Attorneys getting a free copy

[Kerry F]

How does everyone handle this?  I had a depo this afternoon of an expert.  His attorney representing the plaintiff was out of town on the phone.  Taking attorney was there in person and ordered the 0&1. Now I KNOW the plaintiff's attorney has got to need his copy of his expert's depo.  He doesn't order one, but I'm supposed to send an electronic copy to the witness, who is local where I am, to read and sign his depo.  I know the witness is going to give him a copy when he gets it.  I've had this happen before.  When it's an out of state reporting firm I took the job for, they actually found a local office to have the witness come read a hard copy.  Boy they were mad.  Ended up buying a copy after all.  What does everyone think about this?   Of course, he probably tape recorded it over the phone anyway. 

[Marge Teilhaber (TILE hobber)]

If no order, then the witness goes to some convenient place to read & sign that your agency will set up.  Same drill, no?    Just because you're told to send electronic to the witness doesn't mean that that's going to happen.   You pay you get.   Don't pay don't get.  Very easy.  No?  Hopefully the agency agrees.

There's 3 venues that make me cringe:  Superior Court of the St of NJ, Supreme CT of the St of NY, and Superior Ct of the State of CA.  Hopefully it's not one of these.  

[Quyen]

Ditto Marge.

Which attorney told you to send the transcript to the witness?  Just because the attorney says to send the transcript to the witness, it doesn't mean that you or your firm are obligated to. I see that you're in Colorado.  CA code says the transcript must be made available for the witness to read; that does not equate to sending the witness a free copy. It's available . . . IN OUR OFFICE if you are not local (not our problem). It's up to his attorney who hired him to make sure the witness gets a PAID copy to read and sign if he cannot go into the reporter's/firm's office -- period.

[Janet]

Tritto.  He should come to you to R&S. 

[Kelli Combs (admin)]

I agree with Marge and Quyen; no order, then the witness needs to come to some designated location to read/sign.  Don't fall into this trap.

[Kerry F]

I'm in Colorado.  The reporting office doesn't have a local office, they're in Texas.  But I live in a security building that looks like a hotel downstairs and has a little library next to the lobby.  I could have him sit there and read it.

It attorney on the phone said no copy and then the witness says, "I want to read and sign" send me an electronic copy and gave me his card with an email on it.

[Marge Teilhaber (TILE hobber)]

I would imagine that the TX agency is not going to agree to just willy-nilly giving away a copy.  What's their input?  There must be another court reporting office or maybe a law firm near the witness that the agency can set up for the witness to go R&S.   I would not want the responsibility (and the time to devote to it) of having a witness coming to my building for this.  I've never used PDF-it but Judy's suggestion is excellent because I've seen many raves about it. 

[Judy]

Yes, Marge, pdf-it is a wonderful program.  Morgan, the owner, is an outstanding human being too.  And he's constantly making the software better.

[Quyen]

". . . witness says, 'I want to read and sign' send me an electronic copy and gave me his card with an email on it."

Me:  "Certainly.  You could come to our office in Texas to read and sign. Otherwise, your attorney will have to make the appropriate accommodations for that . . . like, actually paying for a copy."

I wouldn't even bother with PDF-it. If they don't want to pay for a copy, it is NOT our OBLIGATION to ensure they get to read and sign.  I take the "make it AVAILABLE for reading and signing" very strictly and literally. Also, I sure as hell would not want ANY witness coming to the building where I live for any reason, and I wouldn't want to take the time to sit there and babysit as s/he reads his/her transcript. We're not being paid for any of that. Let the CR firm figure out how they want to deal with it.

[Marge Teilhaber (TILE hobber)]

Bravo, Quyen.  It's available for you to read & sign.  Period.  It seems from reading the PDF-it link that Judy gave us that their service does the exact same thing and gives nothing away.  It must be similar to watching a youtube video one day and click on it the next day and you get some gobbledygook that it's no longer available.   Like try to watch this video that I'd love to see.  Watch what happens:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jpmoore/bruce-springsteens-humiliating-orig...

[Judy]

Actually, if you're the "agency," I do believe it is your obligation to give them an opportunity to read and sign, in California at least.  The agency needs to give them 30 days to come in and read/sign.  Now, if it does get down and dirty (*see below) -- and it's a big enough case -- most attorneys will order a copy and give that to their clients to R&S, then send the reporter/agency the corrections with the sig page.

And I also would not permit a witness to come to my home, not even the coffee shop on the corner (they do NOT need to know where I live), not to even mention taking a day off so you can babysit the R&Sing.  That's what agencies are for, and that's one of the reasons they get their split.  LOTS of people complain about the So Cal Stip, but at least it does relieve us of that obligation (doesn't help the reporter, but certainly does help the agency).

*I had a case where there were no stips, so it went by CA code.  I mailed everybody the appropriate letter to come R/S.  Witness's secretary made an appointment for him to come in at a specific hour/day.  I was on my way down to my office (executive suite) to meet the "gent," got caught up in traffic b/c they were tearing up the street, was -- seriously -- two minutes late past the appointment time.  I walk into the office and the receptionist says, He just left, I'm surprised you didn't pass in the hall.   I get a call from his office demanding a free copy based upon my failure to appear.  It got into a "shouting" match, to put it delicately.  His counsel ended up ordering a copy.  But, really, I would always prefer to not even get into that situation again since pdf-it's feature is there and ready to use.

 

[Judy]

You could use pdf-it's read & sign function http://pdf-it.com/erands_service.aspx

[Janiece Young]

I'd make him come read and sign or send a paper copy.