Technology has come to the forefront of all industries. What was once so traditional – I’m talking pen and paper type traditional – has now transitioned into something that solves a lot of issues that might have come with those traditional actions. One way that technology has improved certain workflows is in terms of creating and housing designations.
Designations are a way for attorneys to identify certain points and aspects from depositions that they may want to rely on at trial. The designation process also allows for a multitude of exchanges that can become a bit cumbersome to keep track of. Luckily, there are platforms that allow for the organization of these designations to be seamless, aiding in an ideal workflow, namely the platform whose blog you are reading this post on.
In our last post, we laid out the steps that would occur in a designation exchange. You have the affirmatives, which are (in)arguably the easiest to import. Then you have the objections and counters. This is where having a unique workflow becomes handy. Rather than having to flip (or scroll) through hundreds of pages in a transcript to mark these designations, you can easily import them in bulk into a software platform, like Everchron. Just imagine: a few simple clicks and all of your designations are in place – something that could take hours to do on simple PDFs. I mean, you can even color-code the parties with the many different color options our platform offers. It’s the little things that make the work less… daunting, trust me.
After the objections and counters have been squared away, you’re up to bat again with designations against the objections and counters, aptly named counter-objections and counter-counters. Once again, rather than combing through pages to mark these, or create them in the first place, you can use various tools in different platforms to find what you are looking for, this is where the search feature within the transcript becomes extremely helpful. Outside of quick searches, legal tech platforms can offer various collaborative measures such as the ability to leave comments within transcripts and tag other team members in those comments. The possibilities of what these platforms can provide are seemingly endless.
As you probably know, this is where you can go multiple rounds with opposing counsel leading to counter-counter-counters, and so on and so forth. Having one area to house these different designations makes the process that much less strenuous and it quickly proves to be a time saver on many fronts, especially when a lot of these entries can be done through bulk actions. Let’s say you’ve reached a stalemate in the exchange process. This is where the court steps in to provide rulings in either sustaining the objection or overruling the objection. If it is sustained, the bulk action tools that we provide will come in handy.
Having the ability to utilize a platform that specializes in transcript management is a way to minimize the hours taken performing tasks that would be overwhelming to begin with. Let's say you have a case that has over one hundred depositions. Reading through those, watching videos, and having to flip back and forth between pages, can be a headache to pretty much everyone. Revolutionary platforms, like Everchron, develop different features by listening to customers and bringing in real life experience to mitigate, or at the very least, lessen, the stress that comes with trial preparation. As I’m sure you know, designations are not just one and done, they can take days to months so having a designated workflow (pun fully intended) makes your life easier.
