Technology has seen an increase of jobs being taken over by their mechanical counterparts. Some people believe that the court reporter may soon be one of the jobs that loses its value when this much technology is available. However, certain jobs, such as this one, requires a human quality to properly function.

The court reporter is the person in charge of making a verbatim legal record using a stenograph. Using this stenograph, they transcribe the court proceedings in shorthand. Instead of being replaced, the addition of audio technology allows a court reporter to now complete their job with even greater efficiency.

Efficiency and Reliability

When you’re looking at the reason for transferring to technology it usually comes down to whichever option is more efficient and reliable. So, we’ll have to go into a little detail about the necessity of the court reporter.

Audio technology has given people a way to record conversations in detailed manners. However, some things are unable to be recorded if there is a crossover in speech by multiple people. This means that there needs to be a human also recording everything being said in order to capture the full truth. Yes, technology has now given people a way to record, but this should mean that the occupation is now enhanced and requires training with audio recording technology on the side. This would be the most efficient and reliable way.

Can’t Take that Chance

Court reporters main focus is to record every single word that is uttered within the courtroom. All while differentiating between those who are speaking, and ignoring the background noises. One of the hardest situations is when two attorneys or legal participants speaking over each other. Audio technology has advanced to a much higher stage than its tape recorder predecessors. However, if there is any chance that this device may lose speech during a situation where two people are speaking over each other, then that entire passage of speech has been lost to case. This especially matters if there is an appeal to the case. In other words, until it is perfect, we can’t take that chance.