Being a court reporter is hard work, but it’s a great profession that continues to grow. Certified court reporters are a necessary part of the legal process and are required in order to make sure that everything that happens in a court is taken down and documented. Back in the old days of court reporting, the back up recording of the procedures would be video recorded on tape. Unfortunately, using video to record the proceedings was difficult and created additional problems. For instance, cataloging, labeling, and properly storing video was definitely a challenge that took up additional hours by staff. It probably isn’t a big surprise that later when videotaping and video recorders were relatively common, courts didn’t exactly jump at the chance to video tape all of their court proceedings.
Back in those days, video was recorded on tape. These days, the world has gone digital. That means that the old days of having tapes are long gone and video has moved to digital storage. Videos can even be uploaded or put onto flash drives or stored in the Cloud or email. There are so many ways to work with video now, and the age-old problem of having to store tapes is no longer an issue. Does this mean that the courts will eventually choose to adapt video recording as part of the court process before long?
The question is a valid one. However, court reporters probably don’t have much to worry about. Regardless of its advances, technology is not reliable as the sole method for recording court proceedings. Human beings can record testimony more accurately and their text will still be more reliable than a video file (which can be abruptly deleted, whether accidentally or on purpose). Court reporters create records of events that are not so easily disposed of.
In addition to this, courts decide how they record their cases. The decision is usually made either on a local or a state level, meaning that it’s up to judges or even legislators to decide how each city, county, or state will be proceeding. Many courts are choosing to keep human court reporters on board. Hey, it’s worked this far– and they are more reliable than a machine. Court reporters are reliable and will record testimonies and more accurately, whereas a machine may not be able to do so to that full extent. The future remains bright for court reporters. It’s unlikely that they will be replaced in the present or the future.Certified court reporters are truly a valuable asset that remains difficult to imitate with machines.