CASE LIBRARY

Ever had issues with missing image files and/or incorrect path mappings when copying files from your firm’s server to your trial laptop? You’re not the only one. Even seasoned consultants sometimes have image linkage issues. InData put their best foot forward in Version 6.0 to offer an easy fix to these types of issues. With the Pack & Go feature, a step-by-step wizard guides you through copying everything in your case and moving it to another location.  It even double-checks for missing files.

Version 6.0 also offers two additional types of workbooks in its Case Library (now viewable through the Document Manager module). The Carousel Workbook has an iTunes library style look for a different type of presentation appearance. However, the greatest addition is the new Multiplayer Workbook which allows the back to back playback of multiple video clips from different depositions/volumes without having to load each clip individually. This is a great feature for depositions that span multiple days, for non-deposition video clips that you want to play consecutively, or if you want to create a slide show type presentation for documents.

DOCUMENT MANAGER

The most noticeable change to the Document Manager is its appearance. The Grid View is back. If you are like me, an original Trial Director (version 4) user, you will remember, with fondness, the grid view. It was removed in version 5.0 but, back by popular demand, and can be found in version 6.0.

The grid view allows you to sort the exhibits by column (similar to Excel) and also allows you to print the actual grid view itself. This is helpful if you want to provide a list of exhibits/documents you have loaded into your case to your client.

The image de-skewer has been updated, although it’s not a huge improvement in my opinion. De-skewing an image is now a manual process allowing the user to have input on the deskewing process. Auto deskew is still available in Presentation Preferences.

TRANSCRIPT MANAGER

The transcript manager looks very similar to previous versions; however, the most changes were made to this portion of the software.

The Clip Creation process has been completely revamped. Within the Clip Editor you can create a new clip or open an existing clip for edits. You can also now rename an existing clip within the clip editor interface. Edits to the beginning/end of clips is now done completely through the waveform editor (a definite drawback in my opinion).

The greatest improvement to the Clip Editor is the ability to add and/or remove portions of a segment without having to completely re-create the entire segment. This can be a huge time saver. You can also now close the multi-player if you would like.

With respect to transcripts, searches can now be saved and named anyway you would like. The saved searches are now part of the “View By” items. Another added benefit is the ability to print the search results in detail or summary fashion.

CODING TAB

Not much has changed in the Coding module. One improvement is that search results can be sent to a workbook. Other than that, minor issues have been improved upon and a few bugs worked out.

PRESENTATION MODE

The most significant and visual differences were made to the Presentation module. Everything in Presentation Mode was built on new Windows technologies making it compatible with Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Mac Bootcamp. It also works with Windows 7 touch enabled computers.

So what makes Presentation Mode so different? Well, for starters, the toolbar is completely different – and, it can be detached so that only the end user can view it.

The dropdown folders menu now show the colors of the workbooks and allows you to use right and left arrow keys found on the folder to skip through the documents inside the folder (instead of having to use the “Item Launch” button).

The zoom tools now have 3D abilities which make blow outs very visually appealing.

Document handling is different in this version. You can scroll through documents, zoom across pages, and there is a scrollbar available on the right hand size of documents. You can also now zoom in on video and any annotation tool available with documents is available to use on video.

A big disappointment for us “pre-preparers” is that the layers feature has been removed. It has been replaced with a Save Stage feature which is a little more difficult to use and not as user friendly.

The Presentation Preferences area has also been completely re-designed. There are new themes for use in presentation mode and hotkeys are now customizable.

Overall, inData has made some great and necessary improvements. A few features have taken a step backward, and a few features have made their way back into the program after a long absence.

Although the different formats are a matter of opinion and budget, here are some considerations that you need to make before purchasing a Flat Panel for your office or conference room.

Warranty – Consumer flat panel televisions (Best Buy, WalMart, Circuit City), are intended for home use ONLY. Installing a consumer flat panel in your office IMMEDIATELYvoids any warranty, even a separately purchased Extended Warranty. Double check all of your documentation.

Connections – Not all flat panels have the connections you may need. Sure there will be Composite (red-white-yellow) and maybe Component (red-green-blue) connections, but are these what you will actually use and need?

In today’s offices, a flat panel needs more than “home theater” hook-ups. A VGA connection (15pin analog computer) for laptop or external CPU monitor should be included. Professional-grade panels offer VGA, DVI-I, HDMI, RJ45 network connections as well as standard Composite inputs.

Longevity – Professional-grade panels are designed for heavy, continuous use. They are designed to be used for long periods of time and are built to maintain cooler operating temperatures over extended use. Their display quality doesn’t degrade nearly as quickly as consumer models.

Pricing – While professional-grade panels are more expensive initially, their life expectancy is greater, and, in some cases, last twice as long as consumer grade panels, making them a better value in the long run.

Even with consumer panel prices dropping at a staggering rate, spending a little more money upfront will provide much better return on investment.

But read that sentence to yourself again. Only this time, put the emphasis on the word you.Now put the emphasis on stole.

The entire meaning of the sentence changes based on the emphasis that you put on each word. In fact, each word’s emphasis will change the entire message of the sentence.

The written word is powerful and final, but actually seeing and hearing somebody testify brings a wholly different dimension to the equation. We have body language, facial expressions, speed of voice, tone, intonation, the list goes on and on.

Always remember that the spoken word carries with it a different dimension of communication. Make sure you are capturing it.

Success in litigation, regardless the side of the bar in which you practice, is a team effort.

This team is devised into groups of individuals, each possessing a number of skills to keep the ball rolling toward a common goal. Those individuals might include attorneys, paralegals, secretaries, couriers, and other law office support staff.

Here’s the question: How much do you consider outside litigation support service providers to be part of the team?

Some common litigation support professionals are court reporters, trial consultants, IT personnel, trial presentation specialists, and even scanning and copy shops.

One of the most commonly overlooked parts of the litigation team is the litigation videographer. The litigation videographer is a valued cog in the machine that moves the litigation industry forward.

The Role of the Litigation Videographer

The often overlooked litigation videographer has many skills that aid the litigation industry. When you think litigation videographer, do you think depositions? When you think depositions do you see video as a luxury?

Do you commonly think of a litigation or legal videographer as the sharp-dressed fellow behind the camera, laying low in his chair, reading a magazine during the deposition process?

Perhaps legal videographers are thought of as individuals who charge exorbitant rates for copies and duplications of recorded media. Or, perhaps the litigation videographer projects the image of propeller-head with no real knowledge of the litigation process and the associated technologies of the field.

If you think this defines a litigation videographer, read on!

What Defines a Litigation Videographer

Perhaps it is easier to begin by telling you what a videographer is not.

• Did you know that no state in the union requires a trained litigation videographer to be present during legal proceedings?
• Did you know there are no state certifications, board tests, or federal rules which define the qualifications required of litigation videographers?
• Did you know most litigation videographers enter the civil litigation realm from outside the legal field?
• Did you know any videographer whose name is placed on a deposition notice can be considered a legal videographer?
• Do you know many litigation videographers are found using 1-800 numbers?

No wonder many attorneys and their staff rarely think of videographers as part of the team.

The Litigation Audio-Visual Expert

Each litigation videographer or litigation technologist should be considered an audio-visual expert with special interests in litigation technology.

First and foremost, your videographer should know how to operate a video camera with skill. He or she should understand both components of audio and video, as each is a separate discipline with technical intricacies reaching well beyond what is commonly viewed on the surface.

All professional litigation videographers are expected to understand microphone types, proper placement, and signal processing to obtain the best audio possible. Litigation videographers are expected to understand both analog and digital video as technological advancements are racing at light speed. Each litigation videographer is expected to know archival medium necessary to maintain data integrity until your case is resolved, whether that means six months or five years down the road.

Legal videographers/litigation technologists are acquisition, duplication, format transfer, editing, presentation and archiving experts.

Qualified Litigation Videographers

Qualified litigation videographers are expected to know rules of civil procedure and evidence for the states and jurisdictions in which they practice. Let’s face it. These rules are written for the attorney, not the videographer. These rules are designed to set out a fair playing field for both the plaintiffs and defendants. Even if your videographer knows “the rules” that does not guarantee your opposing counsel’s videographer is playing by the rules that YOU must follow.

There are no jurisdictional rules for wedding or event videographers to follow yet somehow, even the weekend warrior with a consumer camera can make his or her way in front of the bench and a respective jury.

In truth, many videographers are chosen out of convenience instead of confidence.

Litigation Videographers can be Consultants

Litigation videographers can be consultants to attorneys. When you have audio-visual needs; be it acquisition, editing or playback you do not call a court reporter, nor do you call uncle Joe, do you? Of course not!  You call someone that understands various software packages, presentation modes, and the important, sometimes critical issues inherent to each litigation claim.

You call a qualified Litigation Technologist!

Litigation Technologists

Litigation technologists are apprised of software and hardware components designated to the litigation industry, but also of those tools existing in the mainstream. As consultants, legal videographers should understand the benefits of every available audio-video component and technique, or know how to find the answers necessary to get the job done.

If necessary, the litigation technologist should be willing the steer you away from disaster.

Litigation technicians should be able to speak your language and understand litigation from intake to final judgement. They should be able to suggest modes and methods that ease stress, keep costs low, and provide continuity regardless the stage or maturity of your case.

You should expect to rely on your litigation technologist to preform tasks like Day-in-the-Life Production, Site Inspections, Evidence Videography, Settlement Video, Focus Group Presentation, Mediation Presentation and, if necessary, be able to “take the stand” to prove up any audio and video program they create.

Team Acceptance

You do not hap-hazardly choose your case experts and you should not do so in choosing your litigation technologist.

Whether one chooses to consider a videographer part of team or not, we are indeed in the huddle. Litigation Technicians are either on the field as a beneficial players or liabilities taking up space that should be occupied by true professionals overlooked on the bench.

Your videographer/litigation technologist should complement the entire team regardless if he or she is working with office staff or outside consultants. You can usually tell one’s affiliation to the “professional is as professional does” club by his or her willingness and ability to share responsibilities with a plethora of professionals.

Team Member Status Should be Earned and Never Given Away

When one says earned does that not mean each team member provides proven competency, a positive, professional attitude and commitment to see projects through to the end?  Sure it does!

Do you remember the fellow sunk low in his chair, the one reading the magazine or playing games on his IPod? You know, the videographer at a recent deposition. Is he or she a videographer or a qualified litigation technologist?  Do you remember his or her name? In the legal video industry we call this individual, “Bubba”.

Bubba’s a nice guy, talks a lot, but is not really a part of the team. He is there because someone did not understand the importance of having someone knowledgeable, experienced and competent.

If you still feel Bubba deserves to be part of the team than I suggest you do these three things before placing him/her on the roster.

1. Ask these 5 questions.
2. Step around and take a look at his/her monitor during the next deposition.
3. Review the quality of the products as you receive them.

Don’t wait until the time of trial to find out if your videographer dropped the ball.

There will be a lot of changes at Opveon University as well, so make sure to stay tuned.

To learn more give us a call at 918.359.8900 or email us at info@opveon.com.

Sounds great, almost too good to be true, I know, but it really is easy to do. You might associate Email Newseletters with Spam, but with the right information they become an educational resource for your clients and a marketing tool for you. Make it valuable enough and your newsletter gets forwarded on to a few of their close friends in similar situations or maybe their entire address book. You’ve just made 1-100 new contacts by word of mouth. Great job. The best part about the whole thing is, you only spent a few short hours to generate that newsletter and now it is shared with hundreds of people.

Where Do I Start?

Excellent question with a ton of different answers. You probably made the intuitive leap that you want to send an email, but don’t make the mistake of sending it out using Outlook or Yahoo.

1. Use a service designed for this specific task. A few to look at are: Campaign Monitor, Mail Chimp and Constant Contact [Mail Chimp is an affiliate link]. We use Mail Chimp and I highly recommend it for beginners and advanced users alike.
2. Import your contacts. These applications allow you to import contacts from other online contact management tools or from .CSV or XLS files. They’ll even show you step by step how to import different types.
3. Create & Send your first newsletter. Spend some time to come up with a topic or two that will be benefitial to your clients. You want the information to be useful, but also intriguing so that your client will share it and then call you to learn more or review something in their dealings.
4. Repeat as necessary.

Be Careful

When starting up your list, you’ll want to be careful about Spam laws. Make certain that your list contains people that you have done business with and will appreciate the information you wish to pass on. You’ll also want to be careful about what constitutes legal advice, so be certain to add any disclaimers you feel are necessary. Don’t give away too much information either. It’s a difficult line to explain, but you want give enough for your readers to share but not so much that they don’t want to follow up with you.

There are an endless number of nuances involved in this process and we will touch on those in the future. For right now, do some research, get your list ready and generate some clients. When you run into an area that isn’t 100% clear, give me a call or shoot me an email. I’ll be happy to help design and develop your newsletter.

Learn more and stay up-to-date by subscribing to the Opveon University blog via RSS or Email. Thanks for your time and attention.

Jason Wietholter is the Technology Director at Opveon. Think of him as your technological go-to guy. If you need something that has to do with technology and the legal world, he can handle it for you or find someone else that can.

Digital Video offers a whole host of benefits, not the least of which being a more cost-effective and being more robust in travel and storage.

1. Digital Video is not prone to Generation Loss

Generation loss is the degradation of quality for each copy or generation of a tape that is made. In the analog world, tapes are duplicated, passed out and then duplicated again. After each copy of a copy is made, quality is injured and the effect compounded with each new generation added into the mix. Digital video, on the other hand, is like a file on a hard drive recorded on a tape. If you make a copy via Firewire or computer, there is no generation loss. The quality is still as pristine as the original tape, no matter how many duplications away from the original you are.

2. Digital Video is more Efficient

Using digital video in any form is generally more efficient than analog video, and especially when it comes to cameras that utilize SSD (solid state drives), HDD (hard disk drive) or Flash drives for storage. With analog video, you have to place the tape in a VCR, press play, hit record on your computer and wait. As long as that tape was to record the first time, it will take to record into your computer. With a file based, digital video camera, it’s as easy as copy and paste. This allows for faster work on the tail end of a shoot.

3. Digital Video is more Cost-Effective

Because of its inherent efficiency, digital video is also more cost-effective. It takes less time, the technology is better and cheaper all around so it costs less to work with overall.

4. Digital Video is Better Quality. Period.

It really is hard to explain without actually seeing it. If you view analog video and then digital video, you will notice a difference. The video is cleaner, the audio is more crisp. There are no fuzzy lines or tracking problems. As I said in the opening paragraph, it is almost like the jump from standard definition to high definition.

Which brings up one more point, some technology firms, such as Opveon, offer high definition services. High Definition is your best bet for recording your projects right now. I’ll follow up with a detailed post on why.

For now, get your video captured on digital tapes or digital files. Contact us to learn more about high definition.

If you have never been involved in a videotaped deposition before, the good news is that they aren’t too different from a regular deposition. Adding a videographer to your deposition means that you now have to take into account the fact that the proceeding is recorded and that you need to take specific breaks because of the length of the tape being used. These inconveniences far outweigh the value that videoing a deposition will afford you. Take, for instance, our article on Memory After 72 Hours. Now that you have video, your audience will be much more interested in the testimony as opposed to simply reading it back.

Legal Settlement Documentaries or Day-in-the-Life videos are powerful presentation tools to utilize before and at trial. That’s really the beauty of these videos. They serve a dual purpose. A Legal Settlement Doc is essentially a presentation made to opposing counsel outlining the merits of a case while utilizing video evidence to persuade them. It is extremely effective in advancing negotiations and can save precious time and distress for your client in trial. The dual benefit is that even if settlement does not occur, you now have video evidence that you can take to show the court to better explain the hardships of your client.

There are numerous other formats that legal video can take. We’ll look at each of them in depth in the near future. In the meantime, post a comment below and let us know what other ways you have utilized video in your practice.

Without further ado, Download the Document Imaging for Trial Director guide here. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to get in contact with us!

Disclaimer, we do advertise Mozy on this site. However, we advertise Mozy because it is a great service, not because they pay us.

With that out of the way, I’m going to give you a brief overview of how Mozy works and why it will be beneficial to you. First of all, Mozy offers Unlimited Backup for $4.95 per month for individuals. The price is right, and in fact, you can try 2GB for free. Past that, Mozy is an online or cloud service. That means, your data gets backed up offsite. That is huge. Imagine if you had a natural disaster or a fire at your office or home. If you had your data backed up to another hard drive, that is great, but that hard drive probably burned too. Mozy offers you the flexibility of having all of your data online and impervious to catastrophes at your location.

Mozy is extremely easy to utilize. You download the software, install it, insert your login credentials and then select the files you want to backup. It even gives you an option to select the type of files you want to back up. You can set preferences to backup at certain times of the day or automatically when your computer is idle. The Mozy preferences even allow you to easily throttle the bandwidth so that you don’t bog down your internet connection. Mozy even allows you to use one account to backup multiple computers. If you run a business, there is also MozyPro.

One of the greatest features of Mozy is its easy restore functionality. You can initiate a restore of your computer from your web control panel, from the downloaded software or you can order a set of DVDs direct from Mozy.

In summary: Backup! Off site is best. Mozy makes it easy to backup and restore. Go check Mozy out, it is free to try and only $4.95/month otherwise. Best insurance ever!

What methods of backup do you use? Post in the comments and share with everyone.