Blog Category: Court Reporting

By Tammy Jaffe

For five-and-a-half years I lived what I would call basically one great big court reporting adventure. I had moved to New Orleans from Phoenix to become a maritime and oil and gas reporter, except the thing about that move was that I had no idea what being a “maritime and oil and gas reporter” meant.

For my first assignment onboard a ship, not a single sole at the agency mentioned how important it was to wear blue jeans to the dock — hence, before attempting to maneuver across the rope ladder, I had to  hold my skirt and steno machine with one hand, and the rope ladder the other, and make my way aboard ship on a rope ladder wearing high heels.

But that was a piece of cake compared to one assignment I’ll never forget. We all caught a commercial flight to Minneapolis/St. Paul, where we all then climbed into a large car and drove to a lock. Once there, we were ushered to the area where the pushboat was waiting. That was the first time I’d ever seen a ladder that high. It had to be at least 50 or 60 feet high, and we each had to climb down holding our briefcases in one hand and the ladder in the other. Unfortunately, no one had warned us in advance about this climb! One attorney who was deathly afraid of heights nearly caused us to miss the boat completely due to his hands needing to be pried by one person on top while spotted by another person below.

Eventually we all made it down to the pier, even the acrophobic counselor.  Once there, even more fun was had, as we each had to throw our briefcases to a deckhand, who then laid each case down and tried to steady each of us after we’d  jumped from the pier onto the pushboat to be sure none of us went down. From the deck, we still had to climb up two short ladders to get to the bridge, where the captain sat. Once there, all counsel stood throughout the examination, as there was only one chair besides the captain’s, and counsel graciously acquiesced and let me take that.

Once we were all nicely squished onto the bridge, the boat began moving, which meant the engines were turned on full throttle. If you’ve ever been on the bridge of a pushboat with the engines going full throttle, you know that hearing human voices is even trickier than getting onto the bridge.  By the time all counsel had sufficiently examined the captain and we had pulled into the next dock to disembark, everyone was hoarse, and everyone had a headache, so we all went out to celebrate the fact that we’d managed to get through this deposition without injury or permanent hearing loss.

The strangest part of the entire assignment occurred after our dinner celebration, when we’d all caught our plane back to New Orleans, and we each went back to our personal cars. As all counsel got into their cars and drove off, I realized that my car wasn’t there. In its exact spot, however, where I’d parked it that morning, stood orange cones and torn up asphalt roped off by construction tape.

Counsel thought immediately that perhaps I’d imbibed one too many drinks during our celebratory meal; but I’ve always been a 2-drink-max-kind-of-girl, so I knew what I was talking about. After quite a bit of prodding, counsel drove me to the lot attendant at the ticket booth, and when I inquired as to the whereabouts of my car and all the other cars that were parked where the orange cones were standing, he responded coolly, “All them cars was towed down to the long-term lot, don’t cha know.” At that point, counsel couldn’t help himself. He began laughing uncontrollably, told me to “get back in the car,” and drove me to the long-term lot, where I eventually was reunited with my little red car.

After I left New Orleans and moved to Washington, D.C. to embark upon my East Coast reporting career, I discovered how really lucky I was to have had the opportunity to live that crazy maritime reporter life — those were the days!

By David Andre

Last month we discussed the importance of meeting with your trial technician early in the litigation process.  This month we’ll discuss interesting and innovative ways to present dynamic evidence in trial, and how to use these methods to grab your jury’s attention — and hold it.

When you’re in trial, your goal is to provide the jury with the information they need to make an informed decision and also to prove to them that your point of view is correct.  What you don’t want is for the jury’s attention to wander while you’re presenting your case.  It’s one thing to provide the information.  It’s quite another to ensure they’re paying attention.  You don’t want your information to be so technical that the jury doesn’t understand, so there are challenges in making sure they actually absorb the necessary details.

One method is to make the evidence interactive, therefore more interesting.  Many people are visual learners, especially since everyone owns a smartphone and tablet these days.  Instead of just going over each event in your client’s timeline, why not actually create a customized timeline graphic so that they can follow along?  Perhaps something that illustrates just how much time has passed between each event?  Rather than rolling through the dates and events, why not pull up a customized timeline so that they can  visualize the timing of each event?  It can be zoomed in, scrolled through, and even highlighted.  You can even make a poster board to place on an easel for easy reference throughout the proceeding.  The jury has enough to occupy their minds with all the facts you’re presenting them; help them remember it all with a timeline graphic.

Have MRI or CT images?  Instead of just pulling up the same static image over and over while having your medical expert explain where it came from, why not pull up the actual MRI and have your expert explain the “slices of bread” metaphor while scrolling through all the images and pointing out any irregularities?  The doctor can do all of this from the witness stand with a laptop in front of him and the right technology setup.  He can even take the laser pointer and show everyone in the room exactly what he finds important in the images.  It’s something they don’t see every day, and it shows the inner workings of the human body. This can be a very powerful tool and is very effective in keeping the jury’s attention.

In a recent case, we pulled up an MRA image, and the doctor rotated the reconstructed MRA to 360 degrees, clearly showing blockages to a major blood vessel in the brain that directly caused the patient’s stroke and subsequent death.  It’s easy to show the jury a single slice of an image, but to show enough of it for them to clearly understand what they’re viewing is a much more powerful approach.

There’s always another new technology emerging that can be used in trial.  And while you don’t necessarily want to use all of them and overdo the technology when you don’t need it, the trick is to figure out how best to utilize the right technology to impress your jury and keep them paying attention and interested in your case.

Reach out to a trial consultant who can help you decide which methods work best for whichever piece of evidence you want to show.  They’ve seen it all before, so they can be a valuable tool in helping you to present your case.

In the next post, I’ll discuss customized Power Point presentations for opening and closing arguments.

Last month we discussed how using a trial technician to present your evidence in a digital format can be extremely useful.  This month we’ll discuss the importance and benefits of meeting with your trial technician early in the litigation process.

It is important to meet with your trial technician(s) early because they need time to obtain all of your exhibits and data, scan it, import it, and organize it in their database.  This gives the technician more time to perfect the organization of the data and to become familiar with the case.  (S)he will check for documents and pages that must  be rotated, make sure each file functions properly in the system, and determine the best way to pull up all types of media, from documents, to videos, PowerPoint presentations, and other demonstrative evidence.

Additionally, meeting with them early can provide you with the time to do an invaluable practice run.  When a tech brings his laptop to court, it’s filled with various unfamiliar files that have been organized for easy retrieval; but when you are calling out documents at a rapid pace, neither you, the judge, nor the jury want to wait for the technician to access the document(s).  Having time in advance to organize the files accordingly eases this process, as can experience, but the best method to ensure that everything goes smoothly is to do a dry run.

You can discuss how you want to call out documents, either by exhibit and page number, Bates number, or some other fashion.  You can tell the tech the expected order of witnesses and which key documents will be used for each witness.  You can even tell the tech which witness you’ll expect to impeach and with which excerpts from their deposition transcript.  Organization of the data serves to better prepare your technician so that (s)he can present your evidence as smoothly as possible and ensure that the focal point is the evidence, not the technician.

Trial Technicians are a resource that many attorneys fail to utilize to their advantage.  They have substantial trial experience since their job is to be in court, and they are a fresh face that hasn’t been biased by your case.  Discuss the case with them.  Tell them the key points and what you hope to prove.  They’ll be able to give you relevant feedback that only someone who hasn’t been working on the case can provide; plus, they may just have an idea about how to present a difficult piece of evidence, because they’ve seen it all before.

Of course, some cases settle right before trial, but the benefits of meeting with your technician early and being prepared to go to trial can make all the difference in the outcome of your case.

Next month we’ll discuss interesting and effective methods of presenting evidence and how you can use these methods to grab your jury’s attention and hold it.

Ask any high school senior looking into college prospects, taking the ACTs and SATs what (s)he knows about court reporters and the profession — and they’ll most likely respond with questions that sound something like, “Court reporters are the people that type on those little black boxes, aren’t they? I thought they didn’t exist anymore? Isn’t that old-fashioned? Can’t voice recognition do what they do?”

It is exactly this mindset that has prevented prospective high school and college graduates from delving into the profession – which is why it’s time to spread the news that:

• —  Court Reporting is Awesome –
• — Its Future Looks Incredible –
• — Voice Recognition Will Never Do What We Do —

Court reporting is awesome because there are so many venues in which a reporter may work:

• From freelance reporting that offers the prospect of world travel,
• To courtroom and legislative reporting,
• To Communication Access Realtime (CART) for deaf and/or hard-of-hearing students,
• To broadcast captioning.

Because court reporters have such an incredible skill set, freelance reporters can literally pick and choose when they work, leaving them the flexibility to pursue other interests, such as staying home with their little ones, volunteering at their children’s schools, or pursuing hobbies.

Reel-to-reel audio was invented in the 1930s, and by the mid-1940s, rumor was that court reporters were going to be replaced by technology.  Now, nearly 75 years later, reporters are thriving, and the demand for their skill set continues to rise.

To negate the rumor mill and combat the projected court reporter shortage, prospective high school and college graduates should know that:

• Unlike voice recognition software that struggles with so much of what people say, court reporters can parse through even the most difficult accent and translate it into clearly readable English.
• Not only are court reporters expert accent differentiators, but everything they write is translated into English within a tenth of a second.
• Court reporters must be knowledgeable — know something about everything — because on Monday they may have to take the testimony of a computer scientist; on Tuesday, a heart surgeon; on Wednesday, a financial analyst/economist; on Thursday, an accident reconstruction expert; and on Friday, a forensic pathologist.
•  Court reporters must have good eye-ear-hand coordination, have the stamina to write all day, as well as top-notch grammar, punctuation and English skill sets.

Court reporters are desperately needed in court, in classrooms to provide CART, and as broadcast captioners. They are experts at what they do, and as Judge Nuffer so aptly pointed out in this October 7^th interview with the National Court Reporters Association, a realtime court reporter’s value is “very high.”

So spread the word: Court reporters worldwide have embraced technology, and it is because of technology that they remain a vital and integral part of the justice system,  of the educational system, and broadcast industry. Thousands of new court reporters are needed in order to keep up with the demand for their services. Court reporting is a career that will last a lifetime, one to be proud of, and one that evolves with the times.

U.S. District Court Judge David Nuffer tells listeners in an interview with NCRA’s Director Debra Dibble, that until you try realtime, “you don’t really have an idea of what a difference it makes in concentration and accuracy,” which is why when the new District Court courthouse was being built in Salt Lake City, Utah, he felt “it would be a shame not to have realtime.” As he put it, “if you try it once, you’ll know why.”

With realtime, Judge Nuffer feels that he is able to “focus his attention,” and “track what had really been asked and answered, and carefully evaluate objections on evidence” as they are made.  In addition, Judge Nuffer feels that attorneys benefit, as they are “better able to know if an argument’s been hit, or if it’s been missed,” and they “are able to carefully analyze what’s being said by the other side so they can be prepared to rebut or respond.” He went on to elaborate that value for attorneys “is very high” in that “they are able to have a concrete idea of what’s happening as it happens.”

In addition to the benefits realtime provides the judges and counsel, Judge Nuffer describes how it also benefits the courtroom deputy, as (s)he can search the realtime feed to see if an exhibit “was just introduced,” or whether it was “actually admitted and received.” Judge Nuffer’s law clerk is also able to take advantage of the realtime by “marking significant pieces of testimony . . . as it goes by,” something that the judge can’t do often, because he is too busy.

Finally, Judge Nuffer described how it benefits the public, especially the hard of hearing and deaf community, in that they are actually able to “see the words.” In fact, during one of Judge Nuffer’s trials, a deaf individual began tracking the realtime feed, rather than the sign language interpreter for that very reason.

After 17 months of working with NCRA Director Sue Terry and NCRA’s Tech Ed Committee, as well as the courthouse IT team, realtime is now available in the new Salt Lake City U.S. District Courthouse via the courthouse’s public WiFi system using standard viewing software.

Judge Nuffer concluded the interview with Ms. Dibble by indicating that with realtime, “everyone is able to achieve greater accuracy and greater concentration. And honestly, it is a very big differentiator for reporters. A reporter who can offer a realtime service is really adding value. And I think that, as court administrators and others look at these systems, they’ll realize this is the way to better serve, this is the way to improve efficiency and accuracy, and improve justice in the long-run.”

Although you’d planned to take the day off, you agree to take a last-minute call-in. Quickly, you build a job dictionary, and head out.

Throughout the deposition, the witness responds, “Sorry, I don’t know,” and not unexpectedly, counsel informs you that he won’t need the deposition transcribed. You thank him, clean up the untranslates, create a rough ASCII, and send both the rough and audio files to both your Cloud storage and the agency, along with a note about the job being a no-write-up.

Years later, long after you’ve retired, the firm receives a request for immediate transcription of the witness you remember as the “I Don’t Know” guy. You no longer have reporting software, but you do have the audio and rough transcripts that you saved to the Cloud, so you review NCRA’s Code of Professional Ethics Provisions 5 and 9, provisions which state that “reporters must be truthful and accurate when making a public statement” and that “reporters are to maintain the integrity of the profession,” and immediately inform the office that you no longer have transcription capability — but you are happy to forward both the audio and rough ASCII to them for transcription, proofreading, and dissemination.

They let you know how thankful they are for your quick response, and you conclude that email string with a reminder about Advisory Opinion 34, and the importance of accurately reflecting who transcribed the deposition.  Finally, they send you one last note of thanks, and as you exit your email, you feel extremely grateful that you backed everything up all those years ago, and that you maintained your Cloud storage. Thanks to technology and COPE, life as a retired reporter couldn’t be better, and the firm’s clients couldn’t be happier.

It’s 10 o’clock Monday night, and the agency number is blinking on your Caller ID. Reluctantly, you pick up the receiver. It’s the Scheduling Manager, and she’d like to know if you’d be interested in taking a 3- or 4-hour job tomorrow morning close to home. Thrilled at the prospect of a close assignment, you accept; and in less than a minute, the assignment information lands in your email Inbox.

The next morning at the law firm, you are ushered into a very large conference room, where you set up, input your job dictionary, and warm up. Within minutes, the conference room begins filling with people not listed on the Notice, so you get their appearances, create a seating chart, place the witness under oath, and the deposition begins and ends all within five hours. Not a single term the expert chemical engineer testified about was in your dictionary, but you’re not worried. You have 48 hours to get the job out, so you head home and begin editing.

Everything is going well until a journalist from the local newspaper calls and asks if she may purchase a copy of the transcript. Not knowing what to tell her, you give her the name and telephone number of the Production Manager for followup. A few minutes later, the agency returns the call and thanks you for not promising the journalist a transcript. She explains Provision 4 of the Code of Professional Ethics and Advisory Opinion 9, which speak about the confidentiality and security of information entrusted to the reporter, including depositions not filed with the Clerk of Court or agreed by all parties to be disseminated.

Satisfied that you did the right thing, you return to the dense testimony, and are reminded of your teacher’s words: As a court reporter, you aren’t just a cog in the wheels of justice, you are one of the very wheels upon which justice depends.