In the eighth video of this series, Homampour Law Firm Attorney Arash Homampour addresses the concerns of some attorneys that remote depositions can affect the nature and substance of the testimony they get. Arash believes that there is an art to properly taking a deposition and feels that remote ones can prove to be better as the witness is less distracted and this format allows the witness to be more comfortable.
Video Transcript
Arash Homampour:
A lot of us are now having to do our depositions remotely through the Zoom application or other applications through our computers. And there’s a legitimate concern that you’re not in the presence of the witness, and somehow that will affect the nature and substance of the testimony that you get. And the way I look at things like this is, you know, it is what it is and you deal with the cards that you’re dealt. And in my experience, you can get the truth out of anyone, whether they’re thousands of miles away on a video conference in Israel and you’re in Sherman Oaks, California, or whether they’re in another location in the same city. It really doesn’t matter. It’s really just the art of properly taking a deposition.
In fact, I think that sometimes a Zoom deposition is actually better than being in person. Why? Well, the witness is not distracted by a defense attorney or other distractions in a conference room, where there’s five, six, 10 people sitting, listening, and observing what that witness is saying. When you’re in a Zoom deposition, it’s much more intimate, because the witness is staring directly into the camera, really not looking at anything else other than you as the questioner, and your eyes are technically probably even closer than they would be in person.
So it allows for a much more intimate experience. It allows the witness to feel, I think, more comfortable because they’re typically in a home setting or in a small office, and we’ve had experiences where we’ve gotten some very dramatic, powerful testimony on Zoom that I don’t think I would have obtained in person. So we welcome the new technological challenges that we’re all facing and embrace them and try and make the best of them.
