Legal
Helping lawyers and law firms manage and control costs
Video conferencing is finally of legal age. From informal meetings to video-conferenced
witness interviews and depositions, legal professionals are now using video conferencing
to conduct case-related services around the world, eliminating the need to travel
across town or across the globe. Without the use of video conferencing, costs related
to travel can reach into the hundreds of thousands per year for a mid to large sized
law firm.
Video conferencing today serves as an important medium of clear communication when
people cannot be physically present in the same location. As well as lowering expenses,
a primary benefit of video conferencing is increased efficiency. It allows for more
flexible scheduling of depositions or meetings, as travel and delays in attendance
no longer need to be factored into planning. In a profession where unnecessary "billable
hours" are a frustration to clients, the use of video conferencing ensures that
a lawyer's time is not wasted in airports and cabs. This is a benefit to lawyers
and their clients, alike. Additionally, law professionals can now use video conferencing
to perform depositions, deliver training, and comply with mandatory continuing legal
education. In addition, video conferencing is being used by a number of law firms
to recruit and interview law students without having to incur the cost of their
travel and accommodations.
Unique advantages of video conferencing for judicial purposes, globally
Beyond U.S. boundaries, the term "tele-justice" is increasingly being used, world-wide,
to describe the use of interactive video for conducting judicial proceedings.
For example, India has undertaken a nationwide project to connect jails and district
courts across the country via a tele-justice or video conferencing system. With
tele-justice, a defendant can be present in a court through a video link between
the prison and the court. It is expected that in the near future, about 300 jails
and 2,000 courts in India will be connected in this manner via video conferencing.
In Singapore, the concept of tele-justice has been extended to what is known as
"tele-visits." The tele-visit system allows prison inmates to communicate remotely
with visitors at various centers located near train stations throughout the country.
This service eliminates the need for visitors to have to physically go to prisons,
which are located in remote, logistically challenging areas of Singapore.
VidyoConferencing ... a "must have" for all law firms
Due to its numerous benefits, including significant productivity gains, cost savings,
and employee safety, video conferencing is high on the list of technological innovations
that have the greatest impact on helping a law firm grow its bottom line. Until
recently, law firms had very little choice but to use dedicated networks specifically
designed to support video conferencing, or managed IP video networks to ensure optimal
user experience. This meant a law firm needed to make a large investment for the
network, equipment and technical staff. Scheduling and participating in video conferences
were cumbersome, at best. Scheduling a meeting, booking a conference room, conducting
a remote interview, or understanding how to work a product feature, would involve
contacting a third-party for support. The process was both complicated and expensive.
That is, until the advent of VidyoConferencing in early 2008.
VidyoConferencing has done away with the need for expensive dedicated networks and
complex equipment. VidyoConferencing provides the highest quality transmission and
reception of HD video over shared IP networks (including the Internet). Why is HD
so important? Because HD delivers a natural, life¬like experience that is imperative
for legal proceedings and services. HD VidyoConferencing provides the same key advantage
as face-to-face meetings: the ability to clearly observe participants' reactions;
even subtle expressions, and body language.
VidyoConferencing: Access to Everyone ... Anywhere
With VidyoConferencing, law firms, courts, legal non-profits and law schools all
can provide conferencing access to appropriate participants without the need for
dedicated networks or specialized video conferencing or telepresence rooms. Face-to-face
depositions can be conducted across any distance, expert witnesses can be part of
trial preparation without the extra time and money usually incurred by travel, and
legal colleagues can confer with one another without having to worry about scheduling
and involvement of in-house technical staff or a third-party vendor.
Vidyo is the first company to license technology and deliver products built upon
an entirely new video conferencing architecture that utilizes a recently approved
"scalable" video compression standard which delivers unparalleled video quality
over unreliable networks including the Internet. Because of this unique ability—
allowing disparate people to participate in video meetings from many locations,
regardless of where they are — law firms, legal service centers, and judicial services
providers no longer need to be concerned about the equipment, management, logistics
and costs of video conferencing. The Internet is the key to access, worldwide, for
law practitioners ... and VidyoConferencing is the only technology that holds the
key to easily achieving the much needed benefits of this communications breakthrough
for legal services.