The facts are, that a trained court reporter (not court recorder) can produce a realtime verbatim transcript of proceedings with 99% accuracy. This would be in real-time, immediately, as the proceedings are occurring.
This article is a commentary from a court reporter who is well aware of the shortages in the field, as well as the new rise in digital court reporting.
When reading about artificial intelligence being used, digital recordings of proceedings, it is so fulfilling when we see how attorneys hate it, cannot rely on it, and are telling their agencies “Do not send a recorder! Send a real, live, skilled court reporter!” They request this, because court reporters are the gold standard of creating a record.
Questions to Be Asked
Does the field of court reporting/court stenography need more reporters? Of course, it does!
“Given appropriate management and supervision, electronic sound recording can provide an accurate record of United States district court proceedings at reduced costs, without delay or interruption and provide the basis for accurate and timely, transcript delivery.”
A trained court reporter can produce a realtime verbatim transcript of proceedings with 99% accuracy. That is in realtime, instantaneously, immediately, as the proceedings are occurring. When providing realtime services, a court reporter streams their recording of the proceedings directly to a user’s laptop, desktop, iPad, tablet or smartphone. Artificial intelligence, while useful in many applications, just cannot stand up to the output a realtime reporter can produce.
Try This Experiment
Here is an experiment. Speak into your smartphone, Alexa, Siri or other voice-to-text application in a normal, conversational cadence. See how frustrating it can be?
Now try doing that at speeds of up to 225 words per minute and see how disastrous it will be. Now throw in technical jargon, whether it be medical, industrial, etc. and the transcript would not be completely unusable if it was voice recorded only.
Before leaving school, a court reporting student must be able to write 225 words per minute. So they must be fast. Additionally, a court reporter is always present in the room and can clarify any discrepancies, inaudible words, phrases and adds priceless human interaction with the attorneys, witnesses, judges; whoever is part of the record. You just can’t get that from a recording device.
Court reporting has long been an intriguing but little-known profession. State associations are becoming more involved in recruitment, in educating the public on the field, and in educating reporters.
New court reporting programs are starting in various parts of the country. We are at a renaissance time period for court reporting. The public at large is becoming more educated about the field.
Upon passing the exam and obtaining one year of court reporting experience reporters are eligible for appointment to a permanent position from the many and various employment opportunities available as an official court reporter.