Confidential names list/Stricken from the record

[Heather Coiner]

Hi All. I'm hoping someone out there has some answers for me. I am a new reporter in California. I reported a hearing and the name of a patient was used and the judge said, "We'll refer to him as Timothy S." then on break she told me I could do a confidential names list? I'm not sure how to do this transcript. Any ideas?

Next, I had a family court hearing. When the judge says something is stricken from the record, how is that handled? Do you still include it just like a deposition or is something different done?

Thanks Everyone!!!!!

[Cynthia M. Cathcart]

Hi, Heather. I am a retired Official from Superior Court in California. I don't know about doing a confidential name list. When you say, "she," who is she, the judge, the clerk? Whoever 'she' is, ask her how it's done or ask your managing or supervising reporter how to do it.

However, in Superior Court in California, when the judge says, "strike that," it is left in the record, even when he (she) says, "strike that," including their actual words.

Now, since it was a family court hearing, there is no jury, so you don't have to worry about readback. But if it is a jury trial and the jury asks for testimony to be read back, you make SURE that you don't read back what was stricken.

For example, if it was a question, answer or statement made by the attorneys, the witness or anyone else in the courtroom that was stricken by the Court , you don't read it back when doing readback.

The same applies to objections that have been sustained by the Court. ALL of the colloquy is taken down on the record, but when doing readback, do not read to the jury what was objected to, the objection made nor what the Court said when he (she) sustained the objection. On the other hand, if the objection was overruled, then you read everything.

That is why it is important to be able to read ahead to yourself when doing readback, so that you can catch questions, answers or statements that were stricken by the Court.

I believe (not sure) the reason for leaving things stricken by the Court in the record is for appellate purposes.

I hope I was able to help you. Cynthia Cathcart

[Heather Coiner]

Cynthia, Thank you! You are a huge help. The "she" I was referring to was the Judge- in the case with the confidential names. I asked her for explanation but didn't quite understand her answer, so I thought perhaps it was because I was new, and I didn't pursue further explanation from her. I guess I should have pressed the matter. When you did a transcript in court as an official and a name was changed to protect the person, did you have to do anything special with that? Thanks again!

[Cynthia M. Cathcart]

Heather, surprisingly, with all the years I have reported and the many cases I've done, I never came across a situation where only names were redacted. I have had to redact pages of testimony, but that was well before Total Eclipse!! I can guess and say to set it up as 'redacted text' and include it in your index.

From Eclipse, go to the Help menu, type in the words 'redacted text', and there is an explanation there as to how to do it. It also has a visualizer about it. Try that and let me know how it worked out, because you do have to redact that information, but still have it in your record.

What usually happens with redacted testimony or in camera proceedings or hearings that were sealed by the Court, is if the case is appealed, when you prepare the transcript, you actually prepare the redacted text , number it sequentially, but bind it under separate cover, give it its own volume number (i.e. Vol. 1-A or 7-A, whatever the case may be) and seal it in a manila envelope. As well, in the 'unredacted' part of the transcript, include a parenthetical that says (in your case) the name was redacted at that point.

It's a little difficult for me to give you solid advice on this because I have only had to do it with 'text', not just a name, and I hope this helps.

I would do it like that but, other than that, I would seek guidance from your Managing Reporter. I say that because even though you are in Cali and working in a Superior Court (I assume), different 'courts' may have somewhat different procedures.

Good luck. Cynthia

[Lisa Breiter]

I do hearings for medical licenses here in Illinois and sometimes the names of patients are used inadvertently. Under the HIPPA law, I don't think they can put them in a public record. So I use the Eclipse redacted text suggestion that Cindy made, but just on the name. When you use the redacted text, it leaves the underlying steno and text, but puts a blank over it. It leaves sort of a blank space, but if you ever need to go back and see what it was for whatever reason, the steno & name is still there, but it won't print or ASCII. Then I type in the transcript **REDACTED NAME** or **REDACTED TEXT** or just plain old **REDACTED**. Hope this helps!