Motion to Strike . . . do I delete?

[Leslie Johnson]

I normally report depositions, but this week I'm working on an arbitration. There have been many motions to strike testimony or attorney comments. Here's my question:

If an attorney requests a motion to strike the opposing attorney's comment or the witness's answer and the judge grants the motion, should I remove the answer (leaving in the question that precedes and the colloquy that follows)?

Also, if I remove the answer, should I insert a parenthetical, such as: (The witness's answer was stricken.)?

[Phil Stillerman]

Never, ever, delete anything from a transcript. It's a motion for the court and or jury to disregard what was said. It stays in the transcript (as colloquy).

On the very rare occasion that something is actually taken out of a transcript the word used would probably be "expunge". Even then I don't know that I would omit it from the transcript. I let the transcript speak for itself. If there is ever an appellate review of the case, affirmation or being overturned could rest on the "stricken portion".

[Leslie Johnson]

Thank you! It seems like a silly request, given the setting of this arbitration. The judge has just heard the comments and knows the law well enough to disregard them if they are not admissible.

[Tami]

hee-hee-hee-hee. . . :)

What they don't teach you in CR school.

So now you can laugh at me:

My very first day in court as a pro tem-- I was 20 years old with about 12 depos under my belt -- I reported a first-degree murder case.

Can you believe it??

Right dead in the middle of Q & A.

Well, that was off point as usual, but I had the whole courtroom giggling at me when at the very beginning of the day, the judge takes the bench, and the deputy starts his spiel:

"All rise and face the flag."

I started up, then I went back to my machine, a bit stoopy trying to write, and I probably went back and forth three or four times until I figured out I probably should be standing.

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



I also remember having the exact same question(s) you did.

We don't clean up in court either. Maybe for the judge here and there when you just can't let him sound like that much of an idiot, BUT it is extremely rare.

How did you like it??

[Leslie Johnson]

Aside from having these little time sucking questions, I really like doing arbitrations and hearings. It's much more interesting to hear both sides of the case. Unfortunately, I won't hear the outcome because the judge writes her decision afterwards.

[Tricia McLaughlin]

Double, double ditto what Phil said!

Tricia

[Cathryn Bauer]

In this situation, I have always written everything until there is agreement to go off the record. Frankly, I have never heard of doing otherwise.

[Leslie Johnson]

I have never taken anything out of the record before (unless it was an attorney's stutter at the beginning of a question, something little like that), but when I asked the judge how to handle the motion to strike in the transcript, she told me that I actually delete it. When it came time to edit the transcript, I was about to delete but couldn't bring myself to hit the button. I thought I'd better confirm.

Thank you, Phil, for your quick response. I have a friend who is also a retired official who once told me to never listen to the judge when it comes to the transcript. They don't know the transcript, we do. As usual, she was right. :)