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.