Maintaining the Integrity of the Court Reporting Profession

Although you’d planned to take the day off, you agree to take a last-minute call-in. Quickly, you build a job dictionary, and head out.

Throughout the deposition, the witness responds, “Sorry, I don’t know,” and not unexpectedly, counsel informs you that he won’t need the deposition transcribed. You thank him, clean up the untranslates, create a rough ASCII, and send both the rough and audio files to both your Cloud storage and the agency, along with a note about the job being a no-write-up.

Years later, long after you’ve retired, the firm receives a request for immediate transcription of the witness you remember as the “I Don’t Know” guy. You no longer have reporting software, but you do have the audio and rough transcripts that you saved to the Cloud, so you review NCRA’s Code of Professional Ethics Provisions 5 and 9, provisions which state that “reporters must be truthful and accurate when making a public statement” and that “reporters are to maintain the integrity of the profession,” and immediately inform the office that you no longer have transcription capability — but you are happy to forward both the audio and rough ASCII to them for transcription, proofreading, and dissemination.

They let you know how thankful they are for your quick response, and you conclude that email string with a reminder about Advisory Opinion 34, and the importance of accurately reflecting who transcribed the deposition.  Finally, they send you one last note of thanks, and as you exit your email, you feel extremely grateful that you backed everything up all those years ago, and that you maintained your Cloud storage. Thanks to technology and COPE, life as a retired reporter couldn’t be better, and the firm’s clients couldn’t be happier.