Making and Managing

The Verbatim Record

A new NACM miniguide

NACM Annual Conference

Tuesday – July 10, 2007

Your presenters…

• Mike Bridenback: NACM Board member, Court Administrator – 13th Judicial Circuit Court (Tampa, FL)

• Jennifer Greene: Policy Analyst, Arizona Admin Office of the Courts

• Chris Crawford: Court management consulting, Justice Served®

WHAT and WHY?

WHAT• NACM Miniguide on making and managing the

verbatim record

WHY• The verbatim record has been largely a “hands off”

management issue. Human resource and technology issues have changed this condition over time.

“The first duty of society is justice”-Alexander Hamilton

Making the Verbatim Court Record

“…the court [would be] a place where what was confused before becomes more unsettled than ever.”

-Henry Waldorf Francis

Imagine in your court …Scenario #1: The Case of the Impaired Reporter Due to an employee staff resource shortage, we

contracted with one of the local private sector court reporting service providers to send us a qualified steno reporter with criminal court stenographer experience to capture a trial in one of the Felony Trial Divisions. This reporter came highly recommended to us having had previous trial experience in criminal court.

Scenario #1: Continued…

• During the morning trial proceedings the bailiff noticed that the reporter seemed a little “off”, and as the morning went on noticed the reporter was stroking her machine which was out of paper. The bailiff brought his observations to the attention of the Court. It was believed that the reporter was under the influence of either alcohol or drugs. The judge immediately stopped the trial.

• Upon inquiry by the Court, the reporter assured the Court that she had recorded the morning portion of the trial on a back-up tape recorder and that the record had been captured. When the reporter was asked to replay the recording, it was discovered that the tape was at the end and had not recorded any of the proceeding. The entire morning portion of the trial was missed and the presiding judge asked for a replacement for the reporter.

Scenario #1: Continued…

Imagine in your court …• Scenario #2: The Case of the Missing Data File Our digital court reporting system stores the data

recorded during the court proceedings on a server maintained by our court in order to assure that we always have a record. At the end of each day, that information on our server is backed up to a tape and stored.

• The digital court reporting service provider copies the files to their server and manages those files to facilitate transcript requests. Our digital court reporting service provider received a request for an appeal and couldn’t find the file on their server or the court’s server. The service provider then contacted the court and asked the court to restore the file from the backup tape.

Scenario #2: Continued…

• After an extensive search of all of the backup tapes, it was discovered that the case had been recorded but was “moved” from the court’s server. This “move” command had deleted the file off of the court’s server before the day’s backup was done. It appeared that one of the service provider technicians was copying files from the court’s server to the digital court reporting service provider’s server and instead of choosing to “copy” the file, the technician “moved” the file from one server to the other, thus deleting it from the court’s server. As a result, the record was lost.

Scenario #2: Continued…

• The court reporting service provider had to notice the DCA that due to a human error, the file had been deleted and the transcript could not be produced. The judge was then notified that she would have to retry the case.

Scenario #2: Continued…

Miniguide Content

• What is the court record? Methods of taking the verbatim record

• Review of trial court reporting practices Decision criteria/factors to identify most appropriate & cost effective methodManagement of court reporting resourcesPlanning for the future

• Appendices

Miniguide: METHODSStenographic court reporting– Using computer aided transcription (CAT)– Realtime technology

Miniguide: METHODS

• Voicewriting (formerly stenomask)– Using voice recognition CAT– Realtime technology

• Electronic recording– Digital versus analog (tape)

Miniguide: SELECTION

CRITERIA• Likelihood of need for a transcript• Availability of court reporting staff• Case or proceeding type• Statute or local rule• Complexity or special needs– Need for realtime feed– Accommodate a disability

Miniguide: MANAGEMENT ISSUES

• 1st decision = in-house or contract?• 2nd decision = one method or multiple?• Cost benefit analysis to choose method• Quality control• Technology & tech infrastructure• Archiving/retrieving the record• Transcription options

Miniguide: PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE• Advancements in technology• Integrating the record into the automated case

management system• Centralized (web) transcript repositories• Voice recognition• Captioning of video• Refreshing of storage media

The Bottom Line …

• Whether you like it or not, the verbatim record is a management concern.

• Whether it is in-house or contracted out, the record must be managed.

• The end goal is an accurate and cost effective record in a usable format

Questions??

And hopefully, answers

THANKS FOR COMING!!!