Georgia Court Reporting
Court Reporting in Georgia
What is court reporting?
Court reporting is the verbatim shorthand reporting method used primarily to record legal proceedings. The information recorded is transcribed and turned into an official transcript, and is considered a legal document when completed by a certified court reporter. These legal transcripts are used in a variety of venues, including civil and criminal trials, depositions, meetings and conventions. Court reporters are also trained in closed captioning and CART reporting, used for hearing-impaired individuals. You can see closed captioning by using the closed-captioning feature on your television.
In the state of Georgia, a court reporter is required to be certified and registered by the Georgia Board of Court Reporting. A court reporting firm providing reporting services is required to be listed and registered with the state as a court reporting firm.
Additionally, a court reporter may choose to achieve more stringent professional designations by passing a Registered Professional Reporter's examination, offered by the National Court Reporters Association.
The two methods of court reporting mainly offered in Georgia today are machine reporting (stenography) and voice reporting. Currently, in south Georgia, realtime reporting is offered only with machine reporting.
Stenographic Realtime Reporting
Stenographic realtime court reporting provides the judge and attorneys with a text transcript while the proceedings are taking place; hence, it is called realtime translation. Realtime can be accomplished by both stenographic machine reporting and voicewriting reporting; however, due to technology advantages, is most often provided through stenographic reporting.
Not every reporter is a realtime reporter. The realtime reporter is specially trained and utilizes proprietory software and hardware, in conjunction with a laptop computer, to instantaneously turn spoken words into readable text.
Here you see a realtime reporter. Testimony is being taken down on the stenography machine, which is connected to the laptop, and the spoken word is showing up in text on the laptop. If you were to see the entire setting, you may see the judge and/or attorneys with their laptops, able to view the spoken word in English, realtime (instantaneously). If requested, the reporter can print the text to delivery immediately to the attorney and/or judge.
In the days past, transcripts were only useful after the fact. With realtime, judges, attorneys and paralegals may view testimony instantly. Say, for instance, a witness has been testifying for several hours, and you need a portion of his testimony from three hours earlier. With a click of your mouse, you can easily find his testimony, mark it, issue codes, send selected text to people of your choice -- even communicate with others via instant messaging.
If the client prefers to avoid the entire hook-up scenario, skilled, qualified court reporters can provide a disk of the proceedings as the client leaves the deposition or court proceeding.
Comparisions of prior testimony for impeachment and/or information purposes can be made instantly.
Realtime reporting in the courtroom
If you are interested in considering a profession in court reporting, please contact Memory Court Reporting, Inc. Barbara Memory will be more than happy to speak with you.
If you are currently a court reporter and would like to join our team, please call Barbara Memory. We welcome your call.
Voice Reporting
Another popular way of court reporting in the state of Georgia is voicewriter reporting. In this setting, a reporter will be using high-tech electronic recording equipment to record the proceedings. There are two tracks on her equipment. One track is electronically recording the proceedings. The second track is attached to a mask that is placed over the reporter's mouth. The reporter is highly skilled to be able to repeat verbatim what is being said in the room.
