3 Tips To Guarantee The Most Accurate Transcripts

Acquiring an accurate transcription from every deposition is vital when building a strong case for your client. Help us help you by ensuring that our court reporters have every detail absolutely correct. Here’s what you can do to help:

1. Provide Spelling When Necessary

Stenographs record phonetically, so often times correct spelling isn’t included in an initial draft. Therefore, court reporters have no way of knowing if something is spelled differently than it sounds when editing their transcripts. Before the deposition, it can be extremely helpful to present your court reporter with a list of keywords, phrases, and/or names that might pose such a spelling error. Once the deposition is complete, a good court reporter will come to you and verify any odd spellings they’ve encountered. However, if it is something with multiple spellings, please ensure that your court reporter knows which one to use.

2. Speak Clearly When Prompted

Certified court reporters can type anywhere from 180 to 200 words per minute. However, when attorneys and deponents are talking over one another, it can be difficult to discern who said what. In order to obtain the most accurate transcripts possible, it is advised that you not mumble, speak too quickly or speak over another person. If your court reporter cannot understand or needs to interject for clarification, the natural flow of legal discourse can be disrupted and can lead to transcript inaccuracies.

3. Use Standard Words Instead of Implied Sounds

Implied sounds are sounds that have a general meaning assigned to them without being official words. Sounds like “uh-uh” and “uh-huh” are often used in place of “yes” and “no.” Although this may seem like an easy thing to record phonetically, court reporters use stenographs to include not only what was said but how it was said and implied sounds don’t have shorthand notation for intonation. If your witness is using these implied sounds instead of “yes” or “no,” please ask for clarification of their meaning so that everything can be accurately recorded for later use.