5 Reasons Why Court Reporters are Still Relevant in Today’s Virtual World
It may seem surprising, but court reporters okay some of the most important roles in the courtroom. The standard court reporter services consist of valuable transcriptions of the entire court proceedings from beginning to end, writing word-for-word notes that can be invaluable to lawyers, attorneys, and anyone else in the courtroom. But with so much technology available like video and audio recording, how do they still exist in modern proceedings? In this blog, we’ll discuss five reasons courts still use court reporters.
1. Court Reporters Are Reliable
One of the biggest reasons courtrooms still prefer using court reporters is the fact that they are reliable. To become a court reporter, an individual must receive a formal court reporting education from an accredited university or college, then work to receive a certificate from the state they would like to work in. Court reporters can begin working after their certification, but they must continue their education. Court reporting and technology are always advancing, so staying up to date on the latest trends, software, technologies, and more is a crucial part of the role. Court reporters are also more reliable than most technology; an audio recording, for example, can only provide one aspect of the story. Court reporters write their reports in real-time, making them faster than any technology as well.
2. They Are Fast
Part of court reporter training is learning to use shorthand. This type of shorthand is called stenography, which can be input into a special stenography machine that looks like a small computer keyboard. There are 22 unmarked keys that the court reporter memorizes and can input quickly at a rate of up to 300 words per minute. The stenography machine takes the shorthand and translates it back into regular English as the reporter types, providing a fast and reliable method for reference in court.
3. They Work In Real-Time
One of the most valuable aspects of having a court reporter present during a deposition or other court proceeding is access to real-time notes. Using stenography shorthand, a court reporter can produce words as fast as they are spoken, providing any party with access to the internet a real-time transcription of the notes they are taking.
4. They Offer Multiple Services
Court reporters can also offer other services that are useful for those in court. Some examples of these include translation services, video recording, audio recording, transcription, litigation support, and virtual services. With their highly trained knowledge of legal verbiage, grammar, spelling, and more, they produce reliable services for lawyers, attorneys, judges, courts, and other legal professionals.
5. They Have History
Court reporting and stenography is a well-documented profession that dates back thousands of years to around 63 BC. The profession is thought to have started with a philosopher named Marcus Tullius Tiro, who took dictation and managed finances for Cicero. Over time, court reporters became more common and technology advanced to what we have today. Now, we can use a mixture of transcription, video, audio, and more to provide the most reliable and fair documentation of court proceedings.
Court Reporter Services & Court Reporters With A Customer Focus
At California Deposition Reporters, we pride ourselves on providing our reporters all of the information available to us prior to the start of a job, providing word lists, and maintaining case files on all depositions in our management of the depositions in larger cases. We work well with other competing firms to facilitate the sharing of information in order to provide the attorneys with a transparent sharing of word lists, which ultimately assists counsel with a consistent product, even assisting the official reporter by providing a word list for the official reporter for the trial. If you are in need of reliable cour deposition reporters, we can help. Give us a call at (209) 478-3377 or send us an email to [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you!
