August 2021: Forecast of Court Reporting Trends

While the court reporting industry started to settle into the world of remote depositions, the past three months has proven to be a snap back to reality with a drastic comeback of in-person depositions. Now, as the CDC has recently updated their recommendations regarding mask wearing, we attempt to predict what the coming months will bring.

By analyzing Fortz Legal’s historical court reporting data, we can begin to forecast future industry trends. The graph below depicts the number of remote depositions (blue) compared to the number of in-person depositions (yellow) for each month since January 2020.

The red dotted line represents the start of the pandemic in March 2020, which prompted a sudden switch from in person jobs to remote. For one full year (from May 2020 to May 2021), the court reporting industry operated about 90% remote. Then, when we look at July 2021, 43% of depositions were conducted in-person – marking the highest percentage since before the pandemic.

The question now is, what will happen in the months to come? Perhaps the trend from the past three months will continue with an increased number of in-person jobs. Alternatively, the new CDC recommendations may begin to reverse the current trend, keeping remote depositions here to stay.

The consulting group, Stategy&, conducted market research and forecasts that about 50 percent of depositions will continue to occur remotely even once all pandemic-related restrictions are lifted.

Regardless of what trend we see next, whether remote or in-person, Fortz Legal stays committed to providing clients with the best-in-the-industry service for every case.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE PDF