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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.

What is Digital Court Reporting

Posted on: June 10th, 2019 by Dependable Website Management No Comments
court reporters

There needs to be a balance between traditional court reporting and new technologies.

When it comes to court reporting, people are most familiar with seeing the lady typing on the weird typewriter and going very fast to keep up with the testimony being given. What they may not know is that she is using a special stenographer’s tool that shortens the words for speed purposes. Well, it was only a matter of time that technology would catch up in the court reporting industry as well. That is why you are starting to see the proliferation of digital court reporting. So that does beg the question, what is digital court reporting?

What is Digital Court Reporting

Digital court reporting is a newcomer to the field of court reporting. This new form of court reporting did not come on the scene without scrutiny. Traditional stenographers argue that accuracy and quality are compromised when digital reporting takes place. Nevertheless, this type of court reporting is gaining popularity in courtrooms across America.

A big reason for this, as we have blogged about many times on the CourtScribes.com website, is that there is a serious shortage of stenographers as well as a shortage of those going to school to learn stenography.

Digital court reporting, also referred to as electronic court reporting, has made its way into a number of courtrooms across the United States, thanks to advancements in digital recording. Digital reporting involves using high-quality digital recording equipment. This typically includes a number of strategically placed microphones and video recorders throughout the courtroom. All of which is generally hardwired, which means the initial investment is rather significant.

Beyond the initial investment, digital court reporting equipment needs to be maintained and updated. A dedicated professional (a digital court reporter) must always oversee the recording process.

Unlike traditional stenographers, who enter the proceedings using shorthand and into a stenotype machine, digital court reporters usually have a much different set of qualifications and skills. Oddly enough, digital court reporters have no need to learn shorthand and the stenotype machine. Isn’t that a game changer?

Instead, they are responsible for taking notes during the proceedings and creating a log note of speaker identification and keywords, which serve as a general outline of the digital recording.

What digital court reporters must possess though, is an understanding of the digital recording system and its maintenance, upkeep, and operation.  They must have knowledge and training in digital court recording software, and they must also be capable of providing litigation support when needed.

 

The Benefits of Digital Court Reporting

On the flip side are those proponents of digital court reporting. They enjoy the high-quality audio that it captures. And most digital recording systems have a number of audio backups to ensure that the transcript is complete.

Digital court reporting also has the ability to provided multi-track recording, which can prove to be very useful for understanding everyone’s statements, particularly when people are talking over one another, or speaking in hard to understand accents, vernaculars, etc.

Digitally recorded proceedings are easily delivered via the Internet, thereby saving the court money on shopping costs and hassles as a result of shopping delays.

Many attorneys appreciate working videos, as they often help them examine both verbal and non-verbal reactions of witnesses and defendants, including gestures, body language, facial expressions, and eye contact, and many judges and attorneys see digital recording as a way to decrease the risk of inaccurate transcriptions. Sounds pretty important to get right, huh?

Another positive (or negative depending on who you ask) is that many jurisdictions see digital recording systems as a cost-saver, due to the elimination of costly stenographer salaries.

In terms of education and training, learning the skills associated with digital court reporting is often much less laborious than traditional stenographer training. The latter requires the completion of a court reporting program, which usually takes about two years, as well as state licensure and/or professional certification. Many digital court reporting programs take about six months and involve learning how to take accurate notes and how to operate the sound and/or video equipment. Seems like a ‘no-brainer’, right?

 

The Digital Debate

One of the biggest arguments for digital recording systems is the reduction in costly stenographer salaries, however, there are some things to consider. Digital recording systems may be far pricier than just the initial investment. There are expenses for maintaining, repairing, and replacing the equipment. Further, if hard transcripts are required, jurisdictions must still pay for the cost of producing paper transcripts.

Although traditional stenographers may not be needed in a court that has a digital recording system, a digital court reporter is still required to operate the equipment and provide notes. Therefore, the savings are not always as great as first anticipated.

There are times also where digital court reporters are just not needed at all. In the case of proceedings that may involve appeals and those that cannot risk inaccuracy from the failure of a recording device (even the most advanced recording equipment can’t capture a mumbling person), digital recording systems are often passed over in lieu of written transcripts via a traditional stenographer court reporter.

Because digital court reporters are not skilled in transcription, the court must use a stenographer or dedicated transcriptionist to provide a hard transcript of the proceedings. However, because the stenographer transcribing the proceedings was not present at the time of the recording, inaccuracy in the transcript may occur.

 

Is There a Compromise

Many jurisdictions now recognize the value of both the traditional stenographer and the digital court reporter in the courtroom setting. Digital court reporting may be quite useful for meetings, hearings, and simple litigation situations, while conventional litigation situations require the expertise of a stenographer. Perhaps a marriage of both is what is needed anyway. Nothing wrong with old skool meeting new school when it comes to court reporting.

CourtScribes.com is 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.