When Statutes and Court Rules Are Silenced by Stipulation.

• Author: Lykken, Phyllis Craver

By National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) STRONG Committee

Busy litigators know that a successful deposition takes preparation and research. But they've never had to worry about the qualifications of the deposition officer. Now that may be changing. There is a risky trend infiltrating the stenographic court reporting industry in the form of video and court reporting companies encouraging attorneys to stipulate to the use of "digital court reporters" who turn on and off recording machines to monitor proceedings, rather than skilled and highly trained stenographic court reporters. Often, this practice disregards advance notice and/or agreement required by court rules, resulting in counsel being unaware of the digital substitution until after everyone arrives and the proceedings are set to begin, or worse, are provided a transcript replete with inaudibles.

How can this practice impact you and your clients? The National Court Reporters Association (NCRA), which certifies only stenographic court reporters, has gathered some troubling information, as outlined below.

COURT REPORTING LAWS PROTECT CONSUMERS

All states have court rules related to who may administer oaths and act as a deposition officer. Some states also have laws that prohibit notaries from providing court reporting services. (1)

Legislatures in more than half the states have deemed it necessary to protect the public interest to regulate the practice of court reporting. The intent of the legislation is that only individuals who meet and maintain minimum standards of competence may present themselves as court reporters.

Additionally, many states have laws and procedures in place that regulate who can transcribe audio files created in courtrooms that use audio recording equipment. No such standard exists in the case of audio-recorded deposition transcriptionists.

STENOGRAPHIC COURT REPORTERS CREATE THE MOST ACCURATE RECORD

Even with the modern advances of automatic speech recognition (ASR) and artificial intelligence (AI),astenographic court reporter remains the highest standard for protecting the integrity of your record. A certified stenographic reporter is an officer of the court, responsible for the record from start to finish. Realtime court reporters produce a verbatim transcript instantaneously during the proceedings with 99 percent or greater accuracy. This capability is well beyond the reach of audio recordings of any type.

Certified stenographers are charged with the...