by Monica Chamness
Staff Writer
Local attorneys now have another ally in the battle against paperwork.
New Jersey-based Esquire Deposition Services opened a local branch in the SunTrust building Oct. 1. The office provides services such as court reporting, litigation support, video, document management and trial presentation and consulting.
Because attorneys must already contract work to court reporters to ensure the integrity of testimony, the deposition service is just another step toward outsourcing the rest of their paperwork.
One such service is scanning. Esquire agents input documents into a database searchable by key words instead of having the attorney sift through stacks of hard copies.
“With big cases, there are tons of documents that need to be looked through to see what the attorney can use to build his case,” said Jeanne Foulon, chief marketing officer for Esquire in its New Jersey headquarters. “Our method saves a lot of time. The attorney also has the information on a CD so they don’t have to bring a box of files to court. We store documents and provide staff to go through documents as well.”
Under the umbrella of court reporting services, Esquire is able to schedule and supply reporters nationwide, in addition to processing, transcription and translation services. They also can deliver transcripts electronically, provide Internet depositions and establish secure access to transcripts and exhibits over the Internet.
“Court reporters are a neutral third party used to produce official documents,” explained Foulon. “They’re the official record of testimony so they’re always outsourced.”
Esquire’s video crews are available to film depositions, legal proceedings, accident reconstructions, estate planning and corporate meetings, on top of, furnishing video/text synchronization, digital editing, date/time stamping, secure archiving, searchable audio files from videotape or audio, and trial presentation with courtroom playback.
Their work includes everyday matters to complex litigation. The company, which claims to be the largest nationwide provider of court reporting and legal support services, has been in business for 25 years. The Jacksonville has a staff of six, including the general manager Tonya Mostow.
“Our other Florida locations were receiving a lot of cases from Jacksonville and there are a large number of litigating attorneys in the area,” said Foulon, regarding the company’s decision to open an office here.
Esquire also supplies all the technical components needed to organize a case such as deposition calendars, message boards to other end-users, research libraries, indexing and clerical staff for large projects. They even help attorneys with their trial presentation strategy.
“We consult with the attorneys to help prepare pertinent clips of information to build a multi-media exhibit,” described Foulon. “We can make an animated reenactment of a case into a narrative to walk someone through the crime scene using a presentation. A picture is worth a thousand words. It can help the jury understand.”
Esquire has more than 75 offices nationwide, which allows them to offer their services around the clock.
“Many companies offer court reporting, but not end-to-end,” explained Foulon. “A lot of our competitors provide just one or two services. We provide services from discovery to trial. This is a huge investment in technology. Only some of the very large firms have the resources, so the rest must outsource. Our services are based on cases so our clients can hire us with the ebb and flow of their case loads.”