It’s always so easy to schedule a reporter for my depos in the States. Why is it so hard to find a local reporter in country X?

This may come as a surprise, but most foreign courts do not rely on verbatim transcripts to the extent that we do in the United States. Nor do they employ lengthy discovery and out-of-court depositions as part of their process like we do. Because the majority of foreign jurisdictions don’t use them, or only use them sparingly, qualified court reporters can only be found in a limited number of countries possessing legal systems similar to our own.

And of course, a lot of countries don’t speak English — which means that their reporters won’t be able to take down English-language testimony.

What this all boils down to is that finding a qualified, English-language court reporter abroad is not a simple matter. In fact, in the majority of foreign countries, there aren’t any. Our agency has the largest database of foreign-based reporters available, and we always try to schedule locally-based reporters in order to save our clients money on travel costs. If that’s not possible, we can almost always fly a reporter in from a nearby country in the same region.

There are some U.S. certified, American reporters who live abroad and with whom we work regularly, but they are few and far between. For this reason, it’s important to schedule your deposition abroad as far ahead as possible in order to increase your chances of finding a good reporter and legal videographer with availability. You’ll also find that strict cancelation policies typically apply when scheduling reporters and videographers for depositions abroad, so be sure that your dates are firm before you book.