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Now that video review during NFL football games is accepted, the same is possible for videotape transcripts on the playing field of the courtroom. The effectiveness of using video evidence to powerfully present cases has spawned services such as YesLaw by YesVideo Inc., to assist law firms in transferring depositions and videotapes onto CDs and synchronizing them for a seamless presentation in court. YesLaw takes the hassle out of preparation. You only have to labor through the process of synchronizing videotape with a transcript in one trial to fully appreciate the service YesVideo provides. I have used several video and transcript synchronization programs, and YesLaw was one of the easiest to present. I simply popped in the CD and pressed play. If you can use Windows Media Player, then YesLaw’s functions will be simple to operate. In fact, it was even easier to use than Windows Media Player. Keep in mind this isn’t software to create CDs, but a service that will produce the CDs for you. The synchronized video is burned onto a CD along with YesVideo’s own proprietary viewing and editing software. Just provide the company with the videotape and the court reporter’s ASCII file of the transcript, and it will be converted to a CD. It’s delivered on a CD rather than a DVD because many law firms don’t have DVD drives on their desktop PCs yet. YesVideo does offer DVD encoding, but it doesn’t include synchronization. The company plans to offer this service in the future as use of DVDs becomes more commonplace in law firms. So why use this type of service? With YesLaw CDs, you can edit and replay edited video footage in real time. This is impossible to do with live videotape. You also can quickly search the video. Since the video is synchronized with the transcript, you can enter a keyword or highlight sections of the transcript. You also can fast forward or rewind much easier. Of course, CD media can last a lot longer than videotapes too, which is a good thing if you have to save it for a few years. Although YesVideo includes its own proprietary viewing and editing software, you can use this in conjunction with other trial presentation programs such as Sanction by Verdict Systems and Microsoft PowerPoint. The exporting feature is supposed to be an easy step if you want to include a clip in either program. I was able to export a short clip into both Sanction and PowerPoint. However, the synchronized transcript needed to be time stamped again when I brought it into Sanction. When I tried it in PowerPoint, the synchronized transcript didn’t appear as I was told it should. The video portion is exported as an MPEG file and easily can be dropped into Sanction as well as inserted into a PowerPoint presentation. Personally, I don’t see the need to bother putting these clips into Sanction given the ease of use of YesVideo. You also are not limited to CDs created from VHS videotapes alone. YesLaw CDs can be made from VHS-C, S-VHS, 8mm videotape, Digital 8, Hi-8, Mini DV, DVCAM, Betamax and DVC Pro. Since this process is fully automated, YesVideo will transfer only one videotape per CD. While it might sound more frugal to put several videotapes on a single CD, it makes more sense to maintain the quality of the videotape. In essence, it’s better to spend the money for more CDs than try to cut costs and sacrifice quality. YesLaw is an ideal solution for the sole practitioner or small firm that might not have a person with the expertise to do this in house or find it too expensive to outsource it locally. At approximately $150 per CD, you can save yourself thousands of dollars and hours of aggravation caused by pinpointing exact counter times on the VCR. YesLaw can make you look smooth and professional. |
YesVideo Inc. Price: Approximately $150 per CD Windows 98/2000/ME/XP Reviewed by Milton Hooper, a
litigation PROS CONS VERDICT |
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