While many have increasingly begun to see digital recording systems as the wave of the future, many Texas courts are increasingly taking an apparently “backward” step: utilizing human court reporters. Last year, in Houston, Liberty County Court At-Law Judge Tommy Chambers requested that the County Commissioners Court hire a court reporter to make up for deficiencies in the digital recording system. The system he described is apparently susceptible to a number of different technical errors, including one that can be easily exploited: people can muffle their speech in order to render it inaudible in the final recordings. Chambers addressed the court in February, stating that while the current law allows for digital recordings of the court proceedings, this was impossible with the current system. Chambers told the Commissioners Court that Texas state law made it mandatory that the court have a human court reporter and not just the digital system. While Houston county had been having budget difficulties, Chambers was adamant that the court required a human stenographer in order both to comply with state law and to achieve accuracy in its legal records.
In 2001, Texas brought back human court reporters after a failed attempt to implement digital audio and video recording systems. The state cited the ability of court reporters to record information in real time as well as the benefits of having a transcript available immediately after trials. Houston courts, among others, had run into a number of difficulties reviewing video records, training additional personnel to utilize the recording systems, and achieving accurate trial transcripts with digital recordings.
In a recent interview with veteran court reporter Peg Sokalski-Dorchack, the experienced director of the MacCormac college court reporting program, declared that modern technology, far from being the enemy of the profession, or reducing work for skilled court reporters, “has saved the profession”. She described how computers have helped court reporters become faster and more efficient by helping them with transcription, allowing them to send transcripts via email, and many other ways. Far from seeing digital technology as a rival for the human court reporter, Sokalski-Dorchack sees new technology as a court reporter’s greatest tool. At MacCormac college, she trains future court reporters, and yet, despite the advances of court reporting technology, she was nothing but hopeful about the future of the profession in her interview. Clearly, any Houston court looking for the most accurate and efficient method of transcription and court reporting would do well to utilize the unique skills of an experienced court reporter, backed by the newest digital technology.
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