Why Are Law Firms Willing to Pay Exorbitant Remote Deposition Fees ?

Over the last few months I have had attorneys share some of the costs they are starting to see associated with remote depositions from other providers. They ask me if “this is normal”? Line items on invoices that read "Mobile Videoconference, Technology Fee, Exhibit Tech, etc. Line items that can add hundreds of dollars per deposition. Are these additional fees justified? To a degree, yes. Should they add hundreds of dollars to the cost of a deposition? They don't have to.

Since the beginning of the pandemic - some court reporting companies have minimized these fees. Or, in my company's case, have completely waived them - saving our clients tens of thousands of dollars. Our position was that our costs to do a "Zoom" deposition was minimal and we were going to do what we could to help our clients get back to work.

Providing a technician to assist with exhibit sharing is not like providing a coder to a software company. Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, etc - have made the technology incredibly simple. I am a business development person - I am not overly tech savvy but I can navigate and if need be, trouble shoot most issues with Zoom. If you request an exhibit to be screen shared, you can bet I will have it up in less then 3-4 seconds. I have supported over 100 depositions, and I can assure you, it is beyond easy. So why $100 + per hour to provide a technician ?

I do value the many relationships that form over years of doing business with someone. I think we all are willing to pay slightly higher costs because of the history we may have with someone - but $500 plus in remote fees on a $600-$700 transcript is a lot to ask of your client – particularly when it is just not necessary.