The concept of court reporting is thousands of years old, and can be traced back to 63 B.C., when Marcus Tullius Tiro, a slave, was given the task of taking dictation for Cicero. In an effort to keep up with Cicero, Marcus Tullius Tiro developed a system of symbols and abbreviations (i.e. shorthand). He also omitted short or common words that he could add later by memory or context. Over time, Marcus Tullius Tiro expanded his shorthand system to include over 4,000 signs, including the familiar ampersand ("&"), which is still widely used today.
In 1877, Miles Bartholomew invented the first successful shorthand writer, which consisted of ten keys that could be depressed, one at a time or in combination, to create a series of dots and dashes, much like Morse code. In 1964, IBM and the court reporting industry partnered to developed the first computer aided transcription ("CAT") system. This system produced electrical impulses at the stroke of each lever with an incremental magnetic tape to record and produce a digital recording simultaneously with the written notes on the standard paper tape. Since then, the court reporting industry has seen additional changes, such as the introduction of realtime (1992) and paperless shorthand writers (2001).
Throughout the years, technology has revolutionized the way court reporters keep the official record. Technology has also revolutionized the services court reporters provide to attorneys and judges. From realtime to videoconferencing, court reporters can now offer a wide range of cutting-edge services that enhance the legal experience. Below are several services that can save attorneys time, money, and effort, or even help them win their next big case.
Realtime
"Realtime" is the term for transcription by court reporters using real-time technologies to deliver text to a device (i.e. screen, laptop, iPad) within seconds of the words being spoken. Think of realtime as closed captioning for attorneys. At a deposition, realtime allows attorneys to view the deponent's responses in written words so that they can focus their time on pinpointing their questions, rather than trying to remember what the deponent said. Realtime also allows attorneys to take notes directly in the text and highlight portions for future reference.
Benefits of realtime include:
- Read, hear, and see questions and answers as they happen
- Quickly create and modify annotations right on the transcript
- Highlight important text for future reference
- Scrolling text that you can start and stop at will for pinpoint questioning
- Easily search the transcript for specific words or phrases
An additional benefit of realtime is the ability to stream the deposition testimony to another location. Text streaming allows attorneys to monitor or participate in a “live” deposition using a computer or mobile device from a remote site. Any attorney can participate in the deposition process no matter where he or she is physically located, again saving time, money, and energy. In large cases, it may be difficult to coordinate all of the participating attorneys’ schedules. However, if the deposition is in realtime, attorneys can participate remotely, negating the need to coordinate travel schedules, as well as avoiding the costs and delays thereof.
Having the ability to send a realtime feed of every word that is said at a deposition or trial is the ultimate tool. However, it should be noted that not all court reporters can provide realtime. Being able to provide realtime requires experience testing, and ultimately, a designation of Certified Realtime Reporter ("CRR"). Make sure to ask your court reporter or court reporting firm for a Certified Realtime Reporter when scheduling your realtime depositions.