Vol. 37, Number 12—December 2005

Realtime Court Reporting
Grows in Popularity

	A judge looks at a realtime transcript while on the bench. Realtime court reporting enhances a judge’s ability to concentrate on the trial, says Chief Judge B. Lynn Winmill of the District of Idaho.

Realtime court reporting, which can make nearly-instant text delivery of court proceedings available to judges and lawyers, continues to grow in use and popularity in federal courts.

"It's absolutely invaluable," said Chief Judge B. Lynn Winmill of the District of Idaho. "I don't know how I could function without it during a trial."

Judge Roger Strand of the District of Arizona is another enthusiast. "I've used realtime since 1986 when we had one of three 'courtrooms of the future.' I've become reliant on it. All in all, it's a remarkable enhancement to court reporting," he said.

Nationwide, the number of requested transcript pages of realtime reporting in federal courts rose from 1.76 million in fiscal year 2003 to 2.26 million in FY 2004, an increase of 28 percent.

About 85 percent of the requested realtime pages came from judges, but the biggest percentage increases of requested pages came from U.S. attorneys. They requested 13,978 pages in FY 2004, a 518 percent increase over FY 2003.

Judge James Robertson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia started using realtime reporting as soon as he took the bench in 1995, and uses it for all courtroom proceedings "unless my court reporter has been spirited away by another judge with a more urgent need for realtime."

Judge Robertson lists three major benefits of realtime for judges:

• A virtually instantaneous copy of an unedited transcript to help deal with difficult motions, evidentiary rulings, and the like.


• An "interpreter" service for witnesses with accents difficult to understand.


• A fail-safe way to review a question to a witness and rule on a lawyer's objection to it.

Winmill adds that realtime enhances his ability to concentrate on the trial. "The need to take notes is not as important," he said. "Judges or lawyers also can have a day's proceedings downloaded and take it home with them in the evening."

Judges and lawyers can search the electronic transcript for key words and names as well.

Realtime is a form of computer aided transcription. A court reporter enters a personal dictionary into a computer to match his or her steno strokes. "Realtime combines writing, translating and editing into a single function," said Ed Hawkins, a court reporter for the D.C. District.

The Judicial Conference, which makes policy for the federal courts, authorized a 10 percent increase in 2002 in the pay of certified realtime court reporters, in recognition of the significant services provided to judges. The Conference previously had authorized court reporters to charge a fee for pages of realtime services provided to lawyers.

"I have been surprised by how few lawyers have found it useful enough to buy realtime services from court reporters," Judge Robertson said.

Judge Strand believes more lawyers will begin using realtime services because they "are so much more readily available now."