Date: September 3, 1998
Contact: Elizabeth A. Devine-Hall, Certified Realtime Reporter
VENTURA, CALIFORNIA

The National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) encourages and supports the use of computer-aided realtime technology in the judicial system. Uncertified realtime drafts have become an increasingly popular service court reporters offer to their clients. The principal objective when a court reporter provides a realtime draft transcript of proceedings is to aid in the administration of justice by rendering a valuable service to the litigants, their counsel, the court, allied professions, and the public.
NCRA has developed realtime guidelines for reporters and the legal community. Following is the substance of those guidelines, approved by the NCRA Board of Directors, March 10, 1996.

1. A court reporter providing an uncertified realtime transcript should perform the task undertaken in a professional manner, observing all laws, rules, and orders of the court relating to the proceeding.

2. A court reporter providing an uncertified realtime transcript should keep informed of technological and other advances and improvements in the skills and methods of their profession and strive continually for improvement.

3. A court reporter providing an uncertified realtime transcript should not perform any service under terms or conditions that will compromise, in any way, his or her impartiality or the exercise of good judgment and skill. Court reporters should offer comparable services to all parties in a proceeding.

4. An uncertified realtime transcript should not include a title page, appearance page, certificate page, any mention of the swearing in of a witness (in depositions), index pages, or footer with firm name or reporter name or CSR number.

5. An uncertified realtime transcript should include a header or footer on each page stating ACOMPUTER UNCERTIFIED REALTIME (or AROUGH DRAFT@ if the reporter is not providing realtime capabilities) TRANSCRIPT ONLY.@ If provided on a diskette, the diskette label should be labeled AUNCERTIFIED REALTIME TRANSCRIPT@ and the label should be a different color than those used on diskettes containing the text of certified transcripts. Uncertified realtime transcripts should be provided in condensed format only.

6. A disclaimer and/or order form should be transmitted as a cover sheet with each uncertified realtime transcript stating that the uncertified realtime draft transcript cannot be quoted in any pleadings or for any other purpose and may not be filed with any court. (Emphasis added.) A copy of the disclaimer and/or order form is retained by the court reporter.

7. Where possible, all untranslated steno strokes and conflicts should be resolved before an uncertified realtime transcript is provided to any party. An unedited transcript should not be provided without resolving untranslated steno and conflicts if the untranslate rate is one percent or higher.

8. Only court reporters who possess the capability of providing a substantially readable transcript should attempt to provide an uncertified realtime transcript.
Writing in Arealtime@ is extremely difficult for a reporter, primarily because (surprise!) we=re not perfect!! For example, as we are writing, our fingers may slip and up comes what looks to some like gibberish, what reporters call an Auntranslate.@ Reporters know that those untranslates or words that may translate improperly (Atheir@ rather than Athere,@ for example) will be taken care of when editing the job after the fact, but the pressure is on to write perfectly, and as close to final form as possible, when you have clients looking at their notebook screen as you are writing in realtime. It is very demanding.

The Certified Realtime Reporter (CRR) examination is becoming a prerequisite for realtime success. There are currently fewer than 500 Certified Realtime Reporters in the United States. The growing popularity of this certification stems from the increasing use of realtime in official and freelance settings, as well as captioning and other hearing-impaired environments. (My uncle suffered spinal meningitis when he was sixteen resulting in deafness, so my interest in realtime took form in 1985 when Uncle Leland first heard about it and began encouraging me to get involved with captioning.)

The CRR certification is awarded to those Registered Professional Reporters who possess the knowledge, skill, and ability to produce accurate, simultaneous translation and display of live proceedings utilizing computer-aided transcription.