A great attorney is one of the most detail-focused people on Earth. Bless you, Counselor, for leaving no stone unturned in achieving the best result for your client.
And it’s because we want your client to appreciate your efforts that we want you to devote as little of your valuable time and energy to scheduling a deposition as possible.
It’s so tempting to take it all on yourself. We’ve seen so many ways that attorneys try to squeeze just a little bit more onto their plate – making their own photocopies, running their own video cameras, mixing-and-matching multiple vendors (sometimes in multiple states!) to get this or that just so.
But has any client ever said, “I’m so thankful you billed me for the time it took to call three vendors instead of one”? Do your clients give you referrals because your photocopier makes the best copies?
Much like cutting your own hair, maybe you can do all of these things, but it may not give you the best result. And that’s why you’re so focused on the details in the first place!
Consider these advantages to leveraging our expertise when scheduling your next deposition instead of taking it all on yourself:
1. Professional coordination saves time. If you’re mixing and matching deposition vendors to fill in holes in each vendor’s service offerings, things can get confusing quickly. You may even lose track of who you’ve engaged — we’ve dealt with plenty of depositions where attorneys arrived to find two court reporters waiting (or worse, no court reporters waiting)!
Deposition support is increasingly a team effort requiring multiple skills, technologies and resources. Full-service agencies like ours work with these resources every day and know how to put the pieces together quickly. Scheduling all of your deposition services through a single point of contact prevents logistical headaches both now AND after the job is done, freeing your firm to focus on other elements of your case.
2. Professional coordination saves money. Single-person and single-service providers come in all price points, from bargain-basement to “are you kidding me?!?” And while it sounds like a great idea to just thumb through a pile of rate sheets to find the one with the smallest numbers, the reality is that a single-person provider can only serve one customer at a time. If the date you’ve noticed has already been spoken for, you’re out of luck. And what if you have two depositions at the same time? Then you’re back in the mix-and-match cycle, and by the time you’ve assembled the providers who are actually available, you may be paying more than you would through an agency.
Because full-service agencies like ours maintain access to a deep pool of specialists, scheduling through us greatly increases the odds that we can provide the services that you need on the date, time and location that you need them. And because our services are priced to be provided together, you are guaranteed a certain level of predictable price consistency that is lost when you schedule a la carte.
3. Professional coordination provides peace of mind. Sometimes we get calls about depositions you might not expect. “We had a deposition and lost track of who reported it — was it your office?” “Opposing counsel said they were going to make copies of the exhibits and give them to me — do you have them?” “I need a copy of the video from this deposition but there’s no record of a videographer being there — I think opposing counsel ran their own camera. Do you have a copy?”
Unfortunately, after a certain point, we’re not able to be of much help if you’ve taken on parts of record preservation yourself. And you have plenty of opportunities to enjoy spending quality time with opposing counsel without having to engage on the topic of internal deposition archiving! Entrusting your deposition record with an experienced provider from the get-go solves these problems before they ever arise.
Please don’t try to cut your own hair, Counselor. Leverage our expertise to bring all the pieces together. Your client will think you really look smart!