Depositions Go Virtual During Pandemic, May Remain That Way | Bloomberg Law

Squire Patton Boggs partner Steven M. Auvil in March asked an Ohio federal judge to take a rather unusual step in a case he was working on, compel a remote deposition.

The state’s stay-at-home order precluded an in-person meeting, but opposing counsel in the patent infringement matter argued that a remote deposition would adversely affect their ability to represent their client.

In the process of writing his motion, Auvil found at least a half a dozen other cases in which judges granted requests for remote depositions since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. One New York federal judge had gone so far as to issue a standing order that all depositions in matters before him may be taken remotely.

While technology required to take virtual depositions has existed for more than a decade, litigants and courts have been slow to adopt the practice and some have said it has very real limitations. But as courts have closed across the country due to the pandemic, more litigants are giving it a shot.

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