Month: May 2018

Back in the beginning of my career, I had the opportunity to
work with a locally famous plaintiff’s attorney who would later become a US
Senator and nominee for Vice-President of the United States. But during a long
week of depositions in a case involving a Grammy-award winning entertainer I
decided I wanted to work with this attorney any time for an entirely different
reason:

 

He actually wanted me to have a lunch break.

 

There were four law firms involved in the depositions and
binders of exhibits. We weren’t sure we could finish all of the depositions
scheduled during that week. Naturally, one of the attorneys proposed just
working through lunch. The attorney said, “Well, that’s great for us, but she
can’t really eat and dictate what we’re saying at the same time. And it’s not
fair for us to expect her to only have 15 minutes to scarf down a sandwich
before starting back again.”

 

Amen, brother!

 

Court reporters are not machines. And while attorneys may
think, “Well, I can push really hard for a few days to get these depositions
done and then I can go back to my regular hours,” court reporters don’t have
that luxury. Can you imagine if every attorney thought that way?

 

Here are few characteristics that our favorite attorneys have
in common:

 

1.         They give
mostly accurate time frames.

            If a deposition
will take 6 hours, they don’t say it will take 3 hours. When they say “One more
question,” it doesn’t turn into another hour of cross-examination.

2.         They take
regular breaks.

            Since, again,
court reporters are not machines, they do need to use the restroom at times.
Reporters don’t want to interrupt you to ask for a “bio break,” and greatly
appreciate attorneys who take a short break every 60 to 90 minutes.

3.         They make an
effort to speak slowly and not mumble.

            Attorneys
can’t control opposing counsel interrupting and speaking over them, but our
favorite attorneys control their own speech habits.

4.         They give the
court reporter an appropriate place to set up their equipment.

            There have
been times where reporters have been given a backless stool to sit in and the
corner of a desk to set up their equipment. If the deposition is being taken at
a doctor’s office, the attorney doesn’t always have control over the setup.
Even if they don’t have control over it, our favorite attorneys will speak up
for the court reporter and find the most comfortable location for their
equipment.

 

While every court reporter has horror stories about staying in
a deposition until 2 a.m., having multiple attorneys screaming at each other on
the record simultaneously, or being forced to report for three hours straight
without a bio break, they also have stories about the wonderful attorneys who
made their job easier.