Getting to Know Court Reporter Transcripts: The Basics

What is a Court Reporter Transcript?

The court reporter transcript is the official record of everything that is said and done at a deposition or legal proceeding. This record is created on audio tape and then later transcribed in typewritten form. A competent Certified Court Reporter ensures that they accurately transcribe everything the witness and counsel say during the course of the oral discovery. The court reporter is obligated to transcribe all of the questions and answers in accordance with the rules of the court. The court reporter should ensure that the documents marked as exhibits during the deposition are included into the transcript at the appropriate place with all attachments and addendums. The entire record, along with exhibits becomes a part of the official record for appellate review of every case.
Transcripts serve many purposes in litigation. The written transcript record can be utilized for summaries, record citations and for impeachment material. At depositions and legal proceedings , once the transcript is prepared, the court reporter can certify the accuracy of the transcript. For instance, certification allows the parties involved to make changes to errant spellings. However, the testimony of the witness must remain substantively the same. When the parties receive the transcript, they have a set period of time to review, correct and approve the transcript record.
One of the greatest benefits of using a professional court reporter is that they provide quick turnaround work for pending depositions. When the statement of a witness is recorded and later written by a certified court reporter it becomes accepted as valid evidence that could be presented at a trial to establish facts and events. An important benefit of testimonial evidence in a transcript is its persuasive tendency to impart comforts and conclusions as opposed to the spontaneous nature of oral statements.

Parts of a Court Reporter Transcript

Transcript components
The appearance of a transcript is fairly standard throughout the country: it’s a word-for-word account of everything that was said, but it’s set out in a way that’s designed to be as readable as possible. Because of the word-for-word accuracy of a transcript, it will appear as follows: SPEAKER. [Spoken words in the precise order they are given] [And so on] The speaker is identified in the left margin with the text written in an easily read format. Some court reporters use initial caps, some lower case, and so on. Sometimes the transcript is just a word-for-word account of the court proceedings, but lawyers can ask for a rough transcript, which has a lot of useless stuff in it. In that case, the transcript may note things like the following: Dick Smith, court reporter. This is a Criminal case. Stenographic transcript is defined as the next transcript. Volume I. And so on. A rough transcript is cheap, and you won’t need every jot and little if you’re reading for research.

How is a Court Reporter Transcript Made?

Procedure a Court Reporter Follows in Creating their Transcript
When working on a transcript, the court reporter must create the transcript by hand or computer software. TOSHOA members lay out the procedure they must follow to produce an accurate transcript. "First, we have to write down the shorthand, then transfer it to a transcript program and have people listen to it as well as the court reporter do proofreading," said Shari Lynn Martin, C.S.R., of Vicenti, Lloyd & Stutzman LLP in Pasadena, California. Lillian McGee, C.S.R., in Houston, Texas, said it’s basically the same process at her firm. "I take my notes, make corrections, and print them out on a transcript program. Then I give them to the proofreader." Differences come in terms of how much work is shared among the court reporters, she said. "All the reporters in my firm proofread each other’s work before it goes out. There is also a dedicated proofreader who has been with us for years." In some firms, court reporters read from the computer screen when there is no tape or digital record to review, said Shawna Sutphin, realtime reporter for Crossland Hearings & Litigation Services, in Columbus, Ohio. S Raelene Boulware, C.S.R., of The Honor Firm in Boulder, Colorado, said she has both a tape and a hard transcript to use for reference. "I go through everything and check for questions on the transcript." For proofreading purposes, Ray A. Hughes, C.S.R., at The Hughes Firm in Orlando, Florida, sometimes has a "hired" proofreader, and sometimes he or she does their own proofreading and editing. In addition, he uses software for "spell check, if I get a chance … though that does not catch homonyms. And I also conduct a grammar check." Hughes, a former member of the board of directors for NCRA, a national court reporters association, said there is no better tool than a spell and grammar checker. "A couple of good grammar checkers I’m aware of are Grammarly and ProWriting Aid." Martin advises anyone writing a transcript to find errors or imperfections immediately after the tape has been stopped or the equipment turned off. "Locate any prepared documents, which we use as a reference for context, i.e., pleadings or briefs, e-mails or letters between parties, and witness lists, etc.," she said. It’s best to use the spell checker, if you have one, during the time it is available, said Magsino, a former NCRA former president and longtime member who still works for Depo International. "Read the transcript using the autoscript text, tape, and ears," she said. "Because I cloud my screen, I can’t be tempted to read from it," she said. "I have discovered many errors by doing this. I take off my rings; My hands tend to sweat, so it doesn’t allow me to control the paper." Emphasizing the importance of checking what you’ve done, the computerized tools that check spelling are great but haven’t replaced the human factor, said Sutphin. "Software has come a long way, but a personal touch is needed as well to double-check everything," she said.

Court Reporter Transcripts: Some Examples

C L A R K S T A T E S
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF CLARK COUNTY
STATE OF NEVADA
xxx,
Plaintiff,
vs.
XXX,
Defendant. )
Case No. C-XXXXXXX
Dept. No. XX
OCTOBER 10TH, 20XX
A P P E A R AN C E S
For the Plaintiff:
MR. Doe
MR. FELLOW
xXXXXXXX
For the Defendant:
MR. JACKSON
M R . JACKSON: Your Honor, this was set for a status update as to the JC case that I just received from Mr. Fellow. The JC is currently going through a wrongful marriage annulment action I believe, and I have a response that will go in the State’s favor with an oral argument that will be made by the respondent.
M R . FELLOW: Your Honor, may I have one moment?
THE COURT: Certainly.
MR. FELLOW: Thank you. I just spotted Mr. Jackson and Mr. Doe and didn’t want to interrupt their conversation.
THE COURT: Okay.
MR. JACKSON: Your Honor, if I can interject very briefly, actually the State filed its Response and Order to Show Cause today after being continued for several months. I believe that an order should be entered without oral argument. I haven’t had the opportunity to look at the response yet but I believe it is in the form it should be in. I think that it should be set out as all of them are, as a blank and the party that is going to receive the money being the trust, BB&T, or any of the reconcilation [phonetic] issues that may exist in the interim, but I think it can be entered with a number blank and a date and see if the parties can come to some type of agreement or stipulation on what that number is, your Honor.
THE COURT: Okay, so you would agree to modifying the order to use a blank or to leave a blank and I believe that is what had been done with the June filing.
MR. JACKSON: Yes, your Honor. I think there is, even though I haven’t had the chance to review it yet, the only concern I have is that we know what money it is, as far as assets go, that it is not being distributed somehow in some type of a check or bond and I don’t believe that it is based upon an existing specific number that has to be conclusive as to all the parties that were available at some point.

What Are Court Reporter Transcripts Used For?

The versatility of verbatim transcript generated by a court reporter is proven by its extensive use in various legal contexts beyond the mere requirement of the court. The use of transcript as a solid reference point for an appeal record is not unusual. The omnipresence of the court reporter at the ground level of the judicial process enables a solid foundation for assembling an accurate record. Where and when electronic recording is in use, either in the formal or informal settings, the transcript is still the reference point for assembling a record. In appendix A of the California Rules of Court outlines the mandatory contents of an Appellant’s Civil Appeal Record. Electronic recordings may be invoked to create a record if it is proven that a transcription cannot "without difficulty" be obtained from the official court reporter. A strong imprimatur for the use of the transcript as the gold standard of record is seen here, especially as it is required by court rule. Even when an appeal is being drafted from an administrative proceeding to the superior court, the certified transcript is still vital for an adequate record. Courts also rule that civil appeals require specific transcripts, giving little leeway to ask for short transcripts, or to summarize them. Even in the Family Code section 3121, appeals courts have ruled that "summarization" of transcripts is not appropriate in appeals, and that it is the Superior Court who determines whether an appealed record meets statutory requirements for appeals . Thus, the use of transcription is common in civil appellate processes, and even in a family court context, leaving no doubt of the importance of transcribed records. Besides appellate processes, there are many contexts in which a transcript may be called upon in order to create context for a matter either under litigation or for prospective litigation. Drafting briefs and other court documents may call for the live interpretation of various aspects of a court proceeding. Transcripts inform and aid lawyers in preparing for oral depositions, and for actual trials. The preparation of witness lists and exhibits is improved through access to transcripts. Legal research is enhanced through the use of transcripts, in addition to providing a solid reference point for appeals. The intelligibility of transcripts aids tremendously in legal research processes. The equal manner in which issues are reported facilitates access to critical information. Even in a court context, journalists are increasingly calling upon transcripts to report on judicial proceedings. In California, reporters and editors are given access to court reporter transcripts to augment sources traditionally available to media professionals. The array of benefits that come from using transcripts cannot be easily overlooked.

Issues and Solutions with Court Reporter Transcripts

The ever indispensable reporter transcript is not without its challenges. For starters, the phenomena of background noise, overlapping dialogue and poor audio quality can all drastically affect the transcript’s accuracy. A real court reporter’s live notes are always in real time at the deposition, where courtroom technology is not a challenge: the mics used are open, allowing the reporter to hear all of the parties’ voices in the room, and even the slightest "um" will be captured. Whereas transcription of video can lead to problems if an audiophile is not completely clear in his or her understanding of how that audio should be represented in text form, or if the audio occurs as a sort of "hit and run" (for example, when you have a short clip without much ambient noise in the background), the actual video with actual dialogue from live people sitting and standing in the same room helps mitigate errors that can lead to hiccups in the final transcript.
It is always better to be physical and visual and to transcribe in real time if you want a definitive record as quickly as possible, but in a longer term process, we are able to apply technology in helping to provide clarity. Audio recordings can be transcribed automatically or manually by people who analyze and transcribe the recorded messages using their own judgment about what makes sense. However, transcribing aspects of audio in real time is much too challenging and difficult to have people doing by trial and error. This means if you are working with a court reporter who does transcriptions in real time, he or she will proofread their own work to make sure it reflects what was actually said during the recording.
Realistically, there are always going to be limitations to accuracy, especially when you consider that voice recognition software still relies on natural language processing: finding a small set of examples based on association and basic tagging of concepts in order to predict the next word based on context. While this is very effective with speech-to-text of legal language when the person speaking is clear and focuses on one thought at a time, only the human brain can remember and repeat all the above rules while processing content at light speed. That innate sensitivity to context allows most of us to hear "the tickets for that month were sold out" when "the tickets for that month were sold" is actually what was said. Although not perfect, human beings’ ability to rely on our capacity to predict context allows us to fill in gaps, add missing letters, and most importantly, catch words that would otherwise be recorded incorrectly such as "Molly’s Meyer" instead of "Mollison’s Meier" or "his favorite aunt" instead of "his favorite ant."
Humans are also able to differentiate homographs based on context. We can easily tell that a person is saying "lead" or "lead" by listening to the context of the question. The context also informs us of the intended meaning behind similar words like "colon" or "cannon" or the words "mow" or "mauve." In this way, humans are actually using predictive learning to help us fill in these smaller details based on our ability to predict the situation. In the language of computers, humans can assess many variables above and beyond the "who, how, and when" to analyze the "what, where, and why."
A human editor will be able to easily correct these errors during proof – details which automated, instant transcription cannot hope to deliver. However, the cost of that correction needs to be added to how much money a client is willing to budget for this work. Humans cannot pre-write speech nor predict just how the founder of your firm pronounces specific words using his own accent and in his own cadence, let alone all the clients and opposing counsel involved in the case. Given this reality, it is impossible to say how accurate any system is because each process is going to produce a different result based on the conditions described above: room size and sound quality, number of speakers, speech impediments, accents, emphasis on certain words and so on.

Where Can I Find Court Reporter Transcripts?

Obtaining Court Reporter Transcripts
Access to court reporter transcripts, including orders, judgments and opinion letters, is generally governed by specific local rules and regulations. In our district, for example, the rules encourage parties and reporters to reach an agreement on transcript drafts which would then be filed with the court. If an agreement cannot be reached, the reporter will prepare a "draft for settlement" and will then serve the draft on all parties for their review. As discussed in our guide to court reporter fees and rates , reporters have "240 days to submit an invoice for the reported transcripts" and "the reviewing party is under an obligation to submit their objections to the draft transcripts to the reporter within 210 days of the receipt of the transcripts."
As with any sort of court filing or service request, transcripts too can be asked for through the filing system. The same holds true for transcripts that have already been ordered. Requesting the transcript of trial proceedings from the filing system is as easy as accessing the case record and placing an order (provided that the transcript has been prepared).