Real-Time Court Reporting Benefits
When it comes to court reporting services, real-time court reporting delivers benefits that traditional reporting simply can’t. Thanks to the computerization of stenography and sophisticated transcription software that translates the court reporter’s keystrokes into legible text, it’s now possible to see what’s being said in real-time. While delivering testimony in real-time is an exceptional innovation that has changed court reporting dramatically, it’s but one of many real-time court reporting benefits.
In fact, the instant computerization of the spoken word allows attorneys to immediately markup the testimony and highlight areas for later recall. For example, as the court reporter transcribes the oral testimony into the steno machine, the software translates the machine’s output into text. Not only is that text able to appear on television monitors in the court room, it appears on computers hooked up to the system. In addition, the text can be broadcast over the Internet, allowing for remote delivery. Whether the attorney is in the same room as the court reporter or connected remotely, the attorney can mark issues, view real time testimony, and even quickly search the text for earlier discussions.
Anyone who has worked with keyword searches in lengthy documents will appreciate the ability to quickly search live testimony for specific keyword phrases. For example, with standard reporting, once a topic has been discussed or a question answered, the attorney must rely on memory or notes to refer back 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 discussions for further exploration.
Another benefit of real-time reporting involves attorneys working in teams. For example, a remote attorney may be able to ask questions during the deposition because the information is streaming to the remote computer as it is revealed. With standard court reporting, litigators not present during the testimony must wait for the transcripts before their input can be considered. With remote real-time court reporting, there’s no delay and it’s less likely that a second deposition will need to be scheduled.
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.
Best of all, real-time court reporting is efficient which leads to 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, the court reporter must manually translate the machine’s shorthand and then type the text. A one hour deposition would take more than twice that amount of time to translate and transcribe.
Get all of the benefits of real-time reporting and possibly pay less for the service by choosing a real-time court reporting service.
How have you benefited from real-time court reporting? We’d love to hear your experiences.
Sunbelt tailors a wide range of litigation support solutions specializing in a worry-free approach empowering litigators to turn their full attention to winning their case.
