Insights from U.S. Legal Support’s 2024 Litigation Support Trends Survey

Each year, we conduct an industry-wide survey to better understand where our clients and partners stand on issues important to the legal industry and litigation support. This summary breaks down some of the most important trends we’re monitoring as we look forward to 2025 and beyond.

Below, we’ll walk through the participants and how they stack up to the profession as a whole. Then, we’ll touch on insights and year-over-year (YoY) changes in litigation support service usage, vendor selection criteria, the role of legal technology and artificial intelligence (AI), tech investments, usage of remote depositions, and outlooks on the future of AI integration into legal workflows. 

The Lay of the Land: Participant Demographics and Roles

We had 1,232 total respondents, of which 68.75% were from single-market or regional law firms and 18.26% were from AmLaw 100 firms. In addition, 5.36% of respondents were from Fortune 1000 organizations.

The majority of legal professionals identified their role as: 

• Legal Assistant (31.90%) 
• Paralegal (31.01%)
• Partner (6.90%)
• Managing Partner (6.09%) 
• Attorney (4.95%)

The respondents also work in a diverse array of practice areas, with most specializing in:

• Personal Injury – 37.66%
• Insurance – 31.41%
• Medical Malpractice – 17.94%
• Construction – 12.91%
• Contracts – 12.66%

Beyond these top-represented fields, we also heard from legal professionals who specialize in aviation matters, intellectual property disputes, environmental law, securities fraud, and many other niches. 

How and Why Firms Use External Vendors for Core Litigation Support Services 

Our 2024 survey shows that law firms are using litigation support services for the same reasons and cases that they have for years. The vast majority of firms use outside vendors for court reporting (84.47%), and many others use them for translation (53.98%), record retrieval (47.79%), transcription (39.37%), and trial graphics and exhibits (35.06%).

These findings are largely consistent with our 2023 survey results, with slight drop-offs across some categories counterbalanced by gains in others. Overall, outsourcing usage is about the same.

The weighted averages of vendors used per service have actually gone down, as 2024 shows decreases in the use of 5+ vendors across the board. This suggests that firms are being more selective and using a curated group of vendors for highly specialized litigation support. 

Top Criteria for Vendor Selection Among Participating Firms

Given that firms often use multiple vendors for different litigation support services—and even for the same kind of service—we wanted to gain insights into their approach to vetting and selecting their litigation support providers. What we found is that there are clear priorities in terms of responsiveness, affordability, and availability, irrespective of service area.

Firms selected three top priorities when vetting vendors. The top choices were:

• Response and delivery speed – 78.00%
• Fair (i.e., affordable) prices – 73.38%
• Resource availability – 51.62%
• Accurate billing – 35.71%
• Security and privacy – 29.63%

These findings are all consistent with 2023’s responses, with the biggest change coming in fair prices—it sat at 67.45% in 2023. Still, a large majority of firms prioritize fast response times and cost, and well over half are also primarily concerned with a vendor’s availability.

Many firms’ approach to controlling vendor costs involves limiting the overall number of vendors they use (58.44%). Looking ahead, consolidating services to vendors with strong responsiveness and availability at reasonable prices can help firms gain an edge over thinly-spread competitors.

The Role of Technology and AI in Litigation

Another major insight we captured was the steady increase of general technological adoption in litigation support, led by a sharp increase in the adoption of AI-related legal tech specifically.

With respect to general technological adoption, a majority of firms (65.23%) see themselves as technologically innovative. A similar majority (62.56%) report that their legal and operational tech roadmap is aligned with their core business goals. These are nearly identical to 2023’s findings.

However, there is much greater baseline familiarity with AI technology across firms (43.44% in 2023 vs. 51.74% in 2024). This is reflected in the greater usage of AI, as 25.92% of firms report using it in 2024, whereas 21.25% did in 2023. The ~4.67 increase in percentage points relative to each year’s total responses belies a much more significant change of +21.97% YoY.

And, in terms of the litigation support providers they’re using, just under half of firms (49.43%) believe it’s important for those vendors to utilize AI in their service offerings. These technology trends align with expert calls for litigation support to follow the software revolution paradigm.

Legal Technology Investment Outlook for 2025

Another indicator that litigation technology will play a bigger role for law firms in 2025 is that firms are planning to increase their investments in it. About a third of firms (32.40%) expect to increase their investments in legal technology in 2025, consistent with 2023 findings. In addition, just 5.61% predicted a decrease in future tech investment, whereas 9.33% had foreseen a decrease in 2023.

We asked firms what their top three priorities were for digital transformation initiatives in 2025. Their top choices were:

• Data management and retention strategies – 59.67%
• Document review and eDiscovery platforms – 42.55%
• Legal matter management software – 40.14%

These choices were consistent with 2023, echoing a clear priority for efficient data and document management among law firms. As data grows in volume and complexity over time, law firms need bigger and better tech solutions in place to maximize its power easily and securely.

The Continued Reliance on Remote Depositions

Most law firms anticipate maintaining or increasing their use of remote depositions in 2025 and beyond. This builds on a trend we’ve seen, as 90% of depositions were remote or virtual during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and 96% of litigators preferred they stay that way.

In 2023, 30.95% of firms we asked thought remote deposition usage would increase in 2024. 44.96% thought it would remain the same, and 17.15% thought it would decrease. But in this years’ survey, only 12.24% foresee a decrease, 47.80% see it holding, and 34.31% expect an increase. The biggest changes are the 10.86% YoY jump in expected increase and the 28.63% YoY drop in expected decrease. Firms continue to see the benefits of remote depositions and technology continues to improve, making the process seamless and efficient for all parties. 

A related trend is what firms are looking for in their remote deposition solutions. Again, the top two priorities were ease of use (69.56%) and functionality (58.58%), with similar shares of the votes from last year. More firms are also now prioritizing cost, as affordability was the most important consideration for 37.76% of respondents this year, as opposed to 31.53% in 2023. 

The Future of AI Across the Legal Practice

To return to the topic of AI, one of the most fascinating insights we identified across our findings was consensus around AI’s uptake across the industry. There was a significant increase in the share of firms who expect their use of AI to increase (31.72% in 2024 vs. 25.38% in 2023).

Maybe even more interesting, however, were firms’ perspectives on legal AI usage across the industry:

• 48.84% of firms think AI will be mainstream in law in 3-5 years (vs. 44.90% in 2023)
• And 16.34% “strongly agree” with AI becoming mainstream (vs. 10.59% in 2023)

As AI continues to gain widespread adoption, the path to get there remains slow but steady. Relatively few respondents (13.35%) reported that integrating AI and/or machine learning was a top priority moving into 2025—although that figure was still significantly higher than the 8.99% who did in 2023.

This all points to more firms leveraging AI in the future. Investing in AI both internally and in the litigation support services used can set your practice up for sustained success.

Stay Ahead of the Curve with U.S. Legal Support

On the whole, our 2024 survey points to many of the same trends we observed in 2023 continuing or intensifying moving forward. More firms are using external litigation support, with greater attention being paid to how they’re using these services—how many, which ones, and with what qualities. This mirrors the overall greater investment in and adoption of legal technology, including AI, along with the continued ascendance of remote deposition solutions.

U.S. Legal Support helps legal professionals and firms find the right litigation support technology and services for their needs. We encourage you to explore our solutions and find the right combination of functionality and efficiency to supercharge and future-proof your practice.

Get in touch today to learn how U.S. Legal Support can help you.

To view our survey results, download the infographic here:

Sources: 

1. ALM (law.com). It’s Time for Litigation Support Services to Join the Software Revolution. https://www.law.com/therecorder/2024/06/24/its-time-for-litigation-support-services-to-join-the-software-revolution/
2. Statista. Number of law firms in the United States from 2012 to 2023.  https://www.statista.com/statistics/822025/us-legal-services-market-law-firms/

Julie Feller

Julie Feller is the Vice President of Marketing at U.S. Legal Support where she leads innovative marketing initiatives. With a proven track record in the legal industry, Juie previously served at Abacus Data Systems (now Caret Legal) where she played a pivotal role in providing cutting-edge technology platforms and services to legal professionals nationwide.