Video: Court Reporting Contest - 280 words per minute!

Impressive! This is Melanie Humphrey-Sonntag discussing how she practices for speed contests. Melanie is also the newly installed president of the NCRA.

Audio recording vs. court reporting

When I tell people that I'm learning to be a court reporter, they look at me like I've chosen an obsolete career. They nod sweetly, but gently steer the conversation to technology and then tell me, "you know, some courts have replaced their court reporters with audio equipment?" Yes, it's true. In an effort to save money in their budgets, two adjacent states (Minnesota and Iowa) have already replaced court reporters in some of their courts.

It may take a while, but I think these courts will realize their mistake eventually. Here are a couple of items I spotted in my Judicial Court Reporting magazine:

INAUDIBLES AND INDISCERNIBLES STALL THIRD DISTRICT CASE

In the Third District, appellant Atlantic States Cast Iron Pipe Company filed a motion to correct the record due to the approximately 10,000 inaudible and indiscernibles that riddle the trial and sidebar transcripts. The errors were not spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors, but substantive mistakes. According to the motion, no court reporter was present during the trial, and the audio discs taken of the proceedings were sent to a transcription service.

The District Court pursued its own review of the transcripts and learned that several audio discs were missing from the trial. According to the motion, "Despite the District Court's best efforts, the record is not certifiable at this point." The appellants requested an extension to review the transcript once the district court has produced a certified record.

RECORDING DEVICE FAILURE CANCELS COURT IN ALBERTA

According to the July 20, 2010, Drayton Valley, Alberta, Canada, Western Review, a technical glitch in the audio recording device in the court meant that those who had business were required to come back another day. There was no additional information in the article as to what caused the problem in the recording system.

This has become a topic of conversation is my steno class too. Thankfully, South Dakota judges are pro court reporter. They understand the need for a human being to properly record court proceedings. The court reporter insures that the witness is heard and understood, and that people don't talk over each other. It's the court reporter's responsibility to stop and say, "I'm sorry, could you speak up? I couldn't hear what you said." Or imagine if a witness is from other country and isn't fluent in English. It's the court reporter's responsibility to stop the testimony and confirm what a witness said. Tape recorders don't do that.

In the long run, taping trials doesn't save any money and I hope the courts start realizing this soon.

Speedbuilding tips

My first speedbuilding class begins in two weeks, so over the next two weeks, I plan to work on my accuracy (and my speed, of course). Now would be a good time to eliminate any bad habits that I may have acquired during the theory portion of my training. To help me do this, I went online and did a little research on accuracy and speedbuilding.

Well, friends, I have found the mother load of wonderful speedbuilding tips, and I thought I would share them with you. The link to the webpage is posted below, but be forewarned, it took me hours to read them all. So grab a cold beverage, sit back, and read on.

SPEEDBUILDING TIPS

My thanks to Carol Jochim ~ she has put a lot of work into these tips!

Success at 60 wpm!

I passed my 60 wpm final exam, which means that I graduated from Theory III! Yippee!

Apparently, third time's a charm. I passed during my third attempt. The first attempt was pretty close, and the second attempt I completely tanked. My brain totally froze up and I kept hesitating on words that I knew. By the time I took the exam the third time, I had worked through my hesitation issue.

I'm really going to put in the time on RTC over the two-week break and really work on my accuracy.

My motto for the Fall term ~ Without accuracy, speed means nothing!

Just for Grins

I was browsing through the latest JCR magazine this afternoon and noticed the Just for Grins page where court reporters send in their funny transcript excerpts.

I thought I'd share a couple of them here:

KNOW YOUR MEDICATIONS!
Q. What medications are you on?
A. They have me on Lasix.
Q. Lasix is a diuretic?
A. No, it's to make you go to the bathroom to get
the fluid out of your body.
Q. Right. Okay.

WHO'S ON FIRST?
Q. What doctor did he see next?
A. Doctor Doctor.
Q. His name is actually Doctor Doctor?
A. Yes.
Q. How is it you came to find this physician?
A. Referred from the ER.
Q. Where?
A. Ware.
MR. ATTORNEY: This is getting to be like who's on first.
This is ridiculous.

Striving for 60 wpm!

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I'm spending as much time as I can on RTC pushing myself to increase my speed. I have taken the 60 wpm final exam twice and I've come close to passing, but close doesn't get you to the next class!

I'm trying to get beyond my hesitation issues. Trying to recall outlines quickly is still a problem for me. Compounding the hesitation issue is that I'm also a perfectionist. So while other people can move on to the next word, I'm pausing longer than I should because I know the stroke and I must hunt it down in my brain. Honestly, do I really need to have a clean transcript at this point in my learning? No. But, it's still frustrating!