CTTS · Certification

Certified Trial Technology Specialist

The credential for the hot seat. Learn how to present video, exhibits, and synchronized transcripts to judges and jurors — and become the trial tech who helps your client communicate effectively under courtroom pressure.

Who this is for

CTTS is for the practitioner who wants to graduate from the deposition room to the courtroom. It's the most technically demanding AGCV credential, and the one that opens up the highest-rate work — trial days at $1,500–$3,500/day, hearing-day setup, and the consultative role that comes with running the technology in front of a judge.

What you'll be able to do

  • Operate the courtroom hot seat for a multi-day trial — exhibit publish, transcript callouts, video clips, and demonstratives — without breaking flow.
  • Synchronize deposition video to the court reporter's transcript so attorneys can search, cite, clip, and play.
  • Build a trial-tech package that survives a courtroom AV system you've never seen before.
  • Manage exhibit lists, designations, and counter-designations in TrialDirector and OnCue.
  • Recover gracefully from the predictable failures: missing exhibits, projector hand-off, and the audio drop that always happens at the worst moment.

The curriculum

  1. 01
    The trial workflow

    From pre-trial workup to post-trial close-out. What the hot seat does on each day.

  2. 02
    Exhibit lists & designations

    Plaintiff's, defendant's, joint, and the choreography of objections and rulings.

  3. 03
    TrialDirector deep-dive

    The full workflow: import, organize, designate, present, mark, and export the daily.

  4. 04
    OnCue deep-dive

    The same workflow in OnCue, with attention to the patterns where one tool wins over the other.

  5. 05
    Synchronization

    TimeCoder Pro, Synchron, and the manual fallback. Sync line items in your rate card and turnaround expectations.

  6. 06
    Courtroom AV

    Projectors, monitors, hand-off cables, audio routing, and the fact that no two courtrooms share a power layout.

  7. 07
    Failure recovery

    The five live-pressure failure modes and the recovery patterns for each.

  8. 08
    Live hot-seat exam

    A simulated trial day. You operate the hot seat in front of a panel. Reviewed live.

What the credential covers

  • FRE 1006 — summaries of voluminous evidence
  • Local rules on courtroom technology and exhibit handling
  • TrialDirector / OnCue reference workflows (peer-reviewed)
  • AGCV courtroom AV reference architecture

Bad audio kills a deposition video. Bad procedure kills the videographer. Both are entirely preventable, and both are what CTTS is built around.

— from the CTTS curriculum
Frequently asked

Common questions about the CTTS.

Do I need CDVS first?

No, but most CTTS candidates hold CDVS. The procedural foundation transfers; the synchronization material assumes you understand the deposition record you're synchronizing to.

Is the exam in-person?

Yes. The live hot-seat exam is a simulated trial day operated in front of a review panel. It's offered at the National Summit and at three regional sites annually.

Is this for trial consultants or just techs?

Both. The CTTS curriculum covers the consultative side — designation strategy, demonstrative planning, courtroom layout — alongside the technical operation. Working trial consultants and trial technicians both hold CTTS.

Earn the CTTS.

Membership unlocks the curriculum, the exam, the directory listing, and the working community of certified members. The fastest way to start is to join.

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