The REAL Benefits of Realtime Reporting

The demand for real-time court reporting has skyrocketed in the past few years. Technology offers us immediate access to information. That instant gratification has become the norm. It’s no surprise then, that the same need for immediacy has taken its hold on the legal field, too. While the technology isn’t necessarily new, the benefits continue to assist and improve the litigation process.

Watch This Video Demonstration to See RealTime in Action

*Scroll down for video transcription

Here are three key advantages of real-time reporting that often get overlooked:

Immediate Access

As mentioned, technology has given us an insatiable appetite, creating a must-have-now mentality. Realtime reporting allows immediate access to courtroom proceedings. By viewing the record as it is created, an attorney can ensure that:
Questions are phrased artfully
Questions are answered
All relevant questions are asked

Additionally, the search feature allows attorneys to seek out specific words, phrases or highlighted sections within the transcribed material. Entering a search term or phrase in the search bar will take you to the highlighted section while the real-time transcription is still taking place. With a click of a button, a court reporter can pick up where the current line of questioning is taking place.

Highlight Key Points

Realtime reporting provides an opportunity to flag or highlight key points. Much like highlighting key passages in a book or article, the real-time software has built-in features to highlight a word or section. This is called issue coding. Some issue codes are pre-set but some software allows reporters to create their own issue codes. An example of some of the preset issue codes are:

1.) Follow-up

2.) Doc/Info requests and

3.) Credibility

Reporters can also attach notes to these issue codes, giving them more detail.

Immediate Availability When the Session Is Finished

While attorneys have handwritten notes at their disposal, being able to immediately scroll back through testimony allows them to touch on new points that may or may not have been included in their notes. This allows them to immediately review and save the information. After the deposition or session has finished, all notes and issue codes can be exported to a load file (normally. ptx) and uploaded to case management software for review. This might prove more efficient to some rather than rifling through handwritten notes on a legal pad.

When you want the most effective court reporting service possible, ask for real-time reporting. Realtime reporting offers immediate benefits and allows the information you need to be at your disposal in…. real time.

Request RealTime for your next deposition.

Video Transcript

Hi, I’m Mike Tisa with Aptus Court Reporting and here’s a quick demo of RealTime Software and how it can help you in a deposition. First off, this particular platform is called KFewNed and it’s the desktop version and there’s also a version for iPads as well. Let’s get started. We’ll go into Demo Mode and it’s already preloaded with a sample transcript so it’s not taking down what I’m saying but as you’ll see here, RealTime gives you the question and answer in, just like its name, real time.

You’re able to see the question you asked or opposing counsel asked, then see the answer given by the witness. And you can also stop it and review something if you like. Let me try that again. So as you can see here, we’re getting the questions and answers in, you guessed it, real time. So if I’m the taking attorney, I can see my question and then I can also see the witness’s response or if I’m opposing counsel, I have a record of everything being said in RealTime. Think of this as a DVR but with text.

So as you can see here, we’re scrolling, if we wanted to stop, we just kind of click, hit the space bar and it’s gonna continue giving you RealTime but it’s gonna stop in the section you want to review. So if you’re reviewing something, whether you’re the taking attorney or the opposing counsel, you’ve the ability to mark something. You just highlight a line and you can hit space bar and it’s gonna highlight that with a mark there. You can add a note additionally too so if it’s something you need to follow up on, a doc. review, whatever it may be, you can mark that and annotate it and then you’re gonna get a red line or whatever color you deem it to be.

You have the ability to go back and look at what you wanted to review. To go back to where RealTime is going on currently, just hit the follow the RealTime button and there you go, question and answer going on currently. Another great feature you can use within the RealTime is this Word Index or you can search for a particular word. So let’s just put something in my car and there you go, it takes you there and if you keep hitting the return button, it’s gonna go to every spot in the transcript where the word car is listed.

So it’s great if you have a proper noun, if you have a word that didn’t make sense, or a key word that triggers something in your mind that you want to go back and review, you can stop the transcript and look at it. So while you’re on a break, you’re gonna come back and follow up on something, it just makes it really easy to review rather than the longhand of writing on a legal pad. And there you go, there’s a quick demo for you.

RealTime reporting is becoming quite common in depositions and if you’d like an extended look in our extended demo, give us a call at the information provided, Aptus Court Reporting. Thank you.