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For Reporters and Legal Community
What is realtime reporting?
A simultaneous transcription in English on a laptop from a court
reporter's stenograph machine through a cable hookup.
Why is realtime reporting so important?
Besides the legal profession's growing demand for realtime, there is a
need for closed captioning for the hearing impaired. In 1990, President
George H.W. Bush signed into law the Americans With Disabilities Act. This
gave court reporters another avenue to use their advanced skills.
Reporters who would write in realtime could take the spoken word and it
would be simultaneously transcribed on their laptops with only a
three-second delay. With this technology, the hearing impaired had another
tool they could use besides sign language. In 1996, the Telecommunications
Act mandated that all major live television programming would be captioned
by January 1, 2006.
What do the terms LiveNote and rough ASCII mean?
LiveNote is the software that enables an attorney, when connected to
the reporter's laptop through special cables, to view and annotate the
reporter's instantaneous translation of the proceedings. A rough ASCII is
a disk the reporter prepares and can provide to an attorney at the end of
each day's proceedings. This disk is not in its final format, and the
translation of the day's proceedings still needs to be edited, proofread,
corrected and delivered as final.
What are the certification exams?
- RPR: Registered Professional Reporter
- RMR: Registered Merit Reporter
- RDR: Registered Diplomate Reporter
- CRR: Certified Realtime Reporter
- CBC: Certified Broadcast Captioner
- CCP: Certified CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) Provider
Who administers these exams?
The National Court Reporters Association administers exams for its
members. Membership is required to qualify for exams.
Who can write realtime jobs?
A reporter using realtime software and an untranslate rate of under
3% can realtime jobs. Interactive realtime should be done by reporters
with less than 1% untranslates. An untranslate is a word that isn't in
the reporter's dictionary and appears either phonetically or in
stenograph strokes.
What litigation support is available?
- ASCII disks or CD-ROM - transcript text on a disk or CD ROM
- Condensed transcripts - transcripts reduced to eight pages on one page
- Word indexes - listings of significant words and the pages on which they
appear
- Rough ASCII disks - unedited, unproofed immediate copies of transcripts
For Reporters and Legal Community | For Newly Graduated Reporters |
