Guidelines For Attorneys...Enjoy!

[Sue @ The Brief Zone]

1. Give the court reporter vague or incorrect information about the location of the deposition. This will get you off to a good start with this professional problem-solver.

2. Rush through the door at the last minute and start the proceedings without introducing yourself. Everyone knows who you are and appreciates that you were able to make it at all.

3. Don’t bother to enunciate or project. Court reporters are issued bionic hearing when they graduate court reporting school.

4. For similar reasons, continue speaking while the court reporter is marking exhibits, changing paper, etc., as it makes him or her feel ambidextrous.

5. Talk as fast as you can, preferably out-shouting others. This makes you seem more important.

6. Ignore the reporter when asked to repeat or spell a word. If you know what you said, the reporter should too.

7. Do not aggravate your court reporter by asking if her or she needs a break or a drink of water. These things are not necessities, since court reporting duties are mostly automatic, like the functions of a robot.

8. Don’t mistake the reporter’s lifeless gaze as an indication of boredom. He or she is actually absorbed by the intricacies of your 10-minute hypothetical.

9. Read extensive medical reports into the record at breakneck speeds to give your court reporter an invigorating workout. To add to the effect, do not identify those reports or exhibits.

10. If your court reporter bolts out the door as soon as the deposition is over, he or she is simply eager to get home and relive the experience while transcribing and proofreading your mess.

[Brenda Rogers]

Kelli, my mouth is hanging open reading this!! I . . .I . . . I can't even form words.

[Brenda Rogers]

YOU GO GIRL!
stupid inconsiderate jerk of an zoning officer anyway. (words are coming back!)

[Sue @ The Brief Zone]

Love That ! Very Cute....Thanks

[Lisa O'Sullivan]

Well, I certainly hope you got up and excused yourself! Unbelievable.

AFA, the witness...I know! I had one like that recently who spoke away from me with his hand over his mouth most of the time. When I'd ask him to repeat, he'd turn exaggeratedly slowly to me with his eyebrows raised as if I were being impertinent and rude, and begrudgingly repeat his answer. Honestly, the lights are on but nobody's home a lot more than we realize.

[Lisa O'Sullivan]

Good for both of you girls. That's what we need to do more of, speaking up and even leaving in those extreme cases. They've hired us to do a service, not to abuse us!

I've got a pat response now that I give when I hear that "you make too much" nonsense. "I'm sure your client feels the same about you." Said with a nice big smile, of course.

[Sue @ The Brief Zone]

AWESOME !!!

[Sue @ The Brief Zone]

Too Funny, right? It simply amazes me how some(not all) attys
feel they are the center of the universe @ our expense.
And yes, some of these witnesses are really "out there" :-)

[DENISE C - CASE CATALYST SCOPIST]

Okay...that CRACKED ME UP -- especially No. 9!!...... What reporter wouldn't want an "INVIGORATING WORKOUT" in the middle of a depo??!!!

LOL...... too funny

:~ Denise ~:

[Pam Katros]

I'm an official, and we just had a reporters' meeting to discuss some issues. Some of our judges have been so rude because the reporters are speaking up and not going through them. We have the audacity to ask to take a break or maybe be able to go to lunch at a reasonable time. It's unreal.

Also, any great suggestions on horrible reporting cases. We have one attorney, I know I guess we're lucky it's just one, ha, ha, but I had her in a very lenghty shaken baby case. Extremely fast, always interrupting, five questions in one, on and on. You try and slow her down, interrupting, talking to her on the breaks. No luck. I honestly believe she doesn't care about our jobs or the record. My trial was miserable for me.

Now she's in a murder trial with one of my coworkers recently hired from the depo field. Poor thing, She's having the same problems. We keep going round and round how to get control of it. Any great ideas? I even told my job that our Code of Ethics requires us to remove ourselves from proceedings that we can't handle. I was ready to do that, but I know we don't have any reporters in our court that can do it either.

So let's hear the words of advice, people. We're struglling.

[Pam Katros]

I wouldn't let the CSR board hear that's what you do. Our notes are the official record, not the transcript and certainly not the audio file.. If it's not in our notes, it shouldn't be in the transcript. We all have to be careful about using audio and relying on it. What if it fails? If you're not trying to keep control of the proceedings how is that better than a tape recorder?

I know someone who does some work for the CSR board checking notes on reporters who have complaints about them. She goes through the notes and compares it to the transcript. If there are huge chunks not in her notes, her license can be taken away. This is a really scary slope.

[Adam D. Miller]

Kelli,

While I appreciate the frustration that leads to the "I try to get control a couple of times and after that, just let them go" attitude, I'd strongly urge you not to relinquish your responsibilities in that fashion.

Pam points out the implications re your CSR license, but I'd like to expound further on the subject.

If you haven't read Jason Meadors' article Faster & Faster & Faster from the June 2006 Journal of Court Reporting, I'd recommend reading it, printing it out, and carrying copies with you to give to those certain attorney who need to read it.

We are all ambassadors for our profession, Kelli. When you (figuratively) throw up your hands and say, "I'll let the backup audio get it" instead of literally throwing up your hands and saying, "Counsel, this is unreportable!" you're enabling the faster, faster, faster spiral.

When you struggle to put together a coherent record from your audio -- or pay someone else to do it -- the attorney gets the record they want not the record they made. How will they ever learn?

NCRA and the state CRAs spend a good deal of time and money fighting the spread of electronic recording replacing the human court reporter in courts and deposition suites. If you're going to take the "my scopist will fill it in from the audio" attitude, you undermine those efforts. Up-thread there are comments about bathroom breaks. With this attitude, you're one step away from saying, "Heck, I gotta go to the bathroom. I'll just get up quietly and not disturb them; maybe grab a sandwich while I'm up. My scopist can fill it in from the audio."

Slippery slope indeed!

Furthermore, in addition to this practice being bad for the profession and bad for your license, it's a violation of your ethical duties.

NCRA's Code of Professional Ethics, General Guidelines, Section VII, "Backup Audio Media" states in part:

When using any backup audio medium, the court reporter must comply with any applicable local, state and federal rules and/or laws to ensure the integrity of the record. The court reporter’s duties and responsibilities do not change regarding preservation of the official record and in any respect with regard to: reading back from the stenographic notes (no playback of the recording in lieu of readback); interrupting the proceedings due to the speed of the testimony, unintelligible, and/or simultaneous speakers, etc.

Kelli, I am a working reporter. I use my CAT software's audio feature. I deal with this dilemma on a daily basis, the temptation to "just let the audio get it." But we're professionals -- professional court reporters -- not tape monitors. I'd urge you to remember that the next time you're faced with the choice of interrupting yet again or just letting it go.

adm

[Pam Katros]

thank you so much Adam. I honestly believe a lot of the problems we're having in our courts is since audio, reporters aren't stopping the proceedings and then when others go in to an unfamiliar court and start stopping, they're going, well, so and so never stops us. It's doing a disservice to all of us. Thanks again for expanding quite eloquently on my thoughts