eBook: COVID-19’s Impact on the Future of Virtual Depositions

Historically, face-to-face depositions have been the norm in litigation. Even as technology has advanced over the last several decades, ushering the world into the internet age, legal practice has clung to tradition. In the last 15 years, there has been a steadily growing acceptance of technology’s role in litigation due in no small part to the amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in 2005, which gave rise to an entire cottage industry of e-discovery, data forensics, and data security vendors. Yet despite these advancements, the majority of the litigation workflow has remained in the analog era.

And then 2020 happened.

With the rapid spread of a global pandemic, industry as a whole ground to a halt. Many hoped the suspension of everyday life would be a small blip on their calendars, yet as public health departments continued to tally new cases of COVID-19, it quickly became apparent that this disruption could in fact be a new normal. Court dockets could not support an indefinite standstill, and litigators — as well as their clients — could not afford to put their practices on pause.

This eBook tells the story of an industry evolving. The information within is sourced from a survey conducted by Esquire Deposition Solutions titled “COVID-19 Impact on Technology for Depositions.” The narrative it tells is about adaption and triumph in the face of an incredible, shared crisis as well as the future of litigation.