Stricken from the record/strike that.

[Kyung]

What does that phrase really mean? Is it just something attorneys randomly say when they flub their questions and they want a fresh new start? Probably.

As a depo reporter, it just means another two words that I have to stroke. It's not like I'm actually going to delete it out. It still goes into the record and stays in the record permanently.

Digression - I've had witnesses, when the attorney keeps saying strike that, start saying strike that in the mistaken belief that I'm actually going to go back through this transcript and remove everything they say. Uh, no.

So seriously, why do they keep doing it? Anybody know?

[Brenda Rogers]

I've never put um or uh in a transcript -- unless that's the only answer we get. Once in a while there will be a Q, then "A Um . . ."
And then the atty rephrases or asks another question because it appears the witness is confused. That's the only time I use it, unless, as you say, Trina, it's quoted. In transcripts of recorded statements by insurance companies every "um" "er" "uh" is put in, and then they're occasionally read into the record.

[Brenda Rogers]

False start removal is a gray area. I was taught to do it; I've seen reporters on forums vehemently declare it's wrong to do it. I remove short, inconsequential false starts, no more than two or three words. Usually. Like, "I -- I," or "Do -- did," "When you -- when did," but not anything of substance.

But "Strike that" doesn't mean anything to us other than to write those words and start a new paragraph. An entire question could have been posed, an answer suggested by it. No, that stays.

[Karen Goldstein]

Well, I guess I'm one of those suckers. An agency owner once told me that if the attorney says "strike that" whatever preceeded it, is to be physically stricken from the record. And if the attorney says "withdrawn" then it is to be left in. I automatically remove false starts for the attorney. It makes a more readable transcript. Am I wrong?

[Brenda Rogers]

I have a client who spits out "Strike that" while he's forming his question. I mean, nothing is SAID yet to strike! LOL I leave it out.
I do hear "Strike that" after a mess of a question, which makes sense, but after a word or two, it's just silly. It all stays anyway.

However, I did have a deposition where, off the record, they agreed that a passage was to be physically striken from the record, and I did do that. It's so rare for attys to actually agree on anything like that, I don't expect to see it again.

[Patricia Babits]

Oh, I see. I think it's a way of them regrouping after messing up. And some reporters do take that stuff out.

[Kyung]

Yeah. That's when they have an objection. But have you noticed, attorneys are just randomly inserting strike that after false starts and all sorts of messy questions.

[Patricia Babits]

I thought it was so that a judge could look at the transcript later and possible actually have it stricken from the record.