Benefits of Realtime Court Reporting Services

Benefits of Realtime Court Reporting Services

Using Realtime in Complex Litigation – Trials – Hearings – Arbitrations

While realtime court reporting services is not a new technology – Independent Reporters has been providing this service for 25+ years – many lawyers are not familiar with the benefits of using a realtime court reporter in a large or complex discovery, trial, hearing or arbitration.

We all have come to realize that today’s technology has given rise to a culture of immediate access to information through a search or news feed. Realtime transcript services are provided with similar intent, instant access to read and review live testimony, cross-examination or argument during a proceeding.

When using realtime transcription in legal settings, every person in that session can benefit by having the text accessible, searchable and available to review, live. It has been shown that lawyers using realtime services have a greater comprehension of evidence as listening to, AND reading, the live testimony gives the user a deeper memory of what was said in the proceedings. There is less chance of missing key testimony while you are writing manual notes while trying to retain ongoing evidence. By having a realtime screen in front of you, marking a section of testimony is as simple as hitting the space bar to come back and reference later. Your focus remains on what is occurring in the room and what other counsel may be referencing that you may need to note for later preparation.

In a nutshell, realtime translation requires a live connection to the court reporter’s computer and a program on your device. Unlike the past where we would run wires to connect computers through a network or serial ports, today this is all done with wireless access. For larger proceedings, we can provide remote access to other parties that may not be in the room where the live proceedings are taking place. This is useful for your research team to monitor certain issues and provide essential information back to the team at the proceedings. More about these benefits later.

While not all proceedings may warrant the use of realtime transcription, it is especially crucial in ongoing cases with lots of information, witnesses and extended sitting days where keeping on top of all transpiring information is important. Using realtime court reporting services can greatly improve the speed a proceeding moves along.

It is also important to note that not all reporters can provide realtime. At Independent Reporters, we work closely in providing training to develop a strong team or realtime writers. Experience and time spent by our court reporters in developing their skills, understanding how to make the most of their software and dictionary are key factors. Also, IR has a technical support team that works with clients to understand their exact needs and provide the necessary solutions to ensure all a client’s needs are met. From a simple setup of two recipients to having 25 or more users in various locations across the country, we can do it all with a complete understanding of the technology and support the platforms.

What are the benefits of realtime reporting? Let’s have a look.

Instant Access to the Transcript

During the discovery, trial, hearing or arbitration, counsel can view the transcript instantly on a laptop or tablet and follow along during the deposition/trial. This allows for efficient questioning of the witness and the ability to review any previous questions/answers/testimony given if needed.
While viewing the live transcript immediately as it is being taken down, counsel, board members, or the presiding judge can better know if they need to ask follow-up questions or further questions on earlier testimony.

Add a Quick Mark – Search – Make Notes – Create Reports of Live Testimony

Using our realtime software you can easily mark the current testimony by hitting the space bar and add in a quick mark to easily find text later for review at a break.
Do you need to search for keywords of earlier testimony? No problem. You can enter text, search and find all instances of that word in the testimony. Another useful feature is the ability to create Boolean or proximity searches.
You can make notes and attach that to areas of the testimony for your use in cross-examination or re-examination.
And finally, create reports based on any of the above functions and export those out at a break or the end of the day to help you further prepare for the next day.

Remote Attendance and Access

Sometimes having a large team on-site is impractical. With internet access from the main proceeding room, IR can provide remote access to co-counsel, paralegals, support staff or expert witnesses to participate from their own office. The remote text stream can be text-only or we can also add streaming video and audio.

Increased Efficiency and Process

At the end of each day, your court reporter will provide you with a rough draft of the transcript. We do a quick review of the file, then typically about one-hour later you will have a cleaned-up draft. This gives you time well before the next day to prepare. Cost-effective and convenient, the rough drafts are available to you before the final certified official transcript is completed.
Many of our clients will rely solely on using the daily draft transcript during the entire process and order certified transcripts on a normal delivery timeline. This avoids the cost of daily certified transcript production and reduces costs to your client.

Get In Touch

Do you have a large discovery case, trial, hearing or arbitration where you would like to review the options for how these services may be beneficial? Give us a call and we can review your needs, discuss options and provide solutions in any situation you may have.

Edmonton Independent Reporters is Moving!

Effective August 1, 2017, Edmonton Independent Reporters (IR) will move to our new premises located at:

730, 9707 110 Street NW
Edmonton, AB T5K 2L9
Phone numbers remain the same

The new facilities will provide clients with modern amenities and enhanced services in a very comfortable environment.

Getting to our new office is easier as well. Located in the Government District, this will provide easier access to clients coming from the downtown core. Underground paid parking as well as street and surface parking are easily accessible. And to make it even easier, clients can take the LRT and have a short walk from the Grandin LRT Station to our new building.

Updated access for clients with enhanced video and realtime court reporting services will be just some of the added improvements that will benefit litigators when they host services in our new Edmonton office. The team of experienced and professional court reporters we continue to provide to litigation counsel in Edmonton will continue to provide top-notch services as we always have.

You can continue to call or schedule court reporting services online. Here is a map of our new location:

Schedule Court Reporters in Calgary & Edmonton

Our online booking form for scheduling court reporting services in Calgary and Edmonton was having some issues this past little while. Well, that is now all fixed, we are happy to say!

And, while we fixed that error, we also updated a few things on the scheduling form. You now have more options to choose from when scheduling specific services, which include court reporting, court reporting with realtime, court reporting and legal video services, court reporting, legal video & video conferencing or just video conference services. We think this will make it a bit cleaner and easier to work with for you.

As always, when you do schedule services with IR, you will get a confirmation email back from us, then a confirmation PDF file that outlines all the details you provided when you booked a court reporter.

Remember, if you do need a court reporter within the next 24 hours, we always recommend that you call us. This way, just in case something just doesn’t work correctly, we will make sure that you have services scheduled as you need.

 

Court Reporting Services Outside of Alberta

Court Reporting Services Outside of Alberta

Have you ever needed to look for court reporting services outside of the province of Alberta? If so, what do you do? A Google search? Perfect! But how do you know if the firm is reliable, professional and will provide you with the services you are accustomed to here in Alberta?

Schedule Court Reporting Services Worldwide With IR

Schedule Court Reporting Services Worldwide With IR

Very simple! Just call IR!

Calgary/Edmonton Independent Reporters is part of the National Network of Reporting Companies, NNRC. Similar to legal networks such as Meritas or TagLaw, NNRC is a partnership of more than 50 independent court reporting companies in Canada, the United States, and Europe.

If you need to schedule a court reporter in Toronto, New York, Chicago, Miami or London, instead of doing an online search and trying to find a firm that is reputable, just contact IR instead. We will take all the guesswork out of the search hassle for you and personally arrange the court reporting services, legal video or realtime court reporting services you will need in the city you are travelling to. This way you deal with who you are used to using here at home, Independent Reporters.

The firms in the NNRC network are leading companies in their locations and provide excellent services. And once they are finished providing the transcript services, we can even arrange to handle all aspects of delivering the transcript to you.

No worries, no hassles, and it saves you time. Just think of us as your court reporting concierge!

Realtime Court Reporting

Realtime Court Reporting

You may have heard the words, “realtime court reporting services,” thrown around before, but what exactly is it? Let’s define this so that it is the clear definition for what a client would use, this being a lawyer in a discovery, deposition, members of a board hearing, or a judge in a trial.

Calgary & Edmonton Realtime Court Reporting Services

Calgary & Edmonton Realtime Court Reporting Services

The simple description of realtime reporting services is the ability for a lawyer or attorney to be able to view the live testimony on a laptop or tablet as it is being written by a court reporter.

But let’s look a bit further at this and ask, Why would I use this? Why would I not just wait for the transcript to be delivered or just get a rough file at the end of the day? Do I need realtime services for my upcoming file?

Why use realtime court reporting services? Did you know that hearing, and reading, the answers from a witness provides better understanding of the testimony. This can help you to focus on what a witness may not be comprehending and continue to review that area further.

You can add a quick mark to the live evidence as it is being said, right on the screen. A quick mark is akin to adding a highlight mark to a page of the transcript to come back to later.  This makes it easier for you to focus on the answers given instead of writing notes. You can also search these quick marks during the testimony or at a break to check on things that you may want to explore further.

IR generally suggests using realtime court reporting services for proceedings that are lengthy so that your evening preparation time is reduced or the examination has a matter of urgency associated with it, such as an application to the court the next day. This way you have all the information as it happens, live, instead of waiting until the end of the day to review a rough draft of the transcript or waiting longer for the certified transcript to be provided by the court reporter.

What do you need? Today, IR makes it so simple to use our realtime court reporting services. We currently have three of our court reporters that are set up to provide realtime at any discovery. They are equipped with iPads already loaded with software. Or, if you have your own laptop or tablet  with you, you can easily connect to our own wireless connection with the reporter. Receive the access to our wireless router, open your browser, enter the URL your court reporter provides and in a moment you will have realtime streaming right to your own device. No software, no wires.

Want to learn more, have a demo, or a luncheon session with key staff? Contact IR at:
Calgary – 403.265.2550
Edmonton – 780.488.1464
Nationwide – 800.340.1352

IR Blog

The IR Blog will be a place where our legal clients, legal assistants, paralegals, and anyone else interested in court reporting or the legal industry can come to meet and learn about happenings in our industry. We’ll make sure to keep you updated with information on what is going on with us, new technologies, and even other areas of interest that we feel may be helpful. Feel free to stop by and learn more on IR and what we do, what we offer, and what we like.