Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Do's and Dont's of Making the Record, Part 2



A few more tips on creating a clear, concise and accurate record:

Know your ABCs and your 1-2-3s
Rapidly spouting out acronyms and numbers can cause a lot of confusion. Many consonants have similar sounds so speaking clearly, taking a moment to spell the acronym and using clarifying names such as M as in Mary will ensure that acronyms are correct in the transcript. Numbers can be equally confusing. Clarify what the number represents, percentage, dollar, time, et cetera.


Methyl-Ethyl-What?
Court reporters acquire a broad general knowledge of terms and subject matters. However, in our world of advanced technologies, it’s impossible to be familiar with every possible subject matter. You may be very familiar with the specialized terminology in your case, the court reporter may or may not be. By providing the court reporter with a glossary of technical terms – especially if it’s a realtime display – will help create an accurate record and minimize interruption for clarification during the proceedings.

Show and Tell
For efficient handling of items of evidence, briefly and adequately identify by stating both the date and an identifying feature and when referring to an exhibit, specify the exhibit number. If there are going to be a large number of items entered into evidence let the reporter know in advance and give them enough time to mark the exhibit and make a note in the record before proceeding.

Using these few tips at your next proceeding will not only help create an accurate record it will also make your court reporter very happy.

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