It’s hard to remember all of the things you need to look for in a court reporting service, but there are a few things that are necessary. Check out these five things to look for in a court reporting service:

1) Reputation

Look for a court reporting service with a well-maintained website and plenty of testimonials. Don’t be afraid to shop around or call and ask specific questions.

If an agency has a error-riddled ad or website, or if you cannot get a recommendation, it’s better to look somewhere else. The best court reporting services will be professional about all aspects of their company, including advertising!

2) Professional Support Staff

You don’t want to waste your time calling a court reporting firm and trying to schedule a court reporter with a service that doesn’t even have real people on the other end of the line.

Avoid court reporting firms that have automated or online scheduling — you don’t want to take any chances; you want a court reporter to be present when you are!

3) One-Stop Shop

When arranging a deposition, you often need more than just a court reporter — you may need an interpreter, a videographer, audiovisual equipment and a conference site.

But there is no reason you need to contact multiple vendors — many good court reporting services will be able to schedule everything you need with just one phone call!

4) Quality Court Reporters

How can you tell if a court reporter is the right person for the job?

Professionalism goes beyond just showing up on time and performing assigned duties. Quality court reporters will be early, well-dressed and confident. They will know courtroom decorum and won’t be afraid to consult with you if they have any questions or concerns.

Court reporters:

• Must be licensed by the state.
• Must have proofreading, editing and research skills.
• Must be organized.
• Must be able to multitask.
• Must be able to type at least 200 words per minute.

5) Transcripts

Find out when you will get your copy of the transcript. Make sure it meets state requirements and can be easily bound or unbound for internal office use.

It’s also helpful to find out if the court reporting service provides translations of court transcripts.

Now that you know what to look for, check out Legal Language’s directory of legal professionals to find a court reporting service that meets your needs!

The history of court reporting shows that various forms of shorthand reporting go back thousands of years and have always been an integral part of the legal system.

The Birth of Shorthand

Shorthand can be traced back to a man named Marcus Tullius Tiro around the year 63 BC. Tiro was a slave belonging to Roman philosopher, lawyer and orator Cicero. Tiro’s duties showed that he was highly intelligent and capable: he was in charge of taking dictation and managing Cicero’s financial affairs.

To keep up with transcribing speeches, Tiro developed a system of symbols and abbreviations. He omitted short or common words that he could add later by memory or context. Tiro expanded his shorthand system to include over 4,000 signs, which were adopted by other scribes in Rome and eventually other countries.

Tironian notes weren’t just used for court reporting, dictation and other legal affairs — during Medieval times, Tironian notes were taught in monasteries and were common in everyday writing. Monks and scholars continued to expand Tironian notes to about 13,000 signs, but the system declined in use after the year 1100 AD.

Shorthand for English Speakers

In 1180, a monk named John of Tilbury created the first shorthand system for English speakers. Shorthand wasn’t widely used by English speakers until Dr. Timothie Bright published a system of 500 symbols to be used as English shorthand in his 1588 book “Characterie: An Arte of Shorte, Swifte, and Secrete Writing by Character.”

In 1602, John Willis published a shorthand system based on the English alphabet, rather than symbols. Over the next few decades, several people developed English alphabet shorthand systems, including a man named Thomas Gurney, who was appointed the first official shorthand writer of the English government in 1772.

English Shorthand in Court

Novelist Charles Dickens adopted Thomas Gurney’s shorthand methods when he began working as a junior law clerk, and again as a freelance reporter covering legal proceedings. His shorthand notes inspired scenes in novels like “Bleak House” and “Nicholas Nickleby.”

Gurney’s son, Joseph, used his father’s system when he acted as a court reporter for the 1788 trial of Warren Hastings, the first English governor-general of Bengal, who was accused of corruption and other high crimes and misdemeanors.

In 1837, Isaac Pitman created a shorthand system based on phonetics. The Pitman method is still widely used in the United Kingdom today.

Shorthand Comes to the US

Court reporters, secretaries and other professionals in the United States began using a shorthand system by John Robert Gregg, who left England to open shorthand schools in Chicago and Boston.

Gregg’s method, published in the US in 1893, only began to decline in use when the first stenotype machine began to rise in popularity, patented by an American court reporter named Miles Bartholomew.

Technology Improves Court Reporting

In the early part of the 20th century, court reporters experimented with adding recording devices to the stenotype machines to produce even more accurate transcripts.

In the 1950s, IBM partnered with the US military to create stenotype machines where typed words and even symbols could be translated into many different languages. When that project was scrapped, court reporters lobbied for computer-assisted stenotype machines.

Modern stenotype machines are more akin to a computer than a typewriter. They have microprocessors, individual keys with different sensitivity settings and LCD screens where the shorthand words appear in English.

As technology like voice recognition and translation software improves, court reporting techniques will continue to evolve. After reviewing the history, it’s clear that court reporting has always been a profession for those who are highly skilled, efficient and accurate.