In the days before COVID, when depositions were held in person, counsel would simply leave the room with their clients to have a private conversation.
Now that we are working remotely, some are finding it difficult to connect with their clients. We see private texting or the muting of microphones so they can have a private chat via a phone call. Fortunately, there is an easy solution called breakout rooms.
The Host of the Zoom meeting can easily assign participants to breakout rooms. Multiple breakout rooms can run simultaneously. Once in a breakout room, the discussion is completely private. Only the participants invited to that specific breakout room can see and hear each other. Uninvited people have no access to what is being said.
Participants can return to the Zoom session on their own. They can also be prompted to return to the session via a “ping” from the Host requesting their presence.
Breakout rooms are a valuable tool for all participants. If Wong Associates is hosting, we can set this up for you.
Document handling is the #1 question we receive from counsel. How is it done?
In essence there are two options:
Send everyone hard copies or PDFs of the documents
Share the documents in Zoom
via Chat
via Share Screen
Early on counsel soon realized that there were certain issues with the first option, sending copies of documents to everyone ahead of time, the main one being that doing so could reveal their strategy. Opposing counsel would also have time to review the documents in advance and potentially object to the document before it is even presented. Not all documents would necessarily be marked either. Further, the expense of printing and shipping documents to opposing counsel, the witness, and the court reporter could be substantial. Sending PDFs would alleviate that expense, but the other issues would still remain.
The second option, sharing the documents in Zoom via Chat and Share Screen, is more popular, especially the Chat feature which is used by the majority of our clients.
To utilize the Chat feature, documents in PDF format are sent to Wong Associates ahead of time to be hyperlinked. We ask that they be labeled alphabetically (with brief document descriptions) so they can be pulled out in any order during examination and marked in numerical order without confusion. For example, Document E could be marked as Exhibit 1; Document A could be marked as Exhibit 2.
Chat serves many purposes:
Each document has its own hyperlink. One doesn’t know what documents and in what order they will be presented until the deposition is under way.
When counsel is ready to present a document, he simply copies the document description and hyperlink from a list and pastes it into Chat.
All participants click on the link, and the document appears on their computer.
Identification of the document and discussion ensues.
The document is marked as an exhibit.
Chat can be printed at the close of the deposition saving the hyperlinks and reporter markings. It is a great verification tool.
Since Wong Associates has the documents, we digitally mark them post deposition.
Also note that if Wong Associates does the hyperlinking, the court reporters can help counsel with the document sharing.
Screen Share is a valuable tool as well. No hyperlinking is necessary. Some counsel prefer handling the sharing in lieu of using Chat. Screen Share allows everyone to see a document at the same time, e.g., photograph, video clip. Multi-page documents can also be shared. Counsel can jump from one page to the next for discussion. The biggest benefits of Screen Share are:
The document takes up the full screen in Zoom. You still have audio.
A document can be highlighted or annotated and then saved as an exhibit.
A disadvantage to Screen Share is that there is no way to save the “history” of what documents were viewed/shared like you can in Chat. You must remember, if the court reporter is not handling document sharing, he is busy writing the testimony and doesn’t have time to save documents being discussed. We’ve had a number of instances where counsel forgot what they marked and needed the reporter to send document descriptions to identify what was shared. In one instance multiple emails were shared and marked, but there was no identifier of who sent the email, the date of the email, etc. Extra care should always be taken with exhibit descriptions to ensure the most complete and accurate record possible.
Wong Associates prefers hyperlinking, and clients who use the hyperlinks in Chat love the ease of use. That being said, however you want to handle documents, our court reporters are well versed in document sharing should need assistance.
Hyperlinked documents are easily shared in CHAT for all to see.
Doris O. Wong Associates, Inc., hyperlinks documents upon request.
You can also share files from your computer or file sharing programs like Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive and Box.com.
Anyone can share a link to CHAT.
Participants click on the link to see the document. CHAT protocol: Have the witness identify what they’re seeing before you mark the document as an exhibit.
Participants will lose the video when viewing the document. Audio stays on. To get back to Zoom, close out of the document or can click on the Zoom Tab to rejoin the meeting. If you are using an iPad, can click on the Home button and rejoin Zoom.
SCREEN SHARE
One person shares a document for all to see at the same time.
The document takes up the Zoom screen.
Options: Instead of full screen, you can keep participants off to the side.
The host can grant permission to all participants if you would like to mark up the document.
Documents can be annotated with text, arrows, lines, etc.
Doris O. Wong Associates is available to hyperlink your documents for easy sharing during Zoom sessions. As prepared as we would like to be, oftentimes there is a last-minute document that needs to be shared.
Option 1:
When you open the CHAT box, you’ll see a little box in the bottom right-hand corner of Chat. It says “File. Click on that. This box will appear.
If you are using “Your Computer, “ to store files, go to the file folder where your documents are saved. Click on the document, and it will appear in your Chat Box. Attendees need to click on the file to be able to view the document.
If you Share a document from Dropbox, MS OneDrive, Google Drive, or Box, click on the file. It will ask you to Share Screen. You’ll see the document in Chat. Click on this file to create a hyperlink which you’ll paste in Chat. Participants will click on the hyperlink to view the document.
Option 2:
Share the saved document using Share Screen. Click on the document and everyone can see the document full view at the same time. This is different than Chat.
You can annotate the file and later save it as an exhibit.
NOTE: Forward the documents to the reporter at the conclusion of the deposition so that they may be digitally marked.
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