What To Look For In A Shorthand Reporter

1 November 2017
 Categories: Law, Blog

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Do you need a professional who can quickly and accurately record legal information? Judicial reporting, broadcast reporting, and real-time captioning are all vital tasks that speech-to-text software hasn't yet been able to replace with extreme accuracy and volume. To understand what you need to look for when hiring a shorthand reporter, here are a few details to make reading requirements and judging career potential a lot easier for newer reporters and veterans alike:

Speed Writing And Captioning

Part of shorthand reporting is being able to capture visual cues and record accurate information as fast as possible without losing the flow and format of what is being said. It's not about spelling or fully-written words; shorthand exists to get the idea faster and complete the rest as needed.

Shorthand is more than just typing AFK for away from computer. There are many legal terms that have officially-recognized shorthand purposes, and quite a few pieces of technology that assist in shorthand writing. From predictive text that leaves the typed text while providing suggestions to stenotype systems that allow a higher rate of information entry, shorthand writers have a lot of tools at their disposal.

When hiring a shorthand reporter, you're looking for multiple qualifications. Stenotype experience isn't necessary, but if there are high rates of type such as people who speak quickly during arguments, it may be best for the situation. If you need someone to caption videos or transcribe audio-only shows such as podcasts, getting all of the information can be done by someone with a 100 WPM (words per minute) or better performance level.

What Can A Legal Shorthand Reporter Do?

In courtroom settings, a shorthand reporter has a few duties outside of recording the information. They may be in charge of both typing and audio recording as a fail-safe/balance system in case one format is easier to understand than the other, and confirmation must be performed on any given technique.

Court reporters are expected to read the transcripts during a trial in case clarification is needed for a specific statement. During read-back moments, you will still want a recorder playing back the audio in case something else is said while the reporter is speaking or sitting back down to their job. Multiple reporters and multiple recordings are sometimes used for this reason.

You may want to hire your own court reporter if you want to get your own version of court proceeding without waiting on official reporters. Contact a shorthand reporting service like L & L Reporting Service, Inc. to discuss capable professionals and the services they offer.