Professional Court Reporters Working As A Team
Even though court reporters normally work individually, there are also times when they are required to work as a team. Assignments that usually require at least two professional court reporters are those arbitrations, depositions and court hearings that are scheduled on a daily basis and those that require real-time official transcripts of the proceedings. No matter how advance the technology used in court proceedings is like the speech-to-text software, there is still nothing that can replace the quality of the transcripts created by professional court reporters. The human touch and high standards of accuracy that court reporters have make every transcript they produce more accurate and closer to perfection. This is one of the main reasons why their presence is still highly needed during court proceedings and litigation processes. Court Reporter Defined Court reporters are those who typically sit quietly in one specific corner inside the courtroom or litigation room but are not an active part of the proceedings. They are also known as stenotype operator, law reporter, court stenographer, and shorthand reporter. The court reporters are the ones responsible for taking notes, and recording everything that is being said inside the courtroom including the statement of the witnesses, questions asked by the lawyer, and the decision of the judge. They either use a stenotype machine, shorthand writing techniques, or voice writing equipment when recording. They also transcribe recorded speech or the statements being spoken into written form and create an accurate official transcript of the court hearing. Working As A Team Although they usually do work individually, there are also instances when they need to collaborate with other court reporters. As a court reporter, sometimes you need to work with one or two other court reporters, and sometimes you need to team up with three or more especially when you need to record and
produce transcripts that need to be completed within the day for real-time arbitrations, depositions, and court hearings. Working as a team is fun and exciting. It does not just make the work lighter and faster, it also gives you and the other court reporters the opportunity to work together, support each other, and carry out a brainstorming session where each of you has the chance to share your own thoughts, ideas, techniques, and strategies with the group. When working with assignments that need at least two court reporters, all of you need to be a team player in order for the team up to work well. As soon as you receive the assignment or at least one week before the schedule of the work, it is important that you set up a meeting with each of the members of the team and discuss delegating the tasks or dividing up the assignment. You also need to make sure that everyone’s daily schedule is cleared up so that all of you can concentrate on your own individual task and devote all of your time for it. You also have to determine how many court reporters are needed for each task and schedule as well as the duration of the entire project. The other things that you need to include in your planning are the hookups and equipment that you will use for the project. Be certain that everyone can provide the same kind and enough number of devices. It is also very important that each of you have highly reliable, efficient, competent, and trusted scopists and proofreaders. To make your output look more professional and uniform, you have to set specific details about the logistics, format, and timing.