The smart folks at Lit Software have been making top-quality apps for lawyers who use iPads since the year that the first iPad was introduced in 2010. My favorite has always been TranscriptPad because I often work with deposition transcripts. A recent update to the app adds the ability to work with video when that is available. I've been trying it out for a few months, and it is very impressive. Whenever you feed a transcript and a video into the app, the app can automatically sync the audio and video—a process for which video professionals will sometimes charge around $75/hour. Better yet, you can easily edit deposition excerpts to create the perfect edited video to present to a jury, to a judge, at mediation, to a client, etc. And you can do it all yourself, without having to wait for or rely on anyone else to make precisely the edits that you want.
Adding video to a deposition
After you have imported your transcript in the app, press the new icon at the top of the screen that looks like a monitor to import the video. The import process will link that video to the transcript that you are viewing. Follow the directions for the next few steps, and then you will see a circle with a percentage so you can see how much longer it will take to import the video:
What takes place during this import process is pretty sophisticated. First, the app transcribes the raw speech. Next, the app uses Natural Language Processing to further improve the accuracy in synchronizing the speech with the words in the transcript. Next, the app uses AI technology to account for similar words with the same meaning, just in case the person says something and the transcript gets it slightly wrong. (I’m amazed how often this happens; you assume that the written transcript is 100% accurate, but then you go back and listen to the video and hear that there are minor differences.)
All of this takes place on your iPad—not in the cloud—so newer and better iPads with more sophisticated processors will be faster than older iPads. On my fifth generation iPad Pro 12.9" (the one that was released in 2021), the process took long enough for me to set aside my iPad and let it do its work while I turned my attention to something else, but not very long.
When this process is done, you can review your transcript just like you normally do in TranscriptPad with one big difference: you will also see video at the top.
At any point, you can tap the icon at the top that shows a monitor with a play button to play the video and have the transcript move automatically as the video progresses. While video is playing, you can scroll up and down to jump to another part of the deposition and the video will quickly jump to that point as well.
If you want more information on importing video, Lit Software created this blog post with step-by-step instructions.
Even if this is as much as you do with this new feature, it is really nice. It gives you the ability to not just read the words in the transcript but also hear them spoken and see the witness say them. Sometimes, the manner in which something is said is just as important as what is said, and you don’t miss any of that thanks to this new feature as long as you had a video created at the time of the deposition.
Create video excerpts
When you are ready to show off the video to someone else, TranscriptPad has great tools for doing so. Perhaps you want to create a short video clip of a few questions and answers to share it with your client. Or maybe you want to select the most relevant parts of a deposition to show at a mediation or at trial. No matter what you need to do, TranscriptPad can handle it.
To create video excerpts, simply tap the line in the transcript for the start and the end of a clip—the same process that you do in TranscriptPad to highlight, assign issue codes, etc. Then tell the app that you want to create a video clip. You can follow step-by-step directions in this second blog post from the developer.
When you select the first video clip, you need to assign a name like “Mediation” or “Trial” or “Testimony on Causation.” Next, select the next set of question(s) and answer(s) that relates to that issue and assign the same name. Keep going until you have everything relevant designated.
Next you have two choices. The easy choice is to just export a video and save it in your Photos. Then, you can watch it and see how it looks. If everything is good, then you are done.
Although you can often stop there, I find that you get a better result if you edit, more precisely, where the video starts and stops. The app includes an easy-to-use editor that allows you to pick the perfect start and stop point for each video. There is even an audio waveform at the bottom so that you can see whenever there is noise, so your editing can be very precise—starting or stopping the video after a specific word, or even after an "umm" or a cough.
Once you have edited each clip as appropriate, you can export the total video that contains just the relevant parts. The quality of the video is excellent. The witness is shown at the top, and the words from the deposition are shown at the bottom as the witness is speaking.
Best of all, if you want to change anything, it easy to do so. Just add more designations (taking the time to precisely end the start and stop point, if you want) or delete ones that you no longer need, and then export the video again.
iPad and Mac
Although I primarily use these apps on my iPad, the Lit Suite apps also work on a Mac. Because I store my TranscriptPad depositions in iCloud, I can start working with a video deposition on my iPad, then work with it on my Mac, then go back to my iPad.
Pricing
There is no extra cost for this or any other new feature added to the Lit Software apps. When you pay for an annual subscription to LitSuite—which I believe is currently $399—you get access to all of the developer’s apps for your iPad: TrialPad, TranscriptPad, DocReviewPad, and ExhibitsPad. The company is currently working on its next new app that will be part of the bundle: TimelinePad.
If you want to pay for access for 10 or more users in a single law firm, you can take advantage of the Enterprise Program, with discounts of up to 50% for the first year with a three-year license.
Conclusion
The developer of this app notes that by syncing video/audio to a transcript on your own, you can save money. I’m sure that is true and will be a selling point for many. But for me, the real advantage is total control. I’ve been involved in many trials where late night changes needed to be made to video excerpts and it can be inefficient to have to wait for a graphics professional to implement the needed changes. With this new feature in TranscriptPad, an attorney or a paralegal can create the perfect edits right on an iPad or Mac, without the need to involve anyone else. It is the same reason that many attorneys prefer using TrialPad on their own iPad rather than hire a graphics professional to present evidence at trial.
Moreover, because working with video becomes so much easier thanks to this new feature, you may find that you will start to use videos for depositions in settings in which previously it was not worth the trouble. Favorable witness testimony comes to life even more when it is presented in a video format. And impeachment can be more effective as well, with video sometimes showing how a person was uncomfortable with their answer even though the words on a black-and-white transcript won’t show that.
Adding support for video is a great feature update for the already outstanding TranscriptPad app.
Click here to get TranscriptPad from the App Store.
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This article won the LitigationWorld Pick of the Week award on October 24, 2023. The editors of LitigationWorld, a free weekly email newsletter for litigators and others who work in litigation, give this award to one article every week that they feel is a must-read for this audience.
