Esquire eLitigate Helps Attorneys and Court Reporters Standardize and Optimize Virtual Deposition Processes.
Esquire Deposition Solutions, a national provider of remote and in-person court reporting and video, yesterday announced it is partnering with a remote deposition and exhibit management provider vTestify to provide a product called Esquire eLitigate. eLitigate is a technology platform that’s designed specifically for virtual depositions. Currently, in a pilot phase, Esquire eLitigate will be released commercially in August 2021.
Esquire and vTestify describe eLitigate as “a purpose-built, secure virtual deposition platform with all-in-one videoconferencing and exhibit management capabilities for attorneys and court reporters.” Like some other recent litigation management solutions, eLitigate combines several technologies designed for virtual depositions into a single platform. It combines in one place:
Exhibit management, Integrated video conferencing, Video capture, Sidebar rooms, Immediate feedback, and Testimony review features with searchable in-proceeding speech-to-text streaming.
I talked recently to Terrie Campbell, Chief Executive Officer at Esquire, and Mike Hewitt, Chief Executive Officer of vTestify, about the new product, what it does, and what the future may hold. Alex Hewitt, Vice President of vTestify demoed the product for me.
The Product
First the product. The one question even today many lawyers have about virtual depositions is how to manage the exhibits. Do you send them to the other side and/or the witness in advance, losing the element of surprise. How do you deal with the exhibit that you need based on unexpected testimony? How do you mark exhibits? Even today, many lawyers are still uncertain about these and other questions. The more technically oriented lawyers who have mastered the art have an advantage. The rest still fumble.
According to a recent Esquire survey, 51% of attorneys are still worried about managing exhibits in a virtual environment.