Pro Legal Video

What is Professional Legal Video?

The professional legal videographer uses broadcast grade equipment and workflows to produce a finished court-compliant deliverable. This videographer is mindful of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 30, which governs the taking of legal depositions outside of a courtroom, but having the same legal bearing as though the proceeding occurs within court. In addition, the legal videographer is mindful of the Federal Rules of Evidence and the local rules. The legal videographer is responsible for the integrity, veracity and preservation of the chain of evidence wherein the legal video work-product is concerned. The original recording must be preserved, for at least 5 - 7 years. Local rules may vary on the dispensation of the video recordings. The legal videographer must securely archive the recordings. Many depositions proceed under a protective order: the legal videographer is responsible for the security of the recordings.

Certified Legal Video Services, LLC is a leader in applying advanced technology to the production of court-compliant legal video deliverables. This firm has been engaged in tapeless, digital video production for more than 7 years. We began tapeless production using a computer network and video capture programs, recording the video to high speed hard drives. We elevated the quality of the recordings by introducing high capacity proprietary programmable drives to record the video using advanced codecs. This system allowed us to digitally record high quality video with storage backup. Finally, we introduced progressive frame recording to high capacity flash memory RAID storage systems. The solid state RAID storage package is the most reliable and advanced recording media ever introduced to legal video production. It ensures perfect recordings and eliminates the necessity to change media during a deposition proceeding. This isnt the consumer flash cards that you might find in a Best Buy or Radio Shack. This is professional storage hardware costing over $5K. Employing such a system, the legal videographer must mainly concern themselves with the quality of the deliverable. With the right workflow, a good quality encoded DVD disk can run up to 3 hours in length. It is possible to exceed this length for an MPEG-2 encode, but you run into picture degradation such as pixilation and various other unsightly artifacts. Under normal circumstances, the taking attorney will break briefly within this time frame, thus it is possible for the legal videographer, using this digital workflow to never interrupt the taking attorney.

Certified Legal Video Services, LLC archives its legal video productions on a secure RAID system located at its post-production facility. Only the legal videographer, who is sworn to confidentiality, can access the video on this RAID. As a professionally certified legal videographer, the video producer of Certified Legal Video Services, LLC handles the video in compliance with the rules of the court and certifies its authenticity and is prepared to back up this compliance in court. Our top-notch post-production facility employs the same workflows as the largest Final Cut post-production house in New York City.

The original video recording is ingested into the RAID where it is securely stored. It is then compiled in a professional non-linear editing system. Nothing is deleted: the video is always preserved in its entirety. It is then encoded to disk. These disks are labelled for their legal video content and ready for delivery.
Certified Legal Video Services, LLC uses only the most optimized encoding techniques for publishing the legal video to DVD. This results in the highest quality presentation disks. The disk stock we use is also archive quality: it is guaranteed to preserve the recordings thereon for generations.

During production the legal videographer will make certain announcements consistent with precisely identifying the recorded material which is preserved in the court reporters transcript. These announcements are compliant with the FRCP and the custom and practices of the court. After the proceeding, attorneys can order transcript synchronized disks. These disks allow counsel to quickly go to points of interest in the visual record, which makes legal video highly desirable for trial, particularly as synchronized disks are compatible with all trial presentation software packages.

Professional legal video production is a specialty unto itself. Attorneys would do well to select trained, certified legal video specialists. They are knowledgeable in proper procedure and trained to avoid bias. Attorneys want bullet-proof evidence that holds up in court and they need professionals who can provide such evidentiary deliverables.

Certified Legal Video Services, LLC will only provide a professionally certified legal videographer. We service the greater New York City metropolitan area, including Northern New Jersey, Southern Connecticut, New York State up to Albany, Long Island, New England to Boston, Philadelphia, DE, MD and Washington, DC.

Legal videographers and legal practitioners who would like to learn more about court-compliant video production and the law and local rules governing such would find a comprehensive reference in Joseph's Modern Visual Evidence published by the Law Journal Press's Litigation Series.

In addition to regular video depositions, Certified Legal Video Services, LLC offers specialty video depositions, including ELMO depositions and live PC split screen or transitional screen video production: all with high resolution presentation on a 100 screen. ELMO depositions can present slides and transparencies, documents, and small objects magnified up to 64x on a split screen.

Certified Legal Video Services, LLC offers all of these services and more at affordable rates. Contact us today!