Court reporters take down verbatim conversations and proceedings both inside and outside of the legal world. While some of what they do is outside of the courthouse, their primary clients are attorneys that request a variety of court reporting services. Also called court stenographers, only a portion of their time is actually spent in the courts. The rest of their work involves transcribing the proceedings or providing other types of transcription and litigation support services for clients.

Notary Public

Besides taking down testimony, court reporters in many states also serve as notaries public. They can swear in a witness under oath, notarize documents, and certify documentation and transcription.

Depositions

In some legal cases, attorneys have an opportunity before the trial to conduct depositions. These are question and answer sessions of witnesses on the other side of the case. It is a controlled environment for lawyers to discover information that is relevant to the case. Deposition reporters take down what everyone in the room says during this time. Witnesses can be parties to the case, eyewitnesses or people providing expert testimony.

Courts

Court reporters also cover civil, criminal, traffic and federal jurisdictions. Many court reporting agencies have contracts with the municipalities, while other jurisdictions contract directly with stenographers as regular employees, who are often called officials. They take down preliminary hearings, pretrial conferences, arraignments, civil and criminal hearings and trials, bankruptcy cases and grand jury cases.

Military

Court martial and captain’s mast proceedings are also officially attended by court reporters. They may either be professional stenographers who are enlisted in the military or civilians from a private company contracted to fill this role.

Records Pick-up

Sometimes parties in arbitration or legal discussions are required to turn over documents and information to the opposing side. A third party who is not attached to either side may be sent to pick up the documents and verify the identity of the person providing the records. This is called a records pick-up. The individual may need to sign an affidavit or answer written questions. Court reporting agencies will often be that neutral third party without allegiance to either side.

Fact-Finding Conferences

When possible violations of federal laws or company by-laws may have taken place, there may be a fact-finding conference held to get a better picture of what happened in an incident to see whether there has been a violation or not. Usually a panel of authoritative figures will question several witness under oath one right after the other. There are no charges brought and no formal accusations made at that time, but anything said in the proceedings could lead to criminal investigations or legal cases. Fact-finding conferences are usually a precursor to legal depositions.