"If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share.” -- W. Clement Stone

And we here at Geiger Loria Filius McLucas Reporting Service are truly thankful.

• We are thankful for our clients who continue to place their faith and trust in us.

• We are thankful for our incredibly hard working and dedicated office and reporting staff.

• We are thankful for this amazingly successful year and thankful that we get to do it all again next year, and the next, and the next, and the next……

• We are thankful for our ability to use our skills to help people find solutions to their legal issues through a fair and impartial process.

• We are thankful to our friends and family who put up with our erratic hours and crazy deadlines.

• And finally, we are thankful that we get up each and every day and do what we love, court reporting!
  

High-Definition Videoconferencing: Making Things Simple for Paralegals, Legal Assistants and Attorneys

A deposition in Chicago in the middle of January, everyone flying in from all over the country and the weather outside is frightful – or at least it could be. That means weather delays, travel hassles and all-around yuckiness. You could schedule the deposition, cross your fingers and hope that it all works out, or you could try Plan B. Videoconferencing. Goodbye travel woes and much easier to cancel than planes, trains and automobiles if the weather is dreadful.

Even if weather isn’t a factor, no one needs to be reminded of the time-sucking, exhausting, and sometimes scary nature of traveling for business. So go for that Plan B. Schedule a videoconference. Everything is simple.

There are two ways you can do this. One way is to use a free service such as Skype or Go-To-Meeting using a webcam. Another way is to use a facility that has dedicated high-definition videoconference equipment installed in a conference room.

Using a free service can be tricky. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Audio quality and video quality can be annoying and the webcam usually can only view one person. Not so simple and more than a little frustrating.

With a dedicated high-definition videoconference facility not only will you have a reliable, quality audio and video experience, the camera can view everyone in the conference room.  And there will be technical staff available to make sure the conference goes smoothly. That makes everything easier.

You can use high-definition videoconferencing for more than just depositions. What about job interviews, remote staff training, preparation meetings with expert or lay witnesses or even board meetings? Whenever there is travel involved, videoconferencing can solve a lot of challenges.

And here’s how things get even simpler. Just give us a call and we’ll make all the arrangements. With high-definition videoconference equipment in our Harrisburg and York, Pennsylvania offices as well as networking arrangements with other conference facilities across the country and worldwide, we can schedule a videoconference anywhere. Simple and Easy.

How does a Court Reporter Prepare a Transcript?

As an attorney or paralegal, you may need a transcript quickly from your court reporter and might not understand why you cannot have it right this instant. The process from deposition to final transcript is not immediate, although it may appear to be. With computer technology, as a reporter writes on their steno machine their steno notes are sent to a laptop and are translated into English. It looks like magic but it’s really a result of a lot of years of work and despite the magical appearance, the final transcript is several steps away from being complete.

This is the step-by-step process to a final transcript: 

Step 1:  Reporters spend years building their “steno” dictionary. For every word or phrase, they have to define the English translation. There’s a lot of words in the English language. It’s a forever job. The more complete a reporter’s steno dictionary is, the better the English translation is. 

Step 2: After the deposition is ended, reporters “scope” the deposition transcript. This is an editing process where untranslated words are defined or corrected. Because proper names and specialized terms may not be in the reporter’s dictionary these words need to be added.

Step 3: After the scoping process, the transcript is proofread to make sure there are no errors or typos and also to research any spellings of specialized terminology or to make sure proper names are spelled correctly. No one likes to have their name misspelled.

Step 4: Corrections are made through a proofreading process and the transcript is signed by the court reporter. The final transcript is then processed and sent out to the parties in the format they prefer, printed or electronic.

Depending on the complexity of testimony, for every hour of testimony, it can take a reporter between two and three hours to have a final transcript prepared.

Why is this important to know?

If you are in a deadline crunch to receive a final transcript, advising your court reporter when you schedule service will make sure the court reporter assigned is prepared, giving them the opportunity to clear their schedule and be ready to meet your deadline.