Is Skype Ready for Legal Videoconferencing?

submitted by Bill Jimenez, IT Director
Hutchings Court Reporters

Skype has been used to cheaply connect individuals over the Internet for years, initially as a strictly audio tool to call other Skype users in place of phones. Recently it has become popular as a videoconferencing tool.

Hutchings Court Reporters has noticed an increase in Skype requests from their clients, the most common being short, under-two-hour depositions, with witnesses at distant locations. We have used Skype to connect witnesses from Hong Kong, London, Taiwan, Chile to local attorneys. We’ve connected out-of-state witnesses to court hearings when they were unable to appear in person. Recently we used Skype to connect a homebound witness to two separate attorney’s offices located in different states.

With the latest version of Skype, you can easily connect up to 5 locations with standard Internet -- and if there is enough bandwidth available, you can connect up to 10 locations. The price for this? From Skype, you can purchase a day pass for $4.99 or you can pay $8.99 monthly. Skype software is free to download, but you’ll need a high-definition webcam, which are included with many newer laptops, or can be purchased separately between $50 to $70.

Service quality will depend on the Internet connection of each user. Since most people use public Internet, video can sometimes be choppy. We’ve found that the audio will usually be consistent for deposition purposes, and consider it a decent alternative to regular videoconferencing. Those using Skype regularly seem to be familiar with these issues and don’t appear to have a problem with them. Skype has done a wonderful job of tweaking their software to get the smoothest feed and will let you know when it is having feed problems. That’s really the only issue we’ve found with using it.

Is Skype ready for legal videoconferencing? In certain situations, yes, it really is.