Updated October 27, 2026 · checked against sources listed below
Second Chair is an AI tool for litigators that drafts deposition outlines from your case documents and, during a live deposition, flags inconsistencies and suggests follow-up questions, with three published plans starting at $525 a month billed annually. The homepage describes an AI called Ava that analyzes uploaded case documents and the live transcript (second-chair.ai). Its pricing page lists the plans and the allotments in each (second-chair.ai/pricing).
Second Chair at a glance
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| What it is | AI for deposition prep and live depositions: outlines and question lists from case documents, live transcript, inconsistency flags, post-deposition summary and PDF transcript |
| Before the deposition | Upload case documents and say whether you represent the plaintiff or the defendant; the AI drafts goals, proposed questions and likely weaknesses |
| During the deposition | Live searchable transcript; tracks your goals, suggests follow-ups, flags inconsistencies against documents and prior testimony, flags vague answers |
| Base plan | $525 a month, billed annually: 2 live depos and 4 pre-depo workbooks a month, firm-wide usage with no user limit |
| Pro plan | $1,200 a month, billed annually: 5 live depos and 10 workbooks a month, plus real-time team collaboration |
| Ultra plan | $2,250 a month, billed annually: 10 live depos and 20 workbooks a month, plus real-time team collaboration |
| Overage | $50 per extra pre-depo workbook and $350 per extra live deposition; up to three months of unused allotment can roll over |
| Security stated | Homepage says HIPAA compliant and SOC-2 compliant (vendor claim; no report or attestation date given on the pages we read) |
| Integration | MyCase lists a Second Chair AI integration that syncs case documents from MyCase |
| Source | second-chair.ai/pricing |
The pricing page also shows a month-to-month option, but the price it displays is the annual-billing one and the monthly amount was not readable in the page text, so we show none. The homepage shows usage counters and percentage gains (for example +125% caught inconsistencies); they are vendor claims without a stated method and we do not repeat them as findings.
What Second Chair is
The homepage calls it “the AI second chair for live depositions” and splits the work into prep outlines, real-time insights and transcripts with summaries (second-chair.ai). MyCase describes it as built for deposition prep and performance (mycase.com integration page). It is narrower than a general litigation platform: it does not claim to manage your whole matter.
Who Second Chair is for
Best for: Litigators who take or defend depositions often enough to justify a monthly plan, and who want prep outlines tied to case documents.
The Base plan is described as for solo practitioners and small teams, Pro for growing litigation practices and Ultra for full-scale teams. The vendor says users typically select and use 95% of the questions the AI suggests; we could not verify that and it is a vendor claim. If you take a handful of depositions a year, the per-deposition overage price is worth comparing with the plan price.
Second Chair pricing
The pricing page lists three plans, each with firm-wide usage and no user limit: Base at $525 a month, Pro at $1,200 and Ultra at $2,250, shown as billed annually, with an annual option the page says saves 20% (second-chair.ai/pricing). Allotments differ: 2, 5 and 10 live depositions a month, and 4, 10 and 20 pre-depo workbooks. Past the allotment and any rollover, the page says it bills $50 per extra workbook and $350 per extra live deposition. It also says it emails a receipt after each live deposition so the cost can be passed through to the client. Check how your jurisdiction and fee agreements treat pass-through costs.
How it works, per the vendor
You create a case, state which side you represent, and upload documents. The AI then drafts deposition goals, proposed questions and weaknesses, and links inconsistencies to the document name and page they come from. During the deposition it works from a live transcript; afterward you get a summary and a PDF of the full transcript saved to the case file. This is the vendor's description. The site does not publish accuracy or error-rate results, and the homepage's “real-time lie detection” label is marketing language: an AI flag of an inconsistency is a lead for you to check against the record, not a finding.
Security and data handling
The homepage says the software is HIPAA compliant and SOC-2 compliant. We did not find a report, attestation date or data-retention terms on the pages we read, and the pricing page asks you to get in touch if a single case will have more than 5,000 documents. Ask for the SOC 2 report, the model-training and retention terms, and where documents are stored before you upload client files.
Before you rely on this
We did not test the product. Capability, security and results statements are the vendor's own. Confirm that using an AI listener in a deposition is allowed under your court's rules and your witness and reporter arrangements, and keep a human check on every flagged inconsistency.
Second Chair alternatives
Prevail combines court reporting, a testimony platform and a live AI add-on, sold by quote. DepoIQ is another deposition-focused profile. For summarizing transcripts you already have, see best AI for deposition summaries and the guide to summarizing a deposition with AI.
How to choose
- Count your live depositions a year and compare the plan price with the $350 overage price before choosing a tier.
- Run the prep outline on a closed case where you know the documents and weaknesses, and compare.
- Ask for the SOC 2 report and the written terms on retention and model training.
- Decide who reviews every flagged inconsistency before it is used in questioning.
The bottom line: Second Chair is a deposition-specific AI with three public plans from $525 a month billed annually. Treat its usage and accuracy numbers as vendor claims and test the outlines on a case you already know.
Sources and what we checked
Official Second Chair and MyCase pages fetched on 2026-10-27. Vendor claims are labelled.
- second-chair.ai (product description, workflow, security claims, usage claims)
- second-chair.ai/pricing (plans, allotments, overage and pass-through terms)
- mycase.com/integrations/second-chair-ai (MyCase integration description)
Related decision paths
AI-Assisted Research. This page was researched and written with AI assistance. Prices and product facts were checked against the public sources listed above on 2026-10-27; where a figure could not be verified it is left out. Vendors can request corrections at manuel@aivortex.io.