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About Realtime Benefits of Realtime What is an Uncertified Transcript Reference Links

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We provide translation via CAT (computer-aided transcription), which is capturing the spoken word by a stenotype machine, which is then transferred to the end-user's laptop in realtime.  The reporter's steno machine (special reporter shorthand machine) translates the shorthand steno to English so the recipient can read it instantaneously.  Such a transcript is referred to as an uncertified transcript/draft because it has not gone through the proofreading/editing stage.  The end-user must have a laptop with the required software to receive the notes from the reporter and an available serial port or a USB-to-serial adapter is required to link from the reporter to the lawyer.  Two of the popular software programs that lawyers use to link up are called Summation and LiveNote.

There are five phases to getting a transcript produced:

The realtime translation begins with the court reporter, but they are not solely responsible for the quality of the translation. The conduct of the participants in the proceeding greatly impacts the realtime translation.  If you look on the screen and see an increase in untranslates or more mistranslates, several things could be happening:  Less useable realtime can occur if technical words or proper names are not provided to the court reporter prior to the proceedings, if people are talking at the same time, if someone is talking too quickly (especially when reading from documents), if someone is not talking clearly or mumbling, or if the reporter is fatigued.  Words that enter the screen as untranslates or mistranslates are not errors but simply limitations to the computer dictionary. Usually you will be able to tell from the context what the word should be since a word not recognized by the dictionary will appear phonetically on the screen.

A mistranslate is a word or series of words that appear in English but are the wrong words.  An example would be "to be content" appearing as "to beacon tent."  This is what we term a word boundary problem.  With artificial intelligence and honing of a reporter's skill, these mistranslates are usually resolved before they appear on the screen.

An untranslate is a word that isn't in the dictionary and appears phonetically or in the stenographic alphabet.  This is true for technical terms, proper names, and geographic locations.  For example, "Phil Nordstrum" may appear as "fill in order STRUM."

Realtime clients can play an important role in improving on the realtime product they receive by providing a word list along with technical terminology from documents and case citations well in advance of the proceedings.

It is necessary to pronounce words clearly.  If a person says "I saw 'em over there," the court reporter can usually later determine from the context whether that should be "him" or "them." It is sometimes difficult to make that determination while writing realtime.  When parties cover their mouths or turn away from the court reporter when speaking, it is almost impossible to provide an accurate translation, or an accurate record, for that matter.

Crosstalking, talking too fast, and reading from documents all can have disastrous effects on the realtime translation.  Although the court reporter may be able to keep up with the fast examination or sort out two people talking at once, the precision with which each word must be written for the computer to recognize it will suffer. While most reporters can write reasonably complex terminology at 200 - 225 words per minute, when speeds reach higher limits such as 240 - 250 and higher, the quality of the realtime deteriorates. In other words, the end product can be expected to degrade as the speed and complexity of the proceedings increase.  When a reporter requests parties to slow down, please respect their request in order to receive a useable end product that is useful at the time.

By integrating court reporter skills with computer software, realtime reporters provide a valuable litigation support tool.

Related article at http://www.uscourts.gov/ttb/dec05ttb/realtime/index.html.  Learn how this technology can help you to increase your firm's efficiency and potential.

Realtime transcription allows you to obtain a useable, uncertified (rough) transcript either on disk, lawyer's laptop, or via e-mail prior to receipt of the final transcript, if one is ordered.

Reviewing the day's proceedings in realtime or in the evening, after the conclusion of the day.  It helps counsel and judges to concentrate and focus on witnesses rather than taking notes themselves, which is distracting and tedious.  It also allows counsel to critically analyze their questions and the witness's answers.  A question, once written, may not appear as straightforward or obvious as one may have thought in verbalizing it.  It allows you the opportunity to rephrase and re-clarify important points.

Realtime aids in preparing for subsequent discoveries/depositions/trials.  It is faster and more efficient with immediate access to the evidence.  One can review evidence in anticipation of cross-examination.  Counsel and/or judges can make annotations on their own screens, or simply highlight text, where they see fit.

Realtime interactive software programs such as LiveNote, Binder, or Summation allow the lawyer to accept the reporter's realtime feed directly to their laptop.  Perform time-saving functions that enhance your research capabilities before, during, and after the examination/testimony.  These programs provide powerful search capabilities and allow marking of key areas of testimony, code issues and/or topics of evidence/testimony, and to produce summaries more efficiently without the mess of sticky notes or handwritten page line-summaries.

Import transcripts, text files, pleadings and responses that pertain to the case; copy evidence/testimony into motions; categorize witnesses by expert designation; perform word and phrase searches throughout the entire case or selected transcripts; print full page or condensed transcripts.

We can also have time stamps available on the realtime feed in actual time on your laptop from ours.  You can then take note of how long a witness was in chief or cross or just find a time in the transcript, if you know something crucial was said, and search for it.

An uncertified transcript is a rough draft of the day's proceedings from the court reporter.  Because the end-user is receiving the realtime feed instantaneously, there is no chance for the court reporter to diligently correct and proofread the transcript instantaneously at the same time as writing the testimony.  There may be technical words and phrases that mistranslate or are untranslates that may not be in the reporter's main dictionary.  As a reporter becomes more familiar with the proper names, geographic locations, technical terms and phrases of a particular job, these entries can be made into a job dictionary and will henceforth translate into readable English for the end-user to use usefully.  During the proceedings when there are pauses, at breaks and at lunch, the reporter has a chance to edit and scope their work to insert words and technical phrases into their dictionaries so the translation process constantly improves and evolves with a particular job.  These corrections that the reporter makes on their laptop can be applied backwards on their laptop but is not applied backwards in the software that the end-user is using.  At the end of the day, after the close of proceedings, the court reporter then scopes the day's proceedings to smooth out the untranslates and mistranslates for the end-user. This cleaned-up transcript/updated transcript (also an uncertified transcript) can be e-mailed to end-users to update from what was received on the realtime feed during the day. The uncertified transcript has not gone through the stage of diligent editing and proofreading that is required for a certified transcript, but is useable and useful to counsel and judges for their various needs.

When and if transcripts are ordered, the editing/scoping, proofreading, and binding phases are performed.

The uncertified transcript is not to be shared, given, copied, scanned, faxed or e-mailed, used for appeal purposes, or in any way distributed to opposing counsel or multi-parties on a case. However, your own experts, co-counsel, and staff may have limited internal use of same with the understanding that you agree to destroy the realtime rough draft/uncertified transcript and/or any computerized form, if any, and replace it with the final certified transcript upon its completion.  The reporter must be given the opportunity to edit and proofread their work so the end product is satisfactory, thus ensuring that a proper job is done.  The point of realtime is so end-users can manage their trials in a more expeditious fashion while it is ongoing and at the same time utilize the benefits of realtime to their advantage with an instant uncertified transcription of the day's proceedings.

www.depostream.com
www.reallegal.com
www.summation.com

www.livenote.com

National Court Reporters Association
British Columbia Shorthand Reporters Association