Court reporters employed by government or private transcript providers produce transcripts of proceedings in the Supreme Court and District Court criminal and civil jurisdictions, courts of appeal, some county/magistrates courts and various government commissions and tribunals. They generally work in teams of two or three reporters and can spend from 10 minutes to two hours in court. During their time out of court, reporters translate their shorthand notes, edit them and then print the final transcript for same day or next day delivery. If a transcript is not required, the steno notes are archived but may be retrieved and transcribed in the future.

Realtime

Realtime is essentially voice-to-text technology. The reporter uses the steno machine in the same manner as outlined on the Technique page. In addition to the steno outlines appearing on paper tape and being captured in electronic form on the steno machine’s floppy disk, the steno outlines are transmitted by cable to a CAT system.

Translation occurs almost instantaneously and is immediately displayed on computer screens located in the hearing room and/or to remote locations via modem hook-up or the Internet.

The parties receiving the realtime translation can mark the text, annotate it, scroll backwards and forwards, search their database containing previous transcripts and/or documentary evidence which has been scanned in and even send and receive messages from remote locations.

Lawyers involved in lengthy legal proceedings maintain that having access to the transcript at the time it occurs can result in preparation time-savings of up to 25 per cent. The needs of hearing impaired participants can be accommodated by realtime transcript.

Links

The SRAA Contacts page includes a listing of firms and organisations that offer realtime and/or computer-assisted transcription (CAT) reporting services.

See the Links page for court-specific links.

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