With the availability of various options provided by technology, more lawyers are convinced to use them during court depositions instead of hiring a certified court reporter. But is it still wise to hire a certified court reporter these days? Find out here.

Technology seems to have a solution to everything nowadays. It has made manual tasks a lot easier and faster. It has even simplified complex tasks. We have become dependent on technology to the extent that we place our trust in it to preserve confidential and important information. However, we often overlook the fact that technology is not perfect; and even more so than humans, still, tend to fail.

With the constant development of technology, it is slowly being applied as well during court depositions. Court testimonies, statements, actions, verdicts, and everything that occurs within the walls of the courtroom, are required to be documented and recorded as accurately as possible. This is made possible by a highly trained certified court reporter or stenographer. But with the emergence of advanced technology, there may be less need of court recorders, as lawyers and judges will resort to audio and video recording, or other high-tech options to perform the tasks mentioned before.

While this may seem like a good idea, there are things that technology is not able to accomplish that the human can. Here are a few reasons why hiring court reporters still proves to be a wise choice during court depositions.

Advantages of Court Reporters

Trained

Stenographers undergo years of learning the art and science of court recording. Before one becomes a certified court recorder, one has to learn how to accurately and swiftly record spoken word in real-time. This means writing a verbatim narrative report as it happens and as it is being spoken. This requires speed and an active mind. Because of their training, some very experienced and famous court reporters can reach up to 300 words per minute.

Knowledge

There are many special terminologies that a court reporter must learn and understand. They are required to have an extensive vocabulary to provide precise details of the court proceedings. They learn codes, abbreviations, and other techniques. Apart from that, they are trained to distinguish the “feel” per se, of the deposition, something that technology is unable to do.

Critical

As much as they are required to, an efficient court recorder possesses some sort of quality that makes them very critical to details. They are able to notice changes in the tone of voice, able to recognize accents, mumblings, and other forms of speech being uttered. They are also allowed to request a repetition of the statement. Technology cannot do that. When the court reporters for legal matters are unable to catch a part of a statement or question, they can ask the speaker to repeat what they said, to further improve the accuracy of their record.

Credibility

The data accomplished by a court reporter can serve as the basis for further legal action. There is an assurance that the data is valid, accurate, and detailed. And because the transcription is being made real-time, any anomaly or questions that need clarification can be instantly resolved. Atlanta court reporters are required to be completely unbiased by the court to avoid conflict of interest. This only means that both parties can count on the reliability of the record that they produce.

How a Lawyer Benefits From The Service of Court Recorders

A good transcription can be useful in a lot of ways for both lawyers and clients. It can be a reference for the following:

1. Trial Action Plans. A clear record of transcripts can help lawyers and clients strategize. Loopholes, weak links, and other vital information can be provided by the document that can be used to build a strong defense and offense.

2. Questions. The legal counsel can formulate questions, and prepare for possible ones that the opposing party might throw. Obsolete statements can be detected and used by legal counsels to conduct further questioning.

3. Trial tones. Setting the tone of the deposition can greatly impact how it goes. As mentioned before, court reporters are also able to capture the tone of speech and body language of a person and documents it as well.

4. Appeal plans. Legal counsels can appeal to a verdict by providing basis derived from the transcript. Lawyers can cite errors in the procedure — something that will catch the attention of a court of appeals.

A good court reporter is a very valuable asset. The case, the counsel, the client, and the verdict, all depend on the accuracy of the court record to substantiate the facts, statements, and testimonies.

Court reporters and national court reporting agencies offer live, detailed, and credible output. It is a piece of common knowledge that technology, no matter how advanced, is still vulnerable to malfunctioning and failure. It is not wise to put our entire trust on them because after all, these are still man-made devices. The human mind is still the mastermind. Technology is all tempting to indulge in, but court depositions are far too serious and highly dependent on human capability. There have been cases that were requested for re-trial due to a glitch in the automated audio and video recording. This fact alone should be enough to convince the people in the legislative body that live court reporters are still practical and essential to the court process.