Legal Support Services That Court Reporting Agencies Offer

Court reporting agencies supply legal support services to law firms and companies as they engage in complex litigation, or respond to other situations, which require services that qualify as legal support. If your law firm or company needs the types of assistance listed below, you will find them at a court reporting agency.

Early Case Assessment

Early case assessment focuses on evaluating a case from several perspectives, such as how much it would cost to litigate, whether it would be likely to have a favorable outcome, and how long it would take to conclude. Because early case assessment is based on the information that surrounds a case before it goes to court, it is often performed in tandem with deposition services, which help attorneys gather and organize information from depositions.

Complex Litigation Support

Litigation may be complex for several reasons, such as a large number of witnesses who must be interviewed before a case strategy is formed, a large volume of documents that must be reviewed before a case goes forward, and a short timeframe in which to try a case. When attorneys face these circumstances, they often require litigation support in the form of extra paralegals and court reporters, document retrieval and document review services, and early case assessment. A court reporting agency provides these types of assistance.

Deposition Recording

The statements witnesses make in depositions are crucial for forming case strategies and assessing the overall strength of a case. Consequently, court reporters that perform deposition services are especially valuable to law firms. Hiring a reporter from a court reporting agency ensures that the person has the right qualifications for the job.

Legal Videography

Legal videography applies to the visual recording of depositions, trials, company meetings, and other official proceedings. In addition to producing a visual document of a proceeding, videos help attorneys analyze the certain types of behavior that are difficult to record in a transcript, such as facial movements, tone of voice, and nervousness.

Record Retrieval

Retrieving official records such as medical records, court records, and financial records requires adherence to specific rules and regulations. For companies and law firms, hiring staff that are qualified to perform document retrieval is an unnecessary expense when the service can be outsourced instead. Court reporting agencies are qualified to retrieve the types of documents listed above, among others.

Document Review

Document review helps law firms and companies organize and review a large volume of documents, review documents that contain complex subject matter, and assess the value of the information documents contain. Often performed as a part of complex litigation support, document review is valuable for any situation in which organizing and/or reviewing documents presents unusual obstacles.

Conclusion

Court reporting agencies supply law firms with crucial legal support services. These services also benefit companies that have legal needs, or simply need the language of a meeting recorded and produced as a transcript. To learn more about the scope of deposition services and the other services court reporting agencies offer, contact an agency today.

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Validation Letter: Temporary Solution When Being Sued By A Credit Card Company

Thousands of Americans are embroiled in credit card debts that the number of people being sued by a credit card company is on the rise. Unfortunately, many people think that they can get away with not paying their credit card debt when their accounts were marked as a charged off on their credit report.

The fact is, junk debt buyers, collection agencies and of course, the original creditor would still want to collect even a portion of the debt and to do this, they will have to file a card lawsuit. In doing so, they could get legal authorization to garnish wages, empty bank accounts or worst, debtors' properties may actually be seized once they are being sued by a credit card company.

The good news is, you can do something about it. You can prevent your creditor from getting a-hold of your money or property when being sued by your credit card company and even thwart possible lawsuits. How?

One effective but temporary solution to get more time to determine the next step is to request a validation letter when being sued by your credit card company. By requesting a debt validation letter when being sued by a credit card company, the other party will be required to send you a signed document that verifies the card debt in dispute. If they send this document, all collection efforts go to a grinding halt. From there, you will gain enough time to determine what you can do next to handle the credit card lawsuit.

You can either go ahead and study how to defend yourself in court or by hiring a lawyer or you can negotiate a deal with your creditor. To negotiate a deal with your creditor, you will have to contact the person with the authority to handle such accounts, and not discuss the issue with a random customer service representative.

Once you get a-hold of the right person, discuss the issue, and let him or her know that you are serious about paying the debt. If you are going through a difficult time, like a loved one being sick, you've gone through accidents, disasters or any events that could've led to depleted funds, let your creditor know and he or she just might give you a break. They could either drop the credit card lawsuit altogether or they just might agree to get only a portion of the debt with a sensible payment plan to boot.

If things work out in your favor, make sure you get everything in writing! Don't expect your creditor to do exactly what they promised because let's be honest, some will say just about anything just as long as they get the money. Get everything in writing, have the representative of the company, and yourself sign the agreement.

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What Kind Of Expert Witness Are You?

Importance of Specialization

Are you ready to share your expertise and help solve a case? Then be an expert. An expert witness is someone who holds valuable expert opinion about a particular subject. He is called to the witness stand to give expert opinion about a certain piece of evidence, fact, or information related to the case.

So if you have been working as a medical practitioner for years, you might be qualified to become an expert. Lawyers who represent clients in courts usually employ experts, so if you want to help solve a case, get listed in expert directories and get hired.

But remember, being an expert witness entails specialization. Specialization is that one narrow and particular area that you must have expert knowledge of. If you have specialization, this will make a great foundation for the case. It will give either the defendant or plaintiff higher chances of winning their case.

Types of Expert Witnesses: What Is Your Specialization?

Expert witnesses are classified according to different classifications. One of these classifications is based on their field of expertise. They are as follows:

1. Accident and Injury

Experts classified under this category are summoned to provide information related to injury valuation, severity of damage, and other factors that may help shed light to the accident or injury. For instance, in a personal injury case, an expert may be called to determine up to what degree the victim's injury is.

2. Business and Financial

In this category, expert witnesses are called to make expert testimony on matters related to the following: business, trade, commerce, taxes, fraud, inaccuracies in accounting, and other related matters.

3. Civil Litigation

Experts called to provide expert opinion on civil litigation matters are expected to give information that can solve civil cases, or cases between an individual and an organization (such as banks and lending corporations).

4. Construction and Architecture

Construction and architecture experts are tasked to provide relevant information related to breach of contract cases, faulty designs, and other construction issues.

5. Criminal Litigation

Experts under criminal litigation provide expertise on forensics, identification, and other procedures to solve criminal cases.

6. Medical and Psychological

If you're hired as a medical and psychological expert, you are to provide useful information related to medical malpractice, mental health, insanity, and other areas related to the medical field.

7. Science and Engineering

Science and engineering expert witnesses are called to testify in court to provide expertise related to product malfunction, engineering (whether civil, mechanical, or other fields of engineering), and electrical concerns.

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The Top 10 Reasons For Judgments

Every year, countless judgments of many different types, are awarded to people and entities. When all courts and court types are totaled, including civil, small claims, federal, bankruptcy, and family and criminal courts; the total number of judgments awarded each year must be amazing.

Judgments are not cash, they are a chance at getting some cash in the future. This article is my opinion, and not legal advice. I am a judgment evaluation expert, and am not a lawyer. If you ever need any legal advice or a strategy to use, please contact a lawyer.

The common thread to all judgments, is that someone or something was harmed, damaged, ripped off, defrauded, robbed, a law was violated, or even someone became sufficiently annoyed. When a judgment names someone or something liable as a judgment debtor for a certain amount of money, that becomes a judgment that could one day provide some payments to the judgment owner.

Many judgments start from unpaid personal or business loans that creditors made, and the creditors include people, companies, banks, etc. Here are the top ten most common reasons people or entities start civil lawsuits to win judgments:

1) Money was lent, or credit was extended, that was not repaid.

2) A contract was breached, usually a business contract.

3) Someone was defrauded, robbed, or cheated.

4) Someone or something was damaged or destroyed, an example would be an auto accident. I bet there are more people driving now without insurance than ever before.

5) A tax bill, a service, or a some product, that was not paid for.

6) Something was not returned. This is usually something rented or lent. A rental car not getting returned would be one example.

7) Some law was violated. One example would be someone sued for spamming or faxing the wrong person too many times. Another example would be a bank that did not respond to a court subpoena to produce records, or an employer that did not respond to a court-ordered employee wage levy.

8) Someone did not pay all the rent they owed, and/or damaged someone else's property. An example of this would be a property eviction.

9) Someone owes for family or spousal support debts.

10) Someone stole property or money, or copied intellectual property.

Some money judgments also come from criminal courts, usually in the form of restitution judgments. No matter what the reason is that a judgment gets rendered, judgments are not cash, and do not recover themselves. Some court clerks have never even seen a satisfaction of judgment form. Most judgments are never repaid, and most eventually expire.

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Automobile Appraisal Expert Witnesses For Litigation

According to the latest US census data, there were 10.8 million traffic accidents in 2009, with similar numbers seen in other years. Those are a lot of auto insurance and personal injury claims, each one requiring expert auto appraisers to evaluate the vehicular damage. If the insurance company has reason to reject any claims, the same experts could be asked to take the stand as auto appraisal expert witnesses.

Unfortunately, too many auto accidents are also the result of criminal negligence. Such cases usually involve serious charges, such as DUI, speeding, reckless driving, and even vehicular manslaughter. During the trail, lawyers will often rely on automobile appraisal expert witnesses to help prove their interpretation of the facts.

When is an auto appraisal expert needed?

Broadly speaking, an accident can be caused either by a mistake by one or more drivers, or due to some malfunction or failure in one of the vehicles. Since vehicles are often badly damaged and torn apart in the aftermath of a high-speed crash, how can the court decide what was responsible for the accident?

A qualified automobile professional can look for tell-tale signs of common problems, even in the worst damaged vehicles. Experience is also important, and a senior auto appraiser can use accumulated practical knowledge to analyze an accident scene.

Some cases require auto appraisal expert witnesses with a narrow focus of expertise. For instance, if a lawyer is convinced that her client's accident was caused due to a particular car model's faulty design, she will look for auto experts with long-term experience of that brand and model. Such expert witnesses can give first-person testimony based on real, practical experience.

Finding the right automobile expert

Really, it depends on the case. However, good lawyers follow some basic guidelines in selecting auto appraisal expert witnesses to support their side. This is because a court trial is an adversarial situation, where both sides will try to bring the better, more qualified expert.

When it comes to vehicular accident cases, both lawyers and juries seem to prefer practicing professionals from the automobile industry over non-professional and academic experts. Lawyers also look for auto experts who have the highest industry qualifications. It helps if the expert is also able to demonstrate an ongoing interest in updating and improving professional skills.

Lawyers are also interested in the candidates' personality and appearance. In court, the experts have to be able to communicate complicated concepts, present their own opinions and conclusions, and defend them against cross-examination (which can get quite forceful!)

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