Best Practices for Remote Trial Prep & Why They Matter

Litigation teams preparing for trial are facing new challenges as a result of the switch to remote & hybrid work environments. Here are some tips that can help your legal team.

Litigation teams preparing for trial face many unique challenges - from court ordered deadlines and time-pressured exchanges with opposing counsel to the management AND review of critical depositions and transcripts. These teams do more than just use trial prep software to help them get ready for trial - they RELY on the software to help them WIN cases for their clients and their law firms.  

The last four years has seen a huge upheaval in the way these teams collaborate and prepare with the global pandemic forcing many litigation teams into remote or hybrid work environments.  And while these teams have had their standard "face to face" trial prep processes turned upside down, the aforementioned deadlines and case deliverables must still be met. The sad reality is that, for many teams, the trial prep software they are using was not designed for this brave new world.  As a result, many are looking for a better way.

As the product manager of the Legal Radius trial prep software I've worked closely with litigation teams on legal cases of all sizes and complexity.  I understand the time-pressures and standard technical challenges that are part of the process - and how legal teams can address them.  As litigation teams are currently re-evaluating their legal technology investments to meet the demands of our new workplace, I believe they should be adding this list of items to their "must-have" features for trial prep software to support these key best practices. 

1. Remote collaboration during trial prep is no longer a "nice to have" - it's an essential feature.  And this collaboration needed to replicate all of the work that would take place when litigation teams would meet "in-person." It should be easy to access, easier to log-in and get you in front of your case materials quickly.  It should be easy to use and easier to learn.  It should be powerful enough to do hard things but not make the simple things hard.  (Have you ever had to send an email to support because you can't figure out how to "print" a transcript?!)

2. Online exchanges of information with opposing counsel have taken on a new importance - as teams relied on these online transactions to meet not only court-ordered deadlines, but the deadlines established by the lead attorneys in the matter.  You need software that will make EVERY import and export from the system easy and predictable.

3. The need to effortlessly search, highlight and organize depositions and other key case materials has never been greater as the litigation teams increasingly rely on laptops and mobile devices as they develop case strategies.  Can you quickly generate reports?  Search a single transcript?  Search all transcripts?  How easy is it to manage issues?  Classification and interaction with the case materials should be effortless and easy.

As with so many software-driven workflows, you can only be as good as the features in your technology.  Therefore, best practices often go hand-in-hand with great technology investments.  The good news is that Legal Radius has you covered on all of the key features required to meet the needs of today's trial prep processes.  The better news is that you can try Legal Radius on a single case to see if it fits your team's approach and working preferences. 

If you have any questions related to trial prep or the best practices I outlined above - drop me a line at richard.santos@onediscovery.com.