Mastering Virtual Questions: Practical Tips for Successful Remote Depositions

Mon, Apr 21st, 2025 | by Miles Mediation and Arbitration | Article | Social Share

By Kelly D’Amico

Remote depositions took hold during COVID and continue to be common; one study conducted in 2021 found that while 87 percent of lawyers rarely or never participated in remote depositions before COVID, 83 percent expected to participate in them at least occasionally in the future.

As a longtime court reporter, attorneys often ask me for tips on how to successfully conduct remote depositions. These tips and strategies will help you prepare in advance for better quality depositions, and quickly address the issues that can arise during a remote deposition.

These tips and strategies will help you prepare in advance for better quality depositions, and quickly address the issues that can arise during a remote deposition.

Test the technology.

My number one tip occurs pre-deposition. Recommend that your witness pretest his or her laptop, iPad, or cellphone either with your staff or the court reporter’s testing link 24 to 48 hours before the deposition. If the witness will use a smartphone, have the witness download the Zoom app instead of using a web browser on the phone as the connection will be more stable.

The quality of your audiovisual equipment matters.

Second, use, and recommend that your witness use, a noise-canceling headset or earbuds with a microphone to improve sound quality instead of your computer microphone. (Charge your wireless earphones the night before.) If you’re a multitasker, this will let you move around freely during the deposition instead of having to sit directly in front of your screen and microphone source to be heard clearly. This is a bigger problem with built-in PC microphones than with Macs.

Although video is important when taking a remote deposition, sound quality is critical to make a good-quality record. Consider investing in an omnidirectional speakerphone like the Jabra Speak 410 or a HD combo webcam/microphone like the Logitech BCC950 ConferenceCam. There’s an abundance of great, inexpensive products on the market. Many lawyers use Bluetooth, but I recommend the USB products more as they’re “plug and play” and less likely to have any connection issues. Jabras are portable and easy to toss in your bag or case if you’re traveling and may need to attend a remote conference on the road.

Log in early.

On the day of the deposition, locate your event link and scroll to find the password. While it depends on the court reporting firm, often the Meeting ID and password is in the subject line or body of the email. You have the option to click their internal link to join or joining by going directly to Zoom.us/Join and entering the supplied Meeting ID and password. I recommend joining at least 10-15 minutes beforehand to ensure you can connect and address any video or microphone problems straightaway.

I recommend joining at least 10-15 minutes beforehand to ensure you can connect and address any video or microphone problems straightaway.

Address log-in issues promptly.

Plan to have to troubleshoot log-in issues. Windows and Zoom updates are the bane of us all and one of the largest culprits of technological issues, in my experience. Have a second device on hand (such as your smartphone, tablet, or another computer) just in case. You can connect with the other device while your computer finishes updating and start your deposition or hearing on time. You can then join on your preferred device once it’s ready mid-conference.

Disconnect your first device as soon as possible after joining so you don’t get that dreaded microphone feedback or wait to join “computer audio” on the second device until after you disconnect the first. I recommend sending an email to the other attorneys, support staff, and the reporting firm so they know you’re having connection issues and may be a little late.

If your password isn’t accepted, it is often the case of a mistyped case-sensitive password if your password includes letters. If you still can’t get in, try connecting one of the other ways listed above, either directly through the link or going to Zoom.us and entering the meeting ID and password.

It’s still not working? Don’t panic. Reboot your device and try logging in again.

Address poor audio or video quality.

If you don’t have audio or video, hover your mouse next to the microphone and/or video icon in the bottom left of your screen and click on the little drop-down arrow. Ensure that your microphone and camera are pointed to the right device — this can change arbitrarily — or change to “same as system” and test again. If you have audio but it’s difficult to hear, check if your computer audio is on low and max the volume out.

If the quality of the audio is still poor, the biggest culprit is an unstable internet connection. Consider changing your audio from “computer audio” to “phone audio.” If you don’t need your camera, try turning it off to gain more bandwidth. The phone number to connect by phone is usually listed under your link information in the event email. If using phone audio when you’ve already connected with computer audio, you can also go back down to the bottom left of your computer screen and hover over the “microphone” icon again until you can see the drop-down arrow next to microphone. About halfway down you’ll see “switch to phone audio” and if you click that, it will provide the phone number and password for you while you dial. It also marries the phone audio to your video so that your lips match with your voice — versus looking like a poorly dubbed Godzilla film many of us grew up with.

Fix a dropped connection.

Lost your internet connection? Practice using your cellphone’s hotspot or Mifi (short for “mobile Wifi”, a portable, battery-powered device that creates a Wi-Fi hotspot by connecting to a cellular network) in a non-emergency setting, so you’re not flustered if you need to use it during a deposition. You can rejoin the deposition if you’ve dropped the conference connection on your cellphone or on your laptop/tablet with the following steps:

• First, on your phone go to “personal hotspot” in your “settings” and turn on “allow others to join,” noting the wifi password.
• Then on your laptop or tablet, go to “internet connections,” click on the side arrow for “available connections” and find your cellphone’s name listed, and join, entering the password.
• You also can pair your cellphone to your device using Bluetooth or connect the phone via USB to your computer and then select your phone from the list of available internet possibilities like described earlier. (Note that you should have a cellphone charger handy and turn off the “allow others to join” on your phone after the deposition as personal hotspots are monster battery hogs.)

Keep track of participants.

Finally, I recommend opting for “gallery” instead of “speaker view” if you want to be able to see everyone with their cameras on. This is particularly helpful when people talk while still on mute — we’ve all done it — and need to be prompted to unmute themselves. You can also clean your monitor screen up by hiding non-video participants in your Zoom settings.

Screenshare with ease.

Let’s say you have exhibits to share, and you’re not comfortable using “share screen” during a Zoom meeting. That’s OK. Pre-deposition, put all your possible exhibits into a folder on your desktop. When you’re ready to use them, open the PDF, hit “share screen” on the bottom center on your screen, find the open PDF displayed on your monitor, and select it. Boom! The PDF will show up on everyone’s screens.

If you have multiple PDFs open while sharing your screen and you move from one PDF to the next, the screen will sometimes freeze. If this happens, simply stop sharing and then click on “share screen” again and your problem is solved. Remember to send your exhibits to your court reporter via email after and/or dropping them into “chat” as you use them.

Conclusion

Keep these tips in mind and you’ll be able to conduct remote depositions with minimal stress — leaving you free to focus on the deposition itself.

*Originally published in Law360.com and reprinted with permission.