A Primer on Court Reporting Services

There are several methods of court reporting, the stenographic method being the most common. Using a stenotype machine, stenotypists document all statements made in official proceedings. The machine allows them to press multiple keys at a time to record combinations of letters representing sounds, words or phrases. The stenotpye machine records these symbols electronically and then translates and displays them as text in a process called computer-aided transcription.

Realtime court reporting is another method of court reporting, wherein stenotype machines used for realtime captioning are linked directly to the computer. As the reporter keys in the symbols, they instantly appear as text on the screen. This process, called Communications Access Realtime Translation (CART), is not only used in courts, but also in classrooms, at meetings and for closed captioning for the hearing-impaired on television.

Realtime technology also allows court reporters to instantly convert their stenographic notes into English text. Then, computer monitors or large projection screens placed around the courtroom can display the text. Today, court reporters use fully computerized steno machines. The Realtime software translates the stenographic symbols and allows reporters to keep courtroom records in a digital format. This technology is the nucleus of computerized courtrooms and lets court reporters deliver transcripts within hours, or even minutes, after court adjourns.

The benefits of Court Reporting

Realtime court reporting is convenient and cost effective. As our realtime reporters write transcripts, they appear in English on a linked computer screen. In addition to seeing the transcript text, the attorney and remote attendees can also:

• Start and stop text scrolling
• Create and find annotations and quick marks
• Mark a line of transcript with an issue
• Conduct full-text queries across multiple transcripts in full-text
• Run reports in full text
• Search previous testimony while viewing ongoing testimony
• Send realtime messages to team members during a realtime transcript session
• Save received messages with the realtime transcript
• Hear testimony through realtime audio streaming

Our Court Reporters

At Ralph Rosenberg Hawaii Court Reporters, Inc., our reporters are highly skilled, helpful, courteous and able to assist you with all your reporting needs. With Realtime skills, medical expertise and word knowledge for all technical fields, we can deliver your transcript when you need it with no degree of loss in accuracy.

Our reporters have traveled extensively throughout the South Pacific and to most U.S. states. Passports are kept current for worldwide travel.