Any Advice on Legal Video

[mwickham_1]

Hi,
I am looking at the legal video. Getting certified to do Certified Deposition Video Specialist and Certified Video Documentary Specialist
Does anyone have any comments or suggestions on these?

thanks for any assistance.
Michael

[Anonymous]

Have you studied your market? Who do the lawyers use now? Have you studied the competition? Are there enough law firms in your area to keep you busy? Can you handle the crazy hours related to legal videography? Just a few questions to ponder before you decide to get certified.

Legal videography can be very profitable but it can also be a huge drain on your time and resources. Attorney’s cancel at the last minute all the time and they call you at the last minute to do work as well. If you can handle that type of craziness, then legal videography may be a great opportunity for you.

I personally don’t chase legal videography but we still end up doing about 10 legal related video projects per year. We aren’t certified but we do ask a lot of questions each time to make sure we are doing exactly what they need us to do so everything can be submitted without problems in court.

[mwickham_1]

Thanks for the update.

I am in the process of studying the local market. In fact this forum was one of the steps of that research.
Thanks for the response.

[Anonymous]

I have been doing Legal Video for 11 years. It pays good and it is not stessful as some other video careers like weddings. The lawyers contact the court reporters and the court reporters contact the videographer. I use the PD-170 and it does a great job. If you have the editing equipment to give the attorneys what they want, you should look into it. I do not know what State you are in, but in Texas you do not have to be certified. If you contact some of the court reporters, they can call you when the attorneys want video. That is the way it is done most of the time.

I also have police scanners in my car and when I am not tied up on a deposition I run auto and 18 wheeler accidents. I take video and stills and sell them to attorneys. I am retired from the Houston Police Dept. where I was an accident investigator.

Doug Albert

[Anonymous]

Doug,

What are the hours like for depositions? I’m just starting to look into legal video, and read a couple places the hours can be rugged and they cancel or call you at the last mintue. That would be stressful for me, but what is your experience with logistics?

Thanks!

[Author]

Posts