Tag: court reporters

If you’ve been reading our blog, you know that the Georgia court reporters at Elizabeth Gallo Court Reporting, LLC has long believed in the idea of embracing technology.  We’ve incorporated offerings into our service that provide for an enormous number of advantages for our clients, and we will continue to do so in the future as more and more advances are made.  These advantages make a tangible difference for those who work with us both in terms of the quality of the service we provide and to their bottom lines.

However, this embrace of technology does not mean that we want to see human court reporters disappear from court rooms or deposition rooms.  We still believe that the presence of an actual person handling the court reporting duties is extremely important, and we’ll always make sure that one of our Georgia court reporters is on the scene when something is happening.  Below are five reasons why we think this way.

1.  The Human Element Matters

Many people have been known to speak more clearly when they are in front of a person as opposed to speaking into a speaker or a microphone.  Most people comport themselves differently when working in the presence of a person as opposed to a laptop.  That makes a difference in courtrooms.

2.  Clarification

If a video recorder is handling the court reporting aspect of a hearing, that piece of technology will not speak up and ask for a clarification if an answer is mumbled or otherwise inaudible.  Those who review the transcript will simply see that what was said could not be deciphered.  A human court reporter will do what’s necessary to prompt a clear answer if necessary.

3.  Technology Problems

If one of our Georgia court reporters is sick or stuck in traffic or something else happens, the folks at Elizabeth Gallo Court Reporting, LLC will provide another court reporter immediately.  What happens if technology breaks down during a hearing?  Who fixes that problem?  A technological breakdown can severely hamper the progress of a proceeding.

4.  Responsibility

The Georgia court reporters at Elizabeth Gallo Court Reporting, LLC, have always stood behind the work produced for clients.  If there was some sort of a problem, we have corrected it.  That may not be so easy when it comes to technological glitches that arise during a hearing, deposition or trial.

5.  Not Mutually Exclusive

It’s our belief that using technology should augment the human aspect of our court reporting service instead of replace it.  It’s also true that the presence of technology improves the way in which we deliver our transcripts.  These two elements are not mutually exclusive, but rather serve to help each other.

If you’d like to learn more about how we provide the best of both human talent and technology that court reporting can offer, all you need to do is contact the team at Elizabeth Gallo Court Reporting, LLC.  We will happily describe how we can help you and answer your questions promptly.

Technology has made things possible that people could never have envisoned 20 years ago.  At the rate it’s advancing, things that seem like they are cutting-edge now will be as obsolete as the typewriter in a short amount of time.  With regards to court reporters, technological innovations have changed the way that we do our work for our clients in just about every way imaginable.  We can now store and deliver our product electronically.  We can add functionality to it that makes it easy to use when these transcripts need to be studied and analyzed.  We can do just about anything we want at this point, all of which makes our service better.

One of the most central components of this advancement is video technology.  Videoconferencing is something that the court reporters at Elizabeth Gallo Court Reporting, LLC, have immediately embraced, as it simply makes managing cases for litigators and their staffs that much easier and less expensive.  In our continuing quest to add to our offerings that are being driven by technology, our team is now able to provide something truly remarkable to our clients.  This tool is known as video transcript syncing.  We’ll explain how it works below.

Video Transcript Syncing Described

Litigators understand that back in the pre-technology days, many hours were spent poring over paper transcripts in an effort to find the passage that was needed for review.  Those days largely ended when electronic transcripts became the norm.  More recently, video transcripts of testimony became available, and this added another dimension to the analysis of testimony by way of the ability to actually see how a witness answered a question or questions.  Now we can manage these video transcripts much like we can electronic, written transcripts, but you have to work with Georgia court reporters who have incorporated this capability into their service.

Elizabeth Gallo Court Reporting, LLC and DepoView

DepoView has partnered with our firm to provide video transcript syncing, and that means that people who use this tool can now do the following:

• Search testimony with keywords and watch the screen jump to that portion of the testimony
• Cut specific video clips from the testimony and save them
• Export clips to a PowerPoint presentation
• Email video clips
• Edit clips to within one-tenth of a second

These are just a few examples of what can be done.  In addition, people who download the DepoView app can do all of this from their iPad, and downloading the app is free.  It’s just that easy – you can manage your transcripts anywhere and at any time and with all of the capabilities of an experienced video editor.

As Georgia court reporters, we owe it to our clients to work tirelessly to provide them with every advantage possible.  Our new video transcript syncing capabilities are just the latest example of how we continue to look forward.  If you’d like to know more about how we can help you, contact Elizabeth Gallo Court Reporting, LLC, today for prompt answers to your questions.

As you’ve hopefully heard by now, Elizabeth Gallo Court Reporting, LLC is going green.  We’re doing so for many reasons, but we’ve been at it long enough now to have obtained a better understanding of just how it changes the work our Georgia court reporters provide for you for the better.  Below you’ll find five specific examples of how our clients can and should benefit when our court reporters do what it takes to minimize the amount of paper that we use in our practice.

1.  The Environment

Some people place more importance on the environment than others, but no one really wants to hurt the environment or purposely cut down millions of trees.  We’ve found that we are already saving on paper usage, but this also helps the environment in other ways.  We’re not going to need as much storage space as we used to, and neither are many of our clients.  That saves on costs for storage, fuel for delivery and obviously on supplies.

2.  Speed

It used to be that some court reporting firms would need some time to put together paper transcripts such that they were ready to be delivered to a client.  The Georgia court reporters at Elizabeth Gallo Court Reporting, LLC, were always extremely fast with our transcript delivery, but nothing can match the speed of technology.  In many situations, we can have an electronic transcript ready to be reviewed and studied within a matter of hours if necessary.

3.  Access

Before all of this technology became so available, court reporters used to work with courier services and shipping vendors to make sure that their transcripts were delivered promptly and accurately.  At this point, our firm can have your transcripts ready as soon as you are able to log onto the Internet and view them through our secure connection.

4.  Savings

It’s not uncommon for court reporting firms to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more, per year on paper alone.  The Georgia court reporters at Elizabeth Gallo Court Reporting, LLC, are already seeing lower costs because of our ability to deliver transcripts and other information electronically.  We’re not only saving on paper, but we’re also saving on shipping supplies and shipping costs as well as worker hours spent preparing our transcripts for shipping.

5.  Cost Savings Passed-On

At Elizabeth Gallo Court Reporting, LLC, we have always worked to lower our costs, but we have also always looked to pass those cost savings onto our clients.  We are doing that with our move towards the minimizing of paper usage, and we know that those who work with us will appreciate what we’re going in terms of the bottom line.

Overall, we’re very satisfied with the progress we’ve made with regards to minimizing our usage of paper.  We’re going to keep looking for ways to move towards a greener court reporter practice.  If you’d like to learn more about our services, contact Elizabeth Gallo Court Reporting, LLC today for prompt answers to your questions.

By now most of us have heard about the playful exchange that took place between Nigel Hayes, a basketball player for the University of Wisconsin Badgers, and an NCAA stenographer who was recording a recent press conference. That now-viral video originated more than a week ago in Omaha, Nebraska. It was a lighthearted moment that most people took as such and then moved on to other things. Apparently some people took real notice of what Hayes had to say about the stenographer and the court reporter profession in general, as his words are apparently leading to real and tangible benefits for the profession.

The University of Wisconsin is located in Madison, Wisconsin. Another school in the area is known as Madison Area Technical College, or MATC. According to a news story that appeared recently in a local newspaper, the person in charge of the court reporter program at MATC has great appreciation for what Hayes has done for this line of work. A link to that story can be found here. The MATC court reporter program won a $550,000 grant from the federal government last fall that will be used to create the school’s first competency-based degree that can be completed either entirely online or partially online and partially on campus.

A few weeks ago, MATC had 30 court reporter students enrolled in its program. It now appears to be on its way towards its stated goal of enrolling 300 students from around the United States. The director at MATC places a lot of credit for that recent upward trend on the attention that has been brought to the court reporter profession by Nigel Hayes. More people now seem to be aware of the fact that court reporters can earn a good living when they get into the field and that there is a projected shortage of court reporters on a national level in the coming years.

This is how viral videos and seemingly innocuous exchanges at press conferences at enormous events can have a real effect on many things. MATC is now getting more calls and inquiries about its program than it was even a handful of days ago, and that has a lot to do with Hayes and his comments over the past couple of weeks. Hayes’ Badgers have since advanced from the round of 64 in the NCAA Tournament all the way to the team’s second consecutive appearance in the Final Four, where they will take on the Kentucky Wildcats this weekend.

Our team has been serving our clients as Georgia court reporters for several years now, and we are also excited to see the attention that’s being brought to our profession by this entire episode. If you would like to learn more about how we can help you, contact Elizabeth Gallo Court Reporting, LLC today to have your questions answered.