What is Legal Video?

Legal video can be a plethora of activities, but the legal video industry focuses on deposition video production and legal settlement documentary production.

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.