With the evolution of new and improved courtroom
technologies for recording the courtroom proceedings, there has been much
debate on whether Court Reporters are still an essential part of court room
proceedings. These technologies include high quality sound recorders which
record all the court room proceedings and produce an audio file which can be
later converted into written transcripts with the help of a smart voice-to-text
audio conversion software. Another technology which revolutionalized the entire
courtroom proceedings was the introduction of video. High quality video
recording equipments are available these days which can used to record and
check what exactly happened inside the courtroom, i.e. all the physical actions
with sound.
With these latest technologies available to us, the question
that arises is whether Court Reporters are still needed for making the official
judicial transcripts? Or, Are they just becoming redundant in the current
scenario?
To put it in smart, short and simple words, the answer is:
NO.
And to put some light on the above statement, let’s go into
a little elaborate and detailed answer.
The basic thing that comes into picture is that fact that the recording
equipment is still not human. These might produce an adequate record, but they
can never produce a perfectly accurate record which can be fit to be termed as
an official judicial record. There are always disturbances in the sound quality
of the record which cannot be properly identified by the translation software
which can alter the accuracy of the transcript. Also, speakers can be
incorrectly identified at times, recordings can be misplaced, and with this
equipment failure is not something new, it is something we often come across.
Any of the above problems disturb the complete authenticity of the record and
ruin it completely. To make sure the above statement does not happen, Court
Reporters they have properly mastered to use and manage these new advanced
equipments, making the Court Reporting process a more efficient and an improved
one.
So you can replace the courtroom technology whenever you
want, but the fact is that Court Reporters are and will continue to be an
integral part of the entire courtroom proceedings.
