Realtime Reporter – Conquering Your Fears

Rachel Gwidt, RPR

To my pleasant surprise, I didn’t freeze up and write badly.  I wrote exactly the same as I would have written with nobody being able to see it.  Actually, I feel like I focused harder than if no one was watching.  Everyone was able to read it just fine.  Did I have some things in my favor?  Absolutely.  It wasn’t super fast and technical (just a nice, short, easy car accident-type case).  I thought to myself, what a stroke of luck to be able to have my first real time experience be so easy and stress free.  Do I feel this automatically qualifies me to take a real time patent case with 12 attorneys hooked up to me tomorrow?  Absolutely not, but what I got from the experience was huge to me.  It was validation of my writing skills and confirmation that I CAN do it.  Most of all, I came away with a new confidence in myself that I didn’t have yesterday (or all the days before that for that matter).  Those of you that know me fairly well know what I’m talking about! 

Smile

Shorthand and stenography have gone high tech, and today’s court reporters are digitally savvy professionals that take advantage of the latest innovations in court reporting technology. From realtime court reporting that delivers speech-to-text directly to the laptops of attorneys to video conferencing, Wisconsin court reporters from Brown & Jones have the latest tools and the know-how to put them to good use.

 Realtime Court Reporting

One of the most important revolutions in the court reporting industry is realtime court reporting. This technology takes the court reporter’s output from the steno machine and translates it into text as the court reporter keys it in – in real time. The steno machine is connected to a computer equipped with realtime court reporting software. Depending on the software and the needs of the client, the realtime feed can be transmitted to courtroom monitors, to individual computers or laptops, or securely over the Internet to remote attorneys. With realtime court reporting, Wisconsin court reporters’ transcripts can be transmitted to partners located virtually anywhere in the world as the words are spoken.

 In addition to being able to see the testimony in a text-based format, attorneys can immediately begin working with the court reporter’s feed. For example, they can add notes, search for keywords, copy and paste testimony, and more without having to wait for the court reporter to issue a final transcript.

 Video Conferencing

Wisconsin court reporters often participate in video conferencing as well. Video conferencing makes it possible to interview out-of-area witnesses remotely, participate in remote depositions, and hold meetings without the expense or hassles of travel. Whether you need a court reporter present or simply want a convenient way to meet with partners, video conferencing is a convenient, cost-effective choice that delivers the benefits of face-to-face meetings without the hassles.

 For example, imagine a Wisconsin attorney who needs to interview an expert witness located in Florida. Instead of the attorney flying to Florida or paying for the witness to fly to and stay overnight in Wisconsin, video conferencing suites in each location can be booked. The video conferencing facilities handle the technical details, and all the two parties need to do is show up and interact with one another.   

 Realtime court reporting and video conferencing technologies are changing the industry – for the better. Experience the difference with Brown & Jones in Wisconsin.

Can an Old Dog Learn New Tricks?

When I was in court reporting school, I was taught that once a stroke is ingrained in your fingers, it was hard to undo.  I’m assuming this was emphasized to promote accurate practice or something.  I don’t really know. 

Then I went to work for Brown & Jones Reporting.  When I first started out as a court reporter, I was unhappy with my “messy” writing, but I didn’t know how to go about changing it.  I wanted to write cleaner.  Jane told me about how she had changed her writing years ago in an effort to write real time.  I was very impressed, but I scoffed at the idea at first, thinking it would be too hard to do.  I figured Jane was just an exceptional writer and probably out of the ordinary.  I thought, well, she may have been able to do it, but there’s no way I can.  Then she suggested a pretty straightforward way to go about it.  Basically, I just printed out a weekly list of things I wanted to change and taped it to my laptop.  During my jobs, I would stare at the list.  I would try and really THINK about what I was doing instead of just writing in auto pilot.   She also told me to take the old way out of my dictionary and enter the new outline.  That way, whenever I screwed up, I got instant feedback.

Even though the theory I learned in school was real time, a big thing for me that I wanted to change was I had been taught to write all my numbers out.  Eleven was LEFN.  Twelve was TWEFL, and so on.  We were given the option of whether or not to use the number keys.  I opted not to, and found that later on, I felt like I would be better off utilizing the number keys after all.  It seemed much handier for dollar amounts and dates, et cetera.  It was difficult to adjust to at first, but now I’m completely used to writing my numbers from the number bar.  Once I mastered that change, I realized with the proper effort and attention, I could continue to make changes to my writing, no matter how big or small.

Obviously, changing anything about one’s writing is an individual, personal choice, but I guess the long and short of what I’m saying is no matter how or when we learned to write, we have the ability to keep honing our skill.  Real time is definitely the future of steno, so I will continue to work on passing the real time test and becoming a certified real time writer.  I am really lucky to work for a company that has so many talented writers that are such great role models.

Rachel Gwidt, Certified Wisconsin Court Reporter