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.

Court Reporters and Confidentiality

Court reporters hear a lot of things -- they are the fly on the wall, the shadow in the corner, the silent partner to justice and are very often forgotten or not even thought about.  Court reporters have as much responsibility to maintain confidential information as anyone else. How can you trust that what happens in the deposition room stays in the deposition room?

There are three paths to maintaining confidentiality:

• ·       The government path:  Enter into a business associate agreement with your court reporter. Under HIPAA, court reporters are a business associate or subcontractor: “A person or entity that creates, receives, maintains or transmits [PHI] for a function or activity regulated by [HIPAA]” on behalf of a contracted entity or business associate.

• ·       The redacted path: Request information to be redacted from the transcript. There are eighteen identifiers under HIPAA that could be redacted. Among others, this can include addresses, email addresses, birth date, license plate numbers as well as medical admission and discharge dates.

• ·       The trust path: Some court reporters have security clearances that permit access to reporting confidential proceedings such as federal and state grand juries. Court reporters who are members of the National Court Reporters Association agree to abide by the code of ethics which requires members to: “Preserve the confidentiality and ensure the security of
  
  information, oral or written, entrusted to the Member by any of the parties in a proceeding.” And maybe the most important trust factor is the long-term relationship you establish with your court reporter.  When you work with someone over the long term, you know who is in the room with you and your clients and have firsthand knowledge of their commitment to preserving the confidential information entrusted to them.

Have a signed agreement, redact information if appropriate and know and trust your court reporter. Three paths to follow to ensure what happens in the deposition room, stays in the deposition room.

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.