Depositions Go Virtual During Pandemic, May Remain That Way

Squire Patton Boggs partner Steven M. Auvil in March asked an Ohio federal judge to take a rather unusual step in a case he was working on, compel a remote deposition.

The state’s stay-at-home order precluded an in-person meeting, but opposing counsel in the patent infringement matter argued that a remote deposition would adversely affect their ability to represent their client.

In the process of writing his motion, Auvil found at least a half a dozen other cases in which judges granted requests for remote depositions since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. One New York federal judge had gone ...