Advocacy Issues
We advocate to expand access to digital reporting services to capture the record and ensure equal access to the justice system for all litigants.
Court reporters play a critical role in the justice system.
A reporter is responsible for creating a verbatim record of testimony presented in a trial court, hearing, deposition or other legal proceeding. Reporters swear in witnesses, capture the testimony, handle exhibits, manage the proceeding and certify the record has been captured accurately.
A shortage of stenographers cannot keep up with the demand for capturing verbatim records of legal proceedings.
Over the past few decades, the number of stenographers across the country has been in dramatic decline, threatening a key function of the legal system’s operations, causing delays in litigation calendars and increasing the cost of litigation.
Digital reporting expands more methods of capture to the court reporter pool and allows for a more diverse group of highly trained professionals to capture the record. In fact, many states’ rules of civil procedure and some licensing bodies already recognize digital reporting as a proven method.
Digital reporting involves using skilled professionals and state-of-the-art recording systems and software to capture an accurate, verbatim record of legal proceedings.
Expanding the use of digital reporting offers an immediate solution to the stenographer shortage to alleviate the critical gaps to ensure equal access to justice.
Like stenographers, digital reporters are skilled professionals who achieve certification and go through extensive training to master the professional techniques needed to ensure a verbatim record. In fact, many states’ rules of civil procedure and some licensing bodies already recognize digital reporting as a proven method.
To help ease the burden on our justice system, digital reporters and stenographers can work together to ensure that all litigants have timely access to the justice system.
Digital reporters and writers are an extension of a trained and qualified workforce whose methodologies in capturing testimony in court and in depositions may differ but whose roles are the same – to officiate the proceeding and protect the record.