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Archive for October, 2021

Stenogrpahy & Stenographers Matter

Posted on: October 25th, 2021 by Sfl Media No Comments

stenographyStenography is one of the most identifiable methods of recording the spoken word. Stenographers have been a familiar sight in courtrooms for the better part of the past centuries. Stenography, in short, is the act of recording spoken words through shorthand using a stenotype machine.

Shorthand as a whole is not a new concept. Shorthand systems may rely on symbols, which represent specific sounds, concepts, or letters. Or it may rely on letters that have specific meanings.

The ultimate goal of stenography is to record the spoken word verbatim. Stenography allows court reporters, like those at CourtScribes, to record proceedings much quicker than they would be able to do using a standard keyboard. And, although handwritten stenography has been used for centuries, the use of a stenotype machine allows a court reporter to record information in a less laborious and more accurate manner.

Although today’s court reporters may use a variety of advanced technologies to record written proceedings, stenography still remains the most widely used form, both in and out of the courtroom.

If you need court reporting services like those described in this blog, then CourtScribes.com which supports all states and programs that aid in the court reporting world are ready to serve you in your court reporting, videography services, interpreters, live-streaming, and video-to-text synchronization.

Although the majority of cities that offer CourtScribes’ services are in Florida, the company home base, other cities all across these United States that CourtScribes offers services in, are the following: Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, Port St. Lucie, Fort Lauderdale, Cape Coral, Coral Springs, Clearwater, Palm Bay, Fort Myers, Weston, Sarasota, Orlando, St. Petersburg, Hialeah, Stuart, Hollywood, Naples, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Deerfield Beach, Jupiter, Key West, Coral Gables, Maryland, Manhattan, Buffalo, Washington DC, Baltimore, Bowie, Virginia, Frederick, Albany, New York, Brooklyn,  Westchester, Gaithersberg, and Rockville.

Why Stenography is Necessary in Law

Posted on: October 18th, 2021 by Sfl Media No Comments

You probably already are well familiar from this site that court stenographers are people trained to type and write in shorthand, which allows them to write as fast as people can speak. It is believed that 180 Words Per Minute is the ‘speed of speech’. Stenographers document and record everything that takes place in the courtroom. This makes them an integral part of court hearings across the world. In this article, we are going to break down what stenography is, and explain why it is important in law.

 

What Does Stenography Mean?

The word ‘stenography’ comes from the Greek word ‘steno’ which means narrow and ‘graphy’ which means writing. ‘Narrow writing’ therefore, is the writing system of shorthand. Stenographer simply means shorthand writer. Modern-day stenographers use machines called stenotypes, which allow them to type, in some cases, faster than 300 WPM, which is just about double the ‘speed of speech’.

Stenography is a specialist career, still vital to the legal industry despite the massive changes and advancements made in technology. Attempts to phase out stenography have failed in many places around the world, which we will explain, so continue to read more here about it. But first, here is a brief history of stenography, some basic facts you should know about.

 

The Importance of Stenographers

It is a requirement in many places for courts to have written transcripts. This alone makes stenography something that is still needed. Court reporters sit in on courtrooms and transcribe as the case is heard. Many now use a technology called ‘steno masks’ which are microphones plugged into their computers that run voice-recognition software. The stenographer then, in real-time, cleans up the machine’s mistakes and errors; the perfect fusion of technology and stenography.

While technology is an incredibly important part of all of our lives, it cannot be entirely trusted just yet. Machines are not infallible and make mistakes. A stenographer must supervise and verify what these ‘steno masks’ record. Court reporters are now also tasked with writing down the defendant’s gestures and expressions, as well as their reactions to things. This is something that no machine can do (at the moment).

If you need court reporting services that handle digital recording then CourtScribes.com which supports all states and programs that aid in the court reporting world are ready to serve you in your court reporting, videography services, interpreters, live-streaming, and video-to-text synchronization.

Although the majority of cities that offer CourtScribes’ services are in Florida, the company home base, other cities all across these United States that CourtScribes offers services in, are the following: Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, Port St. Lucie, Fort Lauderdale, Cape Coral, Coral Springs, Clearwater, Palm Bay, Fort Myers, Weston, Sarasota, Orlando, St. Petersburg, Hialeah, Stuart, Hollywood, Naples, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Deerfield Beach, Jupiter, Key West, Coral Gables, Maryland, Manhattan, Buffalo, Washington DC, Baltimore, Bowie, Virginia, Frederick, Albany, New York, Brooklyn,  Westchester, Gaithersberg, and Rockville.

Do You Need to Hire a Digital Court Reporter

Posted on: October 11th, 2021 by Sfl Media No Comments

As CourtScribes has noted there is a continued growing shortage of stenographers. This reality combined with the fact that the average age of a court reporter is 53 years old, leaves cause for concern about the profession’s future. Additional contributing factors to the shortage include a significant decrease in graduates from professional stenographic training and the closure of many training schools.

To overcome these hurdles, the court reporting industry has been tapping into digital court recording systems, such as audio and video recordings of proceedings and advanced transcription technologies, which provide accurate court reporting.

What is a Digital Court Reporter?

Like a stenographer, a digital court reporter is a notary. Their responsibilities include swearing in witnesses and marking exhibits.

Instead of the traditional stenography machine, these professionals record the proceedings using digital technology. This usually means audio, but also includes video. Professionals take notes during the recordings either manually or by annotating in a software platform, and then submit these for transcription into a cohesive document afterward.

 

How Does Digital Court Reporting Future-Proof Your Business?

The biggest difference between digital and standard stenographic court reporting is that digital court recording systems allow businesses to grow and future-proof their operations.

Both clients and the legal system as a whole are transitioning into digital. There’s little dispute that digital court reporting is more efficient. Companies can get faster transcripts at better prices and avoid unwanted delays due to the stenographer shortage.

Cost savings is also a significant factor. Based on data from the AAERT, court reporting companies that transition into digital are expected to save nearly $250K USD over the next decade simply by transitioning from stenography to digital court reporting systems. Advanced technologies, therefore, provide the opportunity to lower costs, while also serving more clients faster.

 

How Digital Court Reporting Improves Turnaround and Quality

It has been learned that legal clients prefer to work with digital court reporters due to the faster turnaround that advanced transcription software provides. Due to artificial intelligence, instantaneous transcription also continues to be more accurate, as the software learns from its mistakes. Even if the transcription provider offers additional review by humans, the process is faster.

A top concern and also deciding factor is the quality and accuracy of court reports. Since the software is trained to understand both legal terms and a client’s own specific situation, the most advanced products provide 99% accuracy. Similarly, if selected software features an automatic sound recognition (ASR) engine, it can distinguish between different speakers to avoid confusion.

If you need court reporting services that handle digital recording then CourtScribes.com which supports all states and programs that aid in the court reporting world are ready to serve you in your court reporting, videography services, interpreters, live-streaming, and video-to-text synchronization.

Although the majority of cities that offer CourtScribes’ services are in Florida, the company home base, other cities all across these United States that CourtScribes offers services in, are the following: Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, Port St. Lucie, Fort Lauderdale, Cape Coral, Coral Springs, Clearwater, Palm Bay, Fort Myers, Weston, Sarasota, Orlando, St. Petersburg, Hialeah, Stuart, Hollywood, Naples, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Deerfield Beach, Jupiter, Key West, Coral Gables, Maryland, Manhattan, Buffalo, Washington DC, Baltimore, Bowie, Virginia, Frederick, Albany, New York, Brooklyn,  Westchester, Gaithersburg, and Rockville.

CourtScribes Explains What a Stenographer Is and Does

Posted on: October 4th, 2021 by Sfl Media No Comments

stenographyCourtScribes is the number one company in America when you are looking for a stenographer. A stenographer is one who is trained to type or write in shorthand methods, enabling them to write as quickly as people speak.

Stenographers create long-lasting documentation of everything from court cases to medical conversations. This is useful in many legal settings. The skill is also used for live closed captioning on television or captioning for hard-of-hearing audiences at events.

What Does Stenographer Mean?

The word “stenography” comes from the Greek “steno” meaning narrow and “graphy” meaning writing. So stenography equals “narrow writing”.

Modern-day stenographers use shorthand typing machines called stenotypes. These machines allow stenographers to type at rates exceeding 300 words per minute. An average talking speed is about 150 words per minute. This incredible rate of writing lets a high-quality stenographer keep up with complex conversations, even when multiple people may be speaking in a court or event setting.

How Does Stenography Work?

Today’s stenographers use stenotype machines that enable shorthand writing. These stenotype machines work by typing in syllables rather than letters. By pressing three keys at once (called a “chord”), they can make the syllable “cal”, then “en” and “dar”. In the time it takes us to type three individual letters, a stenographer can type an entire word on their stenotype.

Because of this condensed form of typing, a stenotype keyboard has only 22 keys. This is opposed to normal computer keyboards, which have between 70 and 105 keys. The stenotype can be so condensed because of the chord system — by combining keys you have hundreds of combinations to make different syllables quickly.

What are the Differences Between Stenographers and a Court Reporters?

Let us first note that all court reporters are stenographers, but not all stenographers are court reporters.

Stenographers can offer services as medical transcriptionists, real-time TV captioners, as well as in numerous accessibility fields (think transcribing voice calls for deaf users). These stenographer services are widely varied in difficulty and importance of accuracy.

Court reporters are specialized, highly trained stenographers. Their extra training and certifications make the documents they create admissible as evidence in court.

It is crucial that a court reporter be completely accurate in their shorthand typing, so no important words or phrases are missed that could make or break an attorney’s case. Additionally, court reporters must learn an entire set of legal vocabulary and processes that they will use in the courtroom, all while navigating the stenotype machine that has been compared to using an instrument and a foreign language at the same time.

Stenographer vs Digital Court Reporting

In today’s digital age, it is easy to think that stenography should already be replaced by digital recording and AI transcription of recorded words. Eventually, this will probably be the case.

A more viable replacement for stenographers that is already being used in some courtrooms is digital court reporting. Rather than paying a highly trained stenographer to work a complex stenotype machine, courtroom proceedings are simply recorded as digital audio, then after the proceeding, a less trained typist transcribes the record at a slower pace.

The problem that many digital court reported records run into is the inaudible moments. Often a microphone will sizzle or a witness moves away from the microphone, resulting in difficult-to-hear and impossible-to-transcribe moments on the record. In high-stakes criminal justice, this can have a massive impact. A live stenographer has better hearing and can ask for a statement to be repeated if they miss a few words.

While digital options are certainly going to eat into the job market for stenographers (market sources anticipate the number of jobs to slow), there is still an anticipated shortage. The average age of stenographers is well into their fifties, and in the next ten years, the retirement wave is expected to create a shortage of stenographers. This makes stenography a very viable career even as the industry becomes increasingly digital.

If you need court reporting services that handle digital recording then CourtScribes.com which supports all states and programs that aid in the court reporting world are ready to serve you in your court reporting, videography services, interpreters, live-streaming, and video-to-text synchronization.

Although the majority of cities that offer CourtScribes’ services are in Florida, the company home base, other cities all across these United States that CourtScribes offers services in, are the following: Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, Port St. Lucie, Fort Lauderdale, Cape Coral, Coral Springs, Clearwater, Palm Bay, Fort Myers, Weston, Sarasota, Orlando, St. Petersburg, Hialeah, Stuart, Hollywood, Naples, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Deerfield Beach, Jupiter, Key West, Coral Gables, Maryland, Manhattan, Buffalo, Washington DC, Baltimore, Bowie, Virginia, Frederick, Albany, New York, Brooklyn,  Westchester, Gaithersberg, and Rockville.