A Deposition on Everlaw is space to prepare for a deposition and outline questions, identify and export exhibits, and work with a completed transcript. During a deposition, you can use a Deposition to chat with your team and keep track of key moments. After the deposition, analyze the transcript and identify testimony that helps build your case narrative.
This article is an introduction to Depositions, including how to create and share one. There is a lot more to learn about Depositions on Everlaw. To learn more about:
- Preparing for a deposition: See our Deposition Preparation article
- Exhibits and how to export them: See our Exhibits in Depositions and Drafts article
- How to use a Deposition while conducting a deposition: See our Conducting a Deposition article
- Working with a transcript: See our Work with a Deposition Transcript article
Deposition permissions
Deposition permissions operate at two levels. First, each user has a project-level permission that is determined by a Project Admin. The permission at the project-level determines the user's ability to access and create Depositions. The permissions can be:
- None: No access to Storybuilder or Depositions
- Receive: Access to Depositions someone else has shared with them
- Create: Can create Depositions, as long as someone has shared the Story with them
A user who creates a Deposition can share it with others with a specified permission level:
- View: View the Deposition, but make no edits
- Edit: View and edit the Deposition. If a user also has Edit or Full Access permission on the Story, they can add evidence to the Deposition that isn't already on the Evidence page.
- Full access: View, edit, share, and delete the deposition. If a user also has Edit or Full Access permission on the Story, they can add evidence to the Deposition that isn't already on the Evidence page.
Create a deposition
Users with Create permission can create a new deposition. This can be done from the Homepage or from within Storybuilder:
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From the Homepage: Select the + next to the Storybuilder column header, then New Deposition.
From Storybuilder: Select Depositions on the Storybuilder navigation bar to get to the Depositions page, Then, select + New Deposition.
This opens a dialog to create a new Deposition. - Give your Deposition a name in the Name field. This is the title for the Deposition, and will be created as a label on the Evidence page.
- [Optional] Identify the deponent in the Select deponent field. You can select from existing people already added to the People page or add a new name here.
A new name will also create an empty profile on the People page. - Choose if you want to create a new Deposition, copy from an existing Deposition or Draft, or upload an existing DOCX.
When you select Copy Deposition/Draft, you select which document to copy. The text from the Prep section/Draft and all the Evidence and Facts within it are added to your new Deposition. - When you're done, select Next.
- [Optional] If you have already completed the deposition and have the transcript ready, you can load it here. Your transcript should be TXT, PDF, PTX, or DVT. See our Upload and Administer Deposition Transcripts article for more information about uploading transcripts.
- Select Create. This creates the Deposition and adds it as a label for use throughout Storybuilder.
You can also create a new Deposition from the Evidence page. To do so, select the plus next to the Depositions label header and enter a name for your Deposition.
This both creates a new label and a new Deposition.
Overview of the parts of a Deposition
Prep
The prep section is your planning space to get ready for a deposition. In the Body, you can create an outline, draft questions, and write notes.
Within the Exhibits space, you can export custom-formatted exhibits for internal or external use.
Writing Assistant is Everlaw's generative AI-powered assistant to help you get started on drafting or identifying important moments from completed deposition transcripts.
Alongside the word processing space is a side panel that adds functionality to your deposition preparation. The tools include:
- Chat: send chats to others working in the Deposition
- Evidence: Add documents and testimony relevant to your deponent. Relevant documents can end up as marked exhibits.
- Facts: Associate key Facts that you can reference as you prepare for the deposition
- Tasks: Keep your team organized by assigning tasks to keep preparation on track
Learn more about the the Deposition Prep section in our Deposition Preparation article.
Learn more about exhibits in our Exhibits in Depositions and Drafts article.
Learn more about Writing Assistant in our Storybuilder and Writing Assistant article.
Summary
The Summary tab is your space to take notes or document your impressions during or after a deposition. Since it's separate from the Prep tab, you can write up your followup thoughts without affecting the outline or questions that you developed during preparation.
Transcript
Once a deposition is complete and you have received the transcript, you can load it into the Transcript tab of your Deposition. If you have a synced video file, you can load it along with the written transcript. Once the transcript is loaded, you can annotate it and extract testimony to use in your Fact timeline(s), Drafts, and subsequent depositions.
Learn more about transcripts in our Work with a Deposition Transcript article.
Share a deposition
Once you have created a Deposition, you can share it with your team. If the Deposition is open, select the Share button in the top right corner.
You can also share from the Deposition card on the Deposition page by selecting the three-dot menu > Share.
See the permissions section above for details about what each of the available permission levels allow.
Note
To add evidence into the Deposition that isn't already on the Evidence page, users must have Edit permission on both the Deposition and the Story.
Deposition details
Within the Deposition you can update key details:
- Rename it
- Favorite it
- Add it to a homepage folder
- Identify the deponent
- Update the time and location for the deposition
To rename your deposition:
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Select within the title of the Deposition.
- Make your updates to its name.
- Press Enter on your keyboard.
To favorite the Deposition, select the Favorite this deposition button.
Update homepage folders that the Deposition is added to
While you're working in a Deposition, you can update the homepage folders that it's in. This is helpful if you're collaborating with teammates across Storybuilder and other review tools, like Binders. To do so:
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Select the Add or remove from folders
button.
This opens a list of folders that you have Edit or Full access permission on. -
Select the checkbox for the folder(s) to add the Deposition to.
Deselect the checkbox for any folders that you want to remove the Deposition from. - When you're done, select Save. This adds the Deposition to the selected folder(s) and removes it from any that you deselected.
Learn more about homepage folders in our Homepage Views and Folders article.
Deposition Scheduling
The deponent, time, and location of upcoming depositions are set within your Deposition and displayed on the Dashboard.
To update the deponent or time and location of the deposition, select Edit. Once you do, you can edit the:
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Deponent: Select from a dropdown of existing People in your Story.
To create a new person, select New person at the bottom of the list. This opens the People page in a new tab, where you can create a profile for the deponent.
If you select a deponent with a profile, you can open their profile within the Deposition by selecting the deponent's name.
Learn more about creating People Profiles in our People Profiles article. - Date/time: Enter the date and time of your deposition. If you do not select a time, it will default to 12:00 AM. You can also select a time zone.
- Location: Enter the name or address of any location. This will create a link that, when selected, will redirect you to a Google Maps search.
Select Done to save your updated details.
Transcript Only Deposition Permissions
Typically, when a Deposition object is shared with a user, they get access to view everything in that Deposition, including the text body, Summary view, chat, tasks, etc.
In specific situations, users might need to glean insight into evidence from a deposition, particularly the transcript and its documents and testimony. However, their admin may want to prevent them from seeing potentially sensitive work product associated with that deposition.
Therefore, if you have at least Read permissions on the Story, and if a Deposition has a transcript uploaded to it, you will receive “Transcript Only” permissions on each Deposition by default.
This is represented on the Deposition card. In the example below, the user was given automatic “Transcript Only” permission on “Depo Two” and explicit View, Edit, or Share/Delete permission to “Chang Dep. 10.06.20.”
With “Transcript Only” permissions, you can view the transcript and its highlights (and all details like labels and notes). You can also access all documents added to the Deposition object. This includes seeing exhibit numbers assigned to documents, and other exhibit references in other Depositions that have transcripts attached to them (even though you do not have explicit permissions on those other Depositions).
You will not be able to access the Deposition text body, tasks, chat, or Summary views.
If you prefer that your team can see everything in a Deposition object, then this automatic permission is not sufficient, and you should explicitly share that object with them.