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Second Chair: how it works

Start with the registered witness’s source-filled plan and what the record could not supply. Rehearse, carry the exactly matched plan into the deposition, inspect live cues and review follow-through.

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Availability

Limited availabilityRuns on firm-supplied glasses, installed by hand.
Supported work
Prepare and rehearse a source-filled witness plan, carry it into the matched deposition and review the moments that call for follow-up.
Start with
The examination plan reads the registered witness’s topics, sponsored exhibits, prior admissions, opposing discovery answers and recorded impeachment conflicts. The plan also reads expert state, recorded element-gap tasks, motions in limine and service linkage.
Key limit
Second Chair runs on firm-supplied glasses, installed by hand. Speech to text runs on BRON's own servers, and audio it cannot transcribe is marked as such. Only a court reporter's feed gives real page and line. A cue is not a finding.

Some capabilities have their own availability or configuration requirements, shown below.

Before you start

  • The examination plan reads the registered witness’s topics, sponsored exhibits, prior admissions, opposing discovery answers and recorded impeachment conflicts. The plan also reads expert state, recorded element-gap tasks, motions in limine and service linkage.
  • The plan is assembled from recorded rows and standard question ladders, without a new model-authored prose outline. A generated deposition outline is a separate drafting path.
  • A scheduled deposition carries the plan only for an exactly matched registered witness. An ambiguous name cannot select someone else’s examination.
  • The reviewed issue, original exhibits and recorded testimony support rehearsal and live follow-up. Firm-supplied glasses, consent and the page’s beta limitations remain prerequisites.
  • Glasses the firm supplies, installed by hand. BRON does not supply glasses.
  • A pairing code from the app. It works once and expires within minutes.
  • A record that the room consented to capture. A live session cannot start without one.
  • For a real page and line, a court reporter's feed. From a room microphone, a cue names the exhibit or says the cite has to be confirmed.
  • Reviewed cues. Each kind of cue is measured on them, and a new kind is not shown in the room until it is confirmed often enough.

How it works

Prepare from the registered witness’s recorded topics, admissions, opposing answers and linked exhibits. Rehearse the questions, then inspect source cues during testimony and review follow-through afterward. Counsel decides what to ask; missing support stays visible. The MentraOS version is a beta; firm-supplied glasses are installed by hand.

What prior answer or source should I inspect before my next question?

Before the examination

  • An examination already filled from recorded work

    The registered witness’s topics, prior admissions, opposing discovery answers and linked exhibits form an ordered plan. Recorded impeachment conflicts bring their two quotes. Direct and cross use different question ladders; counsel chooses and adapts the questions.

  • See what the plan could not supply

    Missing topics, exhibits or testimony stay explicit, alongside failed source reads, recorded element-gap tasks, motion limits and attendance linkage. Word overlap with a witness topic prioritizes a recorded gap; it is not a new legal-sufficiency finding.

  • Carry the matched plan to the deposition

    The scheduled deposition opens the exactly matched witness’s plan alongside the live session. An ambiguous name does not inherit another witness’s plan. Opening the plan reads the record; adopting it is a separate act.

  • A rehearsal kept out of the record

    An attorney can rehearse an examination before the real one. A rehearsal is never written back into the matter's record, so practice answers cannot turn up later as testimony.

  • Reviewed cues determine which checks reach the lens

    A new check starts out hidden: its cues are recorded but not shown. It moves onto the lens only when the share of its reviewed cues that counsel confirmed clears a set bar, and it is hidden again if that share falls.

  • Pairing with a short code

    Available

    The glasses pair with a short code the attorney reads from the app. The code works once and expires within minutes.

After the examination

  • Review the work the session proposes

    Marked moments and spoken follow-up can prepare task and time proposals for confirmation. Time work needs the duration supplied or recorded. A proposal does not send, file, calendar or move money.

  • Review cues that were held back or unused

    Afterward, counsel reviews every held-back or unacted cue: confirm, reject or record that the topic was not reached. Each decision is recorded. Confirmations and rejections both measure the check; a topic not reached makes no claim about whether it was right.

  • Marked moments, in the witness's words

    A moment the attorney marks live, or confirms afterwards, is saved to the matter as the witness's account, in their exact words, never a paraphrase.

  • Log delivery to the screen and lens separately

    Each cue sent to a screen or to the lens is logged separately, and a replay after a reconnect is logged as a replay. A cue that reached a laptop is not recorded as seen on the lens.

From proof plan to examination

  • Rehearse the receipt and reading questions

    Start from the trial plan’s reviewed notice issue, original email and contrary accounts. Practice the questions that distinguish sending, receipt and reading. Rehearsal is preparation, not testimony, and never becomes evidence on the matter.

  • Use the cue to inspect, then decide

    A cue points counsel to compare Smith’s account with the May 2 email, not to assume a contradiction. Counsel checks its bearing on the element and decides what to ask. Review held-back cues afterward; confirmed marked testimony returns as an attributed account.

During the examination

  • Transcription on BRON's own servers

    Speech from the room microphone is transcribed on BRON's own transcription servers, not sent to an outside speech service. A stretch it cannot transcribe is marked [audio not transcribed] in the transcript.

  • Three levels of cue

    Available

    A cue either interrupts with a flash and a buzz, appears and fades, or adds to a count counsel can ignore. Interrupting is kept for harm that cannot wait, such as an imminent privilege waiver.

  • Verify the exhibit reference before naming it

    A cue names an exhibit only when exactly one marked exhibit points to the document, and it shows a Bates number only where one was stamped. When the cite cannot be verified, the lens says cite: confirm.

  • Which email the witness meant

    When a witness says “that email,” BRON works out which one from what was discussed most recently. If two fit equally well, it reports the ambiguity rather than picking one.

  • Objections that cannot wait for the answer

    A form objection not made at a deposition is waived under FRCP 32(d)(3)(B), so these cues appear while the question is pending, before the witness answers. The lens shows only the ground, such as compound, leading or speculation.

  • Elements the record leaves unsupported

    When your own pending question touches a contested element the record leaves unsupported, a cue reminds you, without interrupting. The list comes from the elements BRON tracks for each claim, and the cue claims nothing about the witness.

  • Topics a court has excluded

    When your side approaches a topic a granted motion in limine excludes, the cue interrupts. When opposing counsel does, it appears without interrupting, and you decide whether to object. A denied, draft or filed motion excludes nothing.

What it reads from

  • Exhibits marked on the matter
  • The matter's documents and their Bates numbers
  • Granted motions in limine
  • Claim elements the record leaves unsupported

Who can do what

  • Counsel checks attribution, objections and exhibit linkage, chooses direct or cross and adapts the questions. Reading the plan does not adopt it.
  • Marked moments and spoken follow-up can prepare proposals for confirmation. Supplied or recorded duration supports draft time; no proposal sends, calendars or moves money.
  • Counsel decides what to ask about receipt or reading, whether a discrepancy is material and which cues to confirm. A marked moment records the witness’s exact words as an account.
  • Counsel decides what to ask. A cue points to a document and claims nothing more.
  • An attorney can rehearse an examination. A rehearsal is never written back into the matter's record.
  • After the examination, counsel confirms or rejects every held-back or unacted cue, or records that its topic was not reached. Every disposition is recorded; not reached counts as neither confirmation nor rejection when measuring the check.
  • A moment the attorney marks live, or confirms afterward, goes into the matter's facts with the witness's exact words.
  • On the record, nothing said is read as a command. Off the record, nothing goes into the transcript.

What it produces

  • The witness accounts saved to the matter
  • The list of cues for counsel to review
  • How often each check's cues were confirmed
  • The log of where each cue was delivered

Limits

  • Second Chair runs on firm-supplied glasses, installed by hand. The MentraOS version is a beta.
  • Only a court reporter's feed gives a real page and line. From a room microphone, a cue names the exhibit or says the cite has to be confirmed.
  • A cue is not a finding, and a quiet lens does not mean the record holds nothing.

What BRON will not do

  • Show a cue it is not confident about.

    A false contradiction that sends an examiner down a dead end costs more than a missed cue. When BRON is not confident enough, the cue is dropped, and the default is to show nothing.

  • Count lines and call the result a page and line.

    A room microphone does not know where the reporter's page breaks fall. Real page and line come only from a court reporter's feed, so a cite that cannot be verified reads cite: confirm.

  • Read a memory failure as a contradiction.

    “I don't recall” reads like a denial, and treating it as one would set it against every statement in the record. BRON doesn't count it as a contradiction.

  • Treat something said on the record as a command.

    On the record, what is said is testimony, and a spoken command would land in the transcript. So nothing said on the record is read as a command.

  • Go live without a record of consent.

    A live session cannot start until someone records that the room consented to capture. Capture runs only while the session is on the record.

  • Write a rehearsal into the case record.

    A rehearsal is not testimony. Writing it back would put practice answers into the record, so BRON will not write it back.

When something goes wrong

  • Missing topics, unlinked exhibits, unavailable testimony and failed source reads remain explicit. A plan does not establish that the record is complete.
  • A witness-topic word match can prioritize an existing element-gap task; it is not a fresh legal-sufficiency analysis, a finding about the witness or proof that the gap is closed.
  • A sent email and a cue do not establish that the witness read it. Simulated rehearsal answers never enter the evidence record.
  • If speech to text cannot transcribe a stretch of audio, the transcript says [audio not transcribed].
  • When BRON is not confident enough, it shows no cue.
  • An exhibit is named only when exactly one marked exhibit points to the document. A Bates number is shown only where one was stamped.
  • When a cite cannot be verified, the lens says cite: confirm instead of inventing a page and line. A filename and sent time let counsel inspect an email; they do not supply a verified pinpoint for the lens.
  • If two documents fit what the witness referred to equally well, BRON reports the ambiguity rather than picking one.
  • “I don't recall” isn't read as a contradiction.
  • A denied, draft or filed motion in limine excludes nothing. Only granted and granted-in-part orders count.
  • Each delivery of a cue is logged by the screen it reached, and a replay after a reconnect is logged as a replay.