The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way that industries all over the world have had to operate, and the legal field is no exception. Judicial practice and the interpretation of law must continue regardless of the Coronavirus or any other emergency factor. 

In response, law firms and legal entities must now pivot their focus from traditional methods to the latest in technological advancements in order to get the job done. That’s where Magna Legal Service’s LegalVision (MLV) online deposition platform comes into play. 

Magna is offering free video services, technical support, and custom virtual backgrounds for all April and May depositions, using Magna LegalVision.

What is Magna LegalVision?

With social distancing and widespread quarantines in effect across the country, law firms have had to get creative in order to carry out their duties. Fortunately, there is a virtual option available for conducting online witness depositions.  

Magna LegalVision is a virtual solution that allows law professionals to conduct online witness depositions remotely. The LegalVision platform allows legal professionals to engage in real-time hearings, mediations, and depositions using nothing more than a laptop, PC, tablet, or even a mobile phone.

How Does LegalVision Work?

Magna’s LegalVision platform allows you to conduct your firm’s necessary business while keeping you and your clients safe and in compliance with state rules regarding social distancing. Our full suite of features helps your team work confidently and with peace of mind by employing safe and secure technology.  

Our platform’s suite of features includes secure, fully-encrypted video streaming to assure your information stays confidential. 

We take care of all the necessary staffing for your deposition. With Magna LegalVision, we can provide:

• A remote court reporter
• An online legal videographer with the ability to swear in witnesses
• Online interpreters
• A deposition manager, who will present your exhibits and demonstratives, manage annotations, and manage breakout rooms (moving people in between rooms, controlling room access and overseeing confidentiality)

Our tech support team will be with you throughout your entire hearing. Our platform provides a completely customizable experience where you can use a virtual background and dictate how the participants are displayed on screen. Our platform even allows you to chat securely and privately with other participants even while key witnesses are speaking.

Our tech services can also help to display evidence exhibits remotely and in real time. Your evidence is displayed in a format with legal professionals in mind. Using LegalVision’s powerful tools, participants are able to annotate and otherwise mark up evidence as it is presented and share those annotations with other participants securely using our in-app messenger function. Our IT services can build a database of your evidence and package it into an easy-to-decipher presentation format for those involved. We can even use the software platform to record the deposition for you and your client(s) to review. 

With the included court reporter service, you’ll experience a near-instantaneous stream of your transcript even as testimony is happening. Our on-demand service provides your legal team with an indexed, searchable version of the transcript giving you powerful, remote tools that provide you with the leverage you need. You can rely on Magna Legal Services to keep your online deposition running smoothly and efficiently throughout the process.

Modernizing Your Law Firm

These are trying times for everyone. Businesses that fail to adapt to the changing climate, with its unique demands and difficult social constraints, run the risk of losing out. Your firm needs to differentiate itself from the rest of the pack. The Magna LegalVision online deposition platform is the point of differentiation that you need to rise above your competition. 

We invite you to take advantage of Magna’s online deposition solutions with MagnaLegalVision. Schedule a remote video deposition via email or the website today.

The “new normal” of COVID-19 has changed our daily life, but Magna Legal Services remains in full operation, ready to handle any of your jury research and support needs. This is a time to work on pending cases because once the court systems adapt, cases could move at a rapid pace. Online mock trial services and case valuation studies can provide reliable, up-to-date feedback regardless of your location. 

Magna is now introducing JuryConfirm 20/20 – the most powerful, efficient, cost-effective virtual jury research platform anywhere. It means jury research based on the most modern user interface, with cutting edge features: 

• Redesigned immersive courtroom with unlimited research methodologies
• Live attorney presentations
• Unlimited research methodologies 
• Limitless visual presentations with unrestricted video
• More live jurors (up to 80)
• Enhanced juror feedback with artificial intelligence-powered analytic tools
• Live juror deliberations with more panels than ever available before (up to 6 panels of 12)
• “Instant” reporting
• Evidence analyzer – With smart logic and AI to automatically catalogue the highs and lows of presentations, always “taking notes” and “watching” jurors so you don’t have to

Magna is the nation’s expert in online jury research. Over the past decade we have conducted more online studies than anyone in the world – by far. We have run over 2,000 online jury research exercises, working with over 25,000 mock jurors.

JuryConfirm 20/20 not only allows us to run half-day exercises as before, but long-format 6.5 hour “plus” sessions as well. Our enhanced JuryConfirm 20/20+ platform is far more robust in capability and duration than ever before. It allows you to conduct extended focus groups in which everyone – presenters, observers, and jurors – participate remotely from their location. Lawyers present their cases for up to 60 minutes and jurors deliberate at length in our virtual courtroom, using the methodology as with in-person research. JuryConfirm 20/20+ solves the challenge of social distancing.

With an extended session of 6.5 hours, longer presentations and more deliberations than our traditional platform, this format bridges the gap between in-person research and online jury research. As with JuryConfirm, you will make presentations via webcam in real time, testing key themes and demonstratives. Our new 20/20+ platform offers: 

• A longer research day, at 6.5 hours per session
• Longer attorney presentations, at 60 minutes per side, plaintiff and defense
• Longer deliberations – Jurors have more time to deliberate than in our standard JuryConfirm platform to mimic the amount of deliberation time in in-person studies
• Juror rating system with real-time feedback that can be broken along demographic lines
• Streamlined efficiency – By hosting research virtually, we save time by minimizing break lengths and juror down time. Managing the jurors more efficiently helps preserve the advantages of a full day’s research within the 6.5 hour time frame

Magna also offers a wide range of online legal services in addition to JuryConfirm 20/20 and 20/20+. Our online damages assessment tool, JuryEvaluator, provides you with an evaluation of potential damages by surrogate jurors. We also offer social media surveillance for plaintiffs / claimants (ClaimScout) and social media surveillance searches on prospective mock jurors (JuryScout). 

Looking to learn more about our full suite of online legal services? Give us a call at 866-624-6221 or schedule a virtual deposition today.

On November 6-7, 2019, three-time mock trial winners Susan Metcalfe and Ted Schaer went head-to-head in a battle of the champions at Chopped for CHOP. This seventh annual convention was held in Atlantic City, NJ. After a panel workshop and reception to kick off the event, these two top attorneys presented their cases to win up to $20,000 to be donated to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

Who broke the tie and emerged as the grand champion this year? Read on to find out, and to learn more about this incredible two-day event.

Day One

On the first day, Magna’s own Dr. Rachel York Colangelo moderated panels of attorneys and industry executives who took part in a workshop exploring effective deposition tactics. Teams of attorneys and industry executives took part in role plays and demonstrated effective skills in deposing difficult witnesses. A panel discussion was also led by Caryn Siebert, Vice President in the carrier practice team at Gallagher Bassett, along with fellow industry experts, that focused on strategies that can be used early in a case to improve outcomes. The panel discussed examples and case studies with the attendees, taking a closer look at preparing witnesses, researching the jury, and more. 

Following the panel, attendees enjoyed a dinner reception at Indoor Pool at The Water Club before getting a good night’s rest in anticipation of the next day’s mock trial.

Day Two

The mock trial is the highlight of Chopped for CHOP, and in past years there have been numerous attorneys competing for the win. This year, Susan Metcalfe and Ted Schaer, each of whom have won this competition three times, competed alone against each other in a tie-breaking battle of the champions.

They presented their best case to a panel of judges made of claims executives and corporate counsel. Richard Fabian of the RiverStone Group generously donated his time to develop the topics and script and moderate the event. There was a lot at stake for our competing attorneys: bragging rights and $20,000 to be donated in their firm’s name to CHOP.

Competition

In the Chopped for CHOP mock trial, both attorneys received the facts of the case and presented their opening statements. They then had the opportunity to cross-examine a plaintiff and a defendant before presenting their closing arguments. After each round, the judges and the mock jurors, who were recruited and selected from the actual Atlantic City trial venue each cast a secret vote for the attorney they believed to have won the round. The judges also offered helpful feedback. 

Of course, a jury trial is unpredictable and never easy, and we made sure to throw our competing attorneys a few twists and turns. Via instant feedback technology, our audience members voted on which distractions and difficulties they wanted the attorneys to face during the mock trial. For example, a new fact emerged during the trial that had not been available in the case information prior to the event, and a pizza delivery person wandered into the courtroom to deliver a large pie to the judge. 

As expected, the attorneys handled it all with professionalism and grace, and when the competition ended, we were proud to announce the winner: Susan Metcalfe! She’s now a four-time Chopped for CHOP mock trial champion.

Chopped for CHOP is one of the many unique, interactive events we produce for attorneys, corporate counsel, and claims professionals. Among a variety of other services, from court reporting to language interpretation and document translation, we offer programs that aim to entertain and educate. We create memorable experiences and connect professionals with the opportunity to share best practices and learn from each other.

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions about our conferences or to schedule a deposition.

Magna Legal Services goes where no legal company has gone before. Instead of just focusing on juries or some other specific part of the litigation process, Magna handles everything from discovery to trial.

The Start of Something Great

Peter Hecht, Bob Ackerman, Jon Ackerman and Mark Calzaretta identified a hole in the legal services market. No litigation support companies offered true end-to-end legal services. Those that tried, did so by focusing in one area and contracting out others — sacrificing control and quality along the way. Magna integrates everything from start to finish.

The Magna Difference

To this day, no other company matches Magna’s range of services. Magna is the only company with organic roots providing services in both discovery, pre-trial and trial. The company’s JuryConfirm and patent-pending JuryEvaluator software have completely disrupted how attorneys pick juries and tailor their cases to them. The reason Magna’s software has been so successful is because Magna developed it backwards from other companies. Instead of building a product and trying to find clients, Magna found what clients needed and built software to fit those needs.

However, Magna is much more than technology. Magna’s jury consultants have decades of bench strength, have seen what works and what doesn’t, and are educated in psychological profiles. 

Our Philosophy

When their clients talk, Magna listens — and that’s their strong recipe for success. Magna is always looking for new ways to innovate, whether it’s improving tools like JuryConfirm and JuryEvaluator, or developing new products. Magna also continues to evolve their basic services, allowing them to always provide the most advanced, cutting-edge trial graphics.

One of the biggest sources of inspiration for Magna is the five-question survey every deposition client gets when they receive their transcript. The survey is designed to identify signs of unhappiness or dissatisfaction even when clients aren’t open about it. When a potential problem is identified, Magna proactively reaches out and works with the client to get things back on track.

Every action Magna employees take is driven by customer satisfaction. The company is sales-based, but the sales depend on relationships and repeat business. Relationship managers have strong incentives to keep their customers happy.

The Future of Legal

Trials will never lose the feel of Columbo and Matlock. It always has been and always will be about the story. The only difference will be in how the story is told. You can already see how new technology is used on modern shows like Law & Order, Bull and CSI. While these shows often stretch technology beyond current reality, that technology may very well be both reality and routine in the near future. Virtual reality and artificial intelligence are also ready to break out both to enhance trial presentations and to help cases settle sooner and clear docket backlogs.

Attorneys must adapt to this new technology, not just because judges and jurors will expect to see it, but because of the changing demands of the business. Better predictive technology directly aligns with the constant pressure to settle cases sooner and for less. Lawyers will also need the efficiency that comes with technology to free up time to continue providing the highest level of attention to their cases.

Mark Your Calendar

Magna hosts three major events each year in Atlantic City, Las Vegas, and Miami. They’re a combination of education, networking, and entertainment — what they like to call, “Edutainment” seminars.  Attorneys and claims professionals can receive CLE or CE credits while having a great time. What’s truly unique is the opportunity to meet new people by way of their Magna rep. It’s not always easy to meet people at events, so having someone there looking out for you makes a world of difference. We also have opportunities to become a sponsor, moderator, or panelist. If you aren’t able to attend, you can always call them or speak to one of their representatives to bring a mini Magna CLE/CE to your local office. 

Ready to get started with Magna Legal Services? Give them a call at (866) 624-6221 or schedule a deposition directly.

Social media continues to play an important role in trials as precedent-allowing social history as direct and indirect evidence grows. This not only includes public accounts, but also those whose owners had locked as private. A desire to protect these private accounts has led to sanctions against clients for the destruction of or failing to preserve evidence. Attorneys have also faced sanctions for telling clients to wipe accounts or for not instructing them to preserve their accounts. To avoid issues, attorneys must be aware of potential privacy concerns as well as the correct way to approach them.

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During the discovery process, there are certain things to be gained from an in-person deposition ⎼ like an account of body language and the ability to adjust your strategy in real-time. Unfortunately, busy schedules and travel distances don’t always allow that. You can send another attorney, but they’re still bringing you back secondhand information and may not handle surprises exactly as you would have. Interactive internet deposition services offer you a solution that gives you everything you need without the cost.

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Court reporting is an essential aspect of the litigation process. From depositions to closing arguments, shorthand reporters ensure that a detailed record of all proceedings is maintained for the record. Even the most skilled experts in this field, however, should continuously practice their skills to keep up with the fast-paced environment of courtrooms and depositions. Here are a few tips on how you can constantly improve:

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