Posted On November 7, 2011 Personal Injury

Real-Time Court Reporting: How Does it Help Attorneys?

In traditional Philadelphia court reporting, a stenographer records the language of a legal proceeding with a stenograph – a machine that writes in stenography. When the recording is complete, the stenographic transcript is transcribed into an English language transcript. Until recently, attorneys had to wait patiently for stenography to be transcribed. But today, a practice known as real-time court reporting allows them to read a transcript as it is typed in stenography. The transcript is translated into English and streamed to remote computer terminals in real time.

The Benefits of Real-Time Court Reporting for Attorneys

By streaming the transcript of a proceeding in real time, real-time court reporting allows attorneys to:

• Stay on the Same Page. If an attorney can’t be in court with the rest of a legal team, real-time court reporting can deliver the proceeding’s language to the attorney’s location, eliminating the need for the attorney to be debriefed on the proceeding.
• Impeach Live Testimony. If a remote attorney sees impeachable language in a real-time reporting manuscript, he or she can communicate with fellow attorneys who are attending the proceeding, alerting them to the impeachable language. 
• Simplify Complex Litigation. Several things, one of which is a lack of time to prepare for legal proceedings, could make litigation complex. When attorneys have little time to prepare for court dates, real-time court reporting helps them by producing manuscripts instantly.

At Console & Associates P.C., our New Jersey accident attorneys take advantage of real-time court reporting when it allows them to increase the strength of a case.