Flygare & Associates

Thank you for continuing to read the Video Vault.  Over the next few months, I will be looking into the history of legal video and use of video in the courtrooms and civil litigation and sharing with you my findings.  However, let me start out by sharing with you the history of legal video at Flygare & Associates.

Flygare & Associates has been shooting legal video proceedings long before I joined the firm.  Roger Flygare was not only the court reporter at a deposition, but he had to also maintain the operation of the video camera as well.  The type of camera being used was the old VHS style camera that had the VHS tape put right inside the video camera.  Those days quickly past and they started using a separate Videographer and Stenographer. 

In 1997, Flygare & Associates hired me and I started to take on the responsibilities of shooting legal settings, day in the life, industrial videos and other settings, such as accident scenes and so forth.  I still remember the first deposition, full size VHS camera, full size VHS back up and a four channel mixer. 

As time went on, we started utilizing Hi-8 cameras and Super VHS tapes, but that eventually gave way to the mini DVD format and today we are currently shooting our depositions and legal proceedings right onto our camera's hard drive and can burn a DVD copy pretty much on the spot.

Flygare & Associates continues to keep their legal video and court reporting service up to date with the most effective and cutting edge technology in today's legal environment.

Please continue to read and enjoy the Video Vault and stay tuned for more history of the use of legal video.

~Chris Lewis. 

For our continued thoughts on videotaping in today's legal environment, visit us at  www.flygare.com .

Please call or send an e-mail to [email protected] if you would like more information on this or any of our previous stories from the video vault.  All calls and e-mails are considered private and highly confidential.

There is only so much I can say about inaudibles, speaking clearly into a microphone, etc.  So to change things up in the transcription corner I decided this month to go with something humorous and unbelievable at the same time.  I do not know if this is true, I received this in an email and I found it to be so utterly ridiculous that I decided to put it out here for your amusement and/or disbelief.

STELLA  AWARDS

It's time again for the annual 'Stella Awards'! For those  unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald's in New  Mexico, where she purchased coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever think one could get burned doing that, right? That's right; these are awards  for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S. You know, the kinds of cases that make you scratch your head.. So keep your head scratcher handy.

Here are the Stellas for this past year   --  2010:

*SEVENTH PLACE*
 
Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a  toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son.

Start  scratching!

* SIXTH PLACE *
 
Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles , California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a  Honda Accord. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.

Scratch some  more...

* FIFTH PLACE *
 
Terrence Dickson, of Bristol , Pennsylvania ,  who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage.  Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn't re-enter the  house because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson  pulled it shut. Forced to sit for eight, count 'em, EIGHT days and survive on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner's  insurance company claiming undue mental Anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the  insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all  have this kind of anguish Keep scratching. There are  more...

Double hand scratching after this  one..

*FOURTH PLACE*
 
Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, garnered 4th Place in the Stella's when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor's beagle - even though the beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed  over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet  gun.

Pick a new spot to scratch, you're getting a bald  spot..

* THIRD PLACE *
 
Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled  soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on the floor:  Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument. What ever happened to people being responsible for their own  actions?

Only two more so ease up on the  scratching...

*SECOND PLACE*
 
Kara Walton, of Claymont, Delaware sued the owner of a night club in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000....oh, yeah, plus dental expenses. Go figure.

Ok. Here we go!!

* FIRST PLACE *
 
This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased a new  32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's  seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you  sitting down?
$1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually  changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.

~ Anna Hirsch 

Flygare & Associates In-House Transcription Department transcribes a variety of hearings, meetings, videos, text messages, voice messages, emails, etc.  We are here for all your transcription needs.