instruct the deposition participants where to sit during the deposition. He or she needs to keep in mind that the court reporter generally prefers to sit between the deponent and the questioning attorney. A videographer has no authority to demand where the court reporter sits. This is something usually worked out ahead of time during equipment set-up before the deposition participants enter the room. The court reporter’s transcript is the official record.Thus, the court reporter will make sure they’re seated in the appropriate location to competently report the deposition proceedings.

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