Paying Attention Towards Court Reporting

Court reporters in Maryland are the professionals who are skilled in the advanced technologies and techniques of recording actual dialogues and conversations. These records are verbatim, meaning that every word is precise as the speakers said them. They can take down everything wholly and accurately to create a file of the exact words that were reported, and the people involved in the verbal exchanges that take place. Excellent listening skills and an ear for accents are great characteristics to have for a court clerk. This is important because the reporter is supposed to maintain verbatim records and transcribe them on paper.

A courtroom reporter is also known as a stenographer. These court professionals are found sitting and transcribing word for word of what goes on inside a courtroom. These individuals work directly for the state in an official capacity. They type into a stenograph machine "recording" communication and effectively transcribing it into readable text. A stenograph machine is an advanced typewriter consisting of twenty-two buttons. Each button is linked to various sounds and syllables as opposed to alphabet letters. During court reporting in Maryland, the conversations are "recorded." After a case hearing is adjourned, these are transcribed in readable text format and kept as court records.

On the other hand, speed is also important. Speed in this career refers to typing speed which affects the successful recording of court events and the timely transcription of those records. While accuracy cannot be compromised over speed, court reporters in Maryland still have to maintain a specific speed rate in the recording. This is to ensure that they capture what people say, and these people usually speak naturally without waiting for the court clerk to finish recording what they have just said. Speed is developed during training and is further honed on the job. Those who seek licensure or certification must gain a typing speed of at least 250 words per minute.

Real-time benefits:

•                  Real-time court reporting goes beyond the current testimony as well. With this technology, all transcripts from an entire case can be organized and quickly called up. An entire database of the case is searchable, and the case can be neatly summarized. Documents, images, and other files related to the case can also be organized within the software and links created. For example, when a witness discusses an accident scene, you can link to photos of the accident scene.

•        Real-time court reporting is efficient which leads to the lower overall cost. Since the testimony is keyed into the steno machine, translated by the software, and delivered to your computer in real time, there's less manpower required. With standard court reporting in Maryland, the court reporter must manually translate the machine's shorthand and then type the text.

•          With standard reporting, once a topic has been discussed, or a question answered, the attorney must rely on memory or notes to refer to these earlier discussions. With real-time reporting, a quick keyword search brings up the exact words uttered, thus allowing the attorney to quickly find specific proposals for further exploration.