IN-PERSON DEPOSITIONS:
It’s imperative to maintain laser focus on where exhibits are placed after they have been introduced. Often exhibits are stacked in front of the witness after they have been discussed. Sometimes the “Taking/Noticing Attorney” controls the pile of introduced exhibits. Occasionally, the witness’ attorney will grab a marked exhibit, examine it, then set it down in a random location on the table. The reporter needs to be aware of where each exhibit is, making quick and easy work of taking possession of them at the depo’s conclusion. Immediately count them to ensure they’re all there. If you’re missing one/any, stop the parties from leaving the room: “I apologize, but I am missing Exhibit 13. Can everyone check to see if you have it?” If anyone (who had access to the exhibits) has left the room but can be caught up to, make that effort, using the same verbiage. It’s MUCH EASIER to retrieve an exhibit before the parties have left the building. If you fail to safeguard the exhibits, it can be very challenging to locate them later. It involves contacting the deposition participants one by one, asking each to search their files to look for the lost document(s). Some will do so; some won’t. Some may not even respond to you. Sometimes you will locate it; sometimes you will not. In the event you are not able to locate the lost exhibit(s), you will need to reach out to the attorney who produced the document for the depo and request that they reproduce it so you can then re-mark the exhibit and turn it into the court reporting agency, who will then upload it to the job with the rest of the deposition’s exhibits. A best practice is to keep all parties in the case apprised of any missing exhibits as well as your efforts to relocate/replace them. Work with the reporting agency to facilitate this correspondence.
REMOTE DEPOSITIONS:
This issue is greatly mitigated in the remote deposition setting where all parties, or at least the “Taking/Noticing Attorney,” appear virtually. When exhibits are presented electronically, typically a quick email to the Presenting Attorney explaining that one or more of the exhibits did not come through for you will result in an expeditious resending of the missing documents, which can then be re-stickered and uploaded to the Partner Portal.
If you are assigned to an Exhibit Share deposition, you only need to provide Veritext with specific instructions or details about the exhibits related to production, as we already have the exhibits in Exhibit Share. You do not need to provide the exhibits themselves.