Reliable court reporting is irreplaceable. You need all the records in a case to be complete and accurate. Both sides rely on the records to make their arguments. Without full accountings of the proceedings to rely on, things suddenly become way more complicated than they ever needed to be.
Will the legal system collapse without professional court reporting? Some might say that such a statement is being overdramatic. However, you cannot deny the importance of having a document that completely and accurately describes the happenings inside the courtroom.
In this article, we want to highlight just how important reliable court reporting truly is. The state of Florida and the rest of the country need court reporters who can do their job well. Learn more about the crucial tasks they perform and their unique role in the legal system by reading on.
Court Reporting Is a Job That Requires Plenty of Skill
A lot of people don’t understand the job of court reporting. They assume that it’s a simple task that just about anyone who knows how to type can perform.
The thing is that court reporting is more complex than that. The skills involved in court reporting need to be honed over a long period of time.
You must be able to listen clearly throughout the court proceedings. Careful listening is important because you don’t want to constantly interrupt the proceedings and you want to avoid mistakes as well.
While listening carefully, you must also be able to type quickly. Include every word spoken in your transcript. Make it as complete as possible so it serves as a fully detailed reference. Reliable court reporting means being able to provide that kind of document each and every time.
As a court reporter, you must also use special equipment and software. Becoming proficient at using those tools is not easy.
It takes a lot of training to use those tools without committing errors. Not everyone is capable of doing that. Court reporters spend years mastering those tools so they can perform their job at a satisfactory level.
Individuals must possess certain skills if they want to become court reporters. No piece of software or freelancer can approximate that skill and that’s why court reporters remain essential to the legal system to this day.
Court Reporters Have a Strong Sense of Duty and Professionalism
When you undergo training to become a court reporter, you are made keenly aware of the role you play in any given case. The importance of your role is drilled into your mind constantly. Reliable court reporting is essential to a well-functioning legal system and your job is to provide it.
Let’s focus on the word “reliable” for a moment. What does it truly mean in this context?
First off, being a reliable court reporter means that you are doing your job right. You are creating an accurate record of the court proceedings without injecting any bias. The document you’re creating must be trustworthy. If it’s anything less than that, then you have failed to do your job properly.
Court reporters must also exhibit professionalism at all times. Don’t arrive late to any deposition or trial. You must be there waiting for the proceedings to begin. It should never be the other way around.
Lawyers and companies have high expectations of court reporters. They expect them to be nothing less than professional, punctual, and highly capable workers.
Here at Brickell Key Court Reporting, we instill the importance of reliable court reporting in all of our employees. You should expect nothing less when you decide to work with us.
Reliable Court Reporting Delivers Rough Transcripts Quickly
The advancement of technology is nothing short of remarkable. We’re seeing gadgets and programs today that would’ve sounded too unrealistic for sci-fi movies not too long ago.
Technological advancements have also made certain tasks easier to perform. In some cases, you’re even seeing automation take over for human workers.
Some people have suggested that court reporters could soon become obsolete because of technology. With recording programs already available, some believe that there’s no need to have a court reporter present.
While the availability of recording programs does help in certain scenarios, suggesting that it can be a complete replacement for reliable court reporting is misguided. That is especially true in court cases.
Just think for a second about how recording programs work. Yes, they can record the things being said during a trial, but that’s all. They cannot provide a transcript that both sides can examine.
You can hire someone to transcribe the recordings, but that will take some time. Time is of the essence in court cases so unnecessary delays are far from acceptable.
Court reporters save you from dealing with that issue. They provide you with the transcripts you need as soon as possible.
Here at Brickell Key Court Reporting, we present our clients with a rough transcript on the same day that the deposition takes place. By nighttime, you will already have the rough transcript in your possession.
The text in a rough transcript has already been cleaned up so you should be able to read it easily. With that information in hand, you should be able to strategize carefully ahead of your next courtroom date.
Reliable Court Reporting Can Be Done in Real-Time
Getting your hands on a rough transcript the same day the deposition takes place is very convenient. However, that’s not the full extent to which hiring a court reporter can speed up the process.
Court reporters also make real-time reporting a possibility.
For example, we at Brickell Key Court Reporting allow the attorneys working on a case to connect directly to our reporter’s writer. The moment an attorney sees something of interest in the transcript, they can take note of it and use it later on.
On top of that, attorneys are also allowed to make highlights and annotations in the transcript while it’s still being written. Those highlights and annotations will be retained in the transcript provided later on.
That kind of interactive, real-time court reporting is immensely valuable in a courtroom setting.
Technology is not a threat to court reporters. Instead, it’s something that can lead to the faster delivery of reliable court reporting.
Court Reporters Provide Clear and Complete Transcripts
We’ve already touched on the ways that court reporters outperform recording programs in terms of speed. Now, let’s turn our attention to another aspect of court reporting where recording programs are sorely lacking.
Clarity, accuracy, and completeness are important elements of any court transcript. You can expect nothing less than clear, accurate, and complete transcripts from the providers of reliable court reporting. The same is not necessarily true for recording programs.
When someone fails to speak clearly in the courtroom, the court reporter can interrupt and ask for clarification. That is an important part of their job. They need to do that to deliver the transcripts their clients are seeking.
Recording programs cannot do the same thing. If certain words uttered during a trial are unclear, the program will simply fail to register them. Those words will be lost and a glaring omission will exist in the transcript.
You cannot afford to have any omissions in the finished transcript. Those words could prove to be vital to the outcome of a case. They must be present in the record.
It’s also worth noting that those moments when it’s hard to understand the person speaking occur frequently in the courtroom.
They can happen because the person speaking is mumbling or talking too softly. Two people speaking at the same time can also make it difficult to keep up with the conversation.
Don’t forget about accents. A court reporter who has been trained to understand different manners of speaking can hear what is being said through various accents. Recording programs do not possess that ability.
You need reliable court reporting because creating a transcript requires more than just listening and typing. Only court reporters can deliver those complete transcripts.
Court Reporters Can Observe and Participate in the Proceedings
The job of a court reporter is pretty unique. If you think it’s just about listening and reading, you are leaving out some important aspects of the job.
As court reporters sit down to do their job, they also observe the happenings in the court. When they look at a witness speaking, they do more than record the words they say.
A court reporter can also indicate if a witness is making certain gestures. They can mention the fact that the witness is gesturing in the transcript they create. The importance of those gestures may not be apparent immediately, but it’s still good to have them in the transcript.
Court reporters can also be active participants in the court proceedings. They can read certain parts of the transcript during a trial. Speaking up during the trial is a small part of the court reporter’s job, but it can still prove useful to both sides.
There is simply no substitute for reliable court reporting. You will need it for every case you work on. Do not hesitate to seek out professional court reporters because the services they provide are more than worth it.
