Tag: Atlanta court reporter

Obviously, Atlanta court reporters compile a lot of documentation in every case they work on.  In the old days, meaning before the Internet, these documents could take up entire rooms and take hours if not longer to sift through if you ever needed information from an old case.  The choice for litigators in this situation was to either burn valuable billable time doing this themselves or to apportion resources such as staff members to do the work for them.  Either way, this was usually a sunken cost and not at all time well-spent.

The arrival of the Internet Age has made things a lot easier for litigators in terms of organizing and later finding evidence.  Despite the added efficiency brought about by the Internet and technology in general, there are still some pitfalls that people in the legal world have fallen into over the years.  One of those involves the use of a word-processing program such as Microsoft Word or WordPerfect.  Which one do you use?  How do you protect your files?  How do you transfer them considering their size?

These are all valid concerns, and every problem that arises can do harm to a case’s progress.  That’s why the team at Elizabeth Gallo Court Reporting, LLC is moving to a format whereby all of our transcripts will be available via searchable PDF (Portable Document File) files.  Below are five reasons why we think this is going to provide a huge benefit to our clients.

1. Securable

When something is saved in PDF format, you can secure it such that changes cannot be made to it.  That ensures that the record you see has not been changed and that it’s accurate.

2. Compatible

We alluded to a problem above in that different operating systems tend to depend on different word processing programs.  That is not an issue with the PDF format, as these files will display and function properly in any environment.

3. Compressible

Have you ever tried to download or email a long Word document?  It’s simply not efficient.  You can compress PDF files and move them around easily.

4. Manageable

The newer types of PDF files in particular are extremely powerful.  You can do things like rearrange pages, redact information and make notes in the margins.  This obviously makes research or reviewing a deposition a lot easier.

5. Available

As stated above, it doesn’t matter what type of computer you have or what type of operating system you use, as PDF files will work.  You can also read PDF’s after you complete a simple and free download.

We haven’t even discussed the power of being able to search PDF files yet.  We are going to put this technology to use for our clients because the more time they save, the more overhead they avoid and the more prepared they are going to be for the next steps in their cases.  If you’d like to learn more about how we incorporate technology into our Atlanta court reporting services, contact the team at Elizabeth Gallo Court Reporting, LLC today.

When a litigator needs to review the transcript of a deposition, hearing or trial in order to be prepared for a subsequent proceeding, that attorney has traditionally faced a difficult choice.  He or she can either spend hours upon hours poring over a paper transcript looking for useful answers or that attorney can ask staff such as a paralegal or a clerk to do the same.  The first option sucks up a lot of time that could be spent doing other things to prepare and the second option leaves open the possibility that something might be missed during the review.  No one looks forward to reviewing transcripts, but it is a necessary task for obvious reasons.

The Georgia court reporters at Elizabeth Gallo Court Reporting, LLC have been working with litigators for several years, and we listen when they tell us about what they dislike.  We are not techies in the sense that we can come up with some new tool that eliminates all of this pain, but we make sure that we pay close attention to those who can.  Based on a recent article that appeared on the American Bar Association Web site, it seems that there are tools that could help to put the drudgery of reviewing paper transcripts for hours in the past.

A link to that article can be found here, and our team at Elizabeth Gallo Court Reporting, LLC is excited to see some of these developments.  We are particularly interested in the ability to make use of tablet PDF readers.  Taking this step could completely change the way that litigators review depositions and other types of transcripts, and this capability even allows for direct links to exhibits and the word index.  With the search functionality already a part of many of these packages, time is saved and answers are quickly found.

Elizabeth Gallo Court Reporting, LLC is already jumping into the technology world in as many ways as possible.  We are engaging with a software company that will allow us to convert all of our transcripts to the PDF format.  Doing so will allow our transcripts to obtain compatibility with apps, readers and other functionality that will make the jobs of litigators easier by simply saving them a ton of time.  We’re going to keep taking these types of steps whenever possible.

We’ll keep you posted on some of the new things that are coming about that will make the entire legal process easier to manage, but this is one step that we are excited to take.