What Are the Steps to Complete an Accurate Transcript?

By: Colleen Jilio-Ryan | Posted in: Court Transcription

Top court reporters know they must generate accurate transcripts of depositions, which is how they build a strong reputation. It’s a job that involves paying close attention to detail.

Here are the steps you need to take in order to produce a clean, accurate transcript:

1. 1. The deposition is documented by the court reporter on a stenotype.

   2. The court reporter or a scopist reads through the transcript to fix untranslates which are words that the computer program is unable to translate from steno to English. The proofreader will also check for misspelled proper names.

1. The indexing step involves associating descriptions of deposition exhibits with an index page.

2. To make sure the deposition can be referenced quickly and easily, the court reporter or scopist adds a title page and enters captions of the case and addresses of all the deposition participants.

3. The court reporter will either read the transcript again thoroughly to double-check for accuracy or subcontract a proofreader to do it. This step is necessary to make sure no minor errors still exist in the transcript.

4. The court reporter makes final corrections and then either produces the transcript in-house or outsources to a court reporting agency.

5. Once the transcript is produced, the court reporter sends it to the attorneys.

The amount of time it takes to produce a transcript varies depending on the case. Many times, it takes double the deposition time to spend on reviewing the transcript for accuracy.

When an attorney requests a court reporter to expedite a transcript of an all-day deposition, it will likely result in the court reporter staying up late that night to make sure the transcript is error-free.

Related Post: How Proofreading Transcripts Will Benefit Court Reporters