Whether you’re an attorney, a paralegal, a court reporting
student, or a lay person who’s (willingly or unwillingly) become involved in a
legal proceeding, you know that there’s a lot of legal terminology and acronyms
to be familiar with. When working with a court reporter, you’ll encounter
additional terminology and acronyms that you might not have heard of before. Here
are some terms you might encounter in a deposition, a courtroom, or in
conversation with your court reporter.

·        
Affidavit – A written declaration made under
oath before a notary public or other authorized officer.

·        
ASCII – A computer term which stands for
American Standard Code for Information Interchange. Many litigation support
software programs require transcripts to be added in ASCII form, to preserve
the original page and line numbering and other formatting.

·        
CAT – Computer Aided Transcription.

·        
Certificate Page – The last page to appear
within a transcript, dated and signed by the court reporter who took the matter,
attesting that the transcript is true and correct.

·        
Certified Question – A question extracted from a
deposition and transcribed by the reporter to be taken to a judge having
jurisdiction in the matter for a ruling.

·        
Condensed Transcript – A miniaturized copy of
the original transcript printed in such a way as to place multiple pages of
transcript on a single sheet of paper, usually four transcript pages on one
letter-sized sheet of paper.

·        
CSR – Certified Shorthand Reporter, a
designation granted by the National Court Reporters Association and various
state licensing boards.

·        
CVR – Certified Verbatim Reporter, a designation
granted by the National Verbatim Reporters Association.

·        
Deponent – A person who testifies under oath.
The person answers questions put to him, and these questions and his answers
are recorded in shorthand by the court reporter.

·        
Errata Sheet – A page separate from the
transcript upon which a deponent is permitted to correct any errors he or she
claims are present in a transcript.

·        
E-Tran – Short for E-Transcript, which is a
product sold by RealLegal, but which can also be used to refer to any type of
electronically-delivered transcript.

·        
Exhibit – Document, object, etc., shown in court
as evidence. Exhibits are marked with an identifying number by the court
reporter and then indexed and described in the transcript of the proceedings.

·        
Expedite – An expedite is a job that has been
explicitly ordered by one of the attorneys at a deposition to be delivered
sooner than normal in exchange for an increased fee.

·        
Expert Witness – A type of witness who gives
testimony in relation to some scientific, technical, or professional matter.

·        
Freelance Reporter – A self-employed reporter or
one who works for an agency to report depositions and other proceedings as a
subcontractor.

·        
Interrogatory – A formal or written question, or
series of questions, which must be answered under oath.

·        
Official Reporter – A reporter who works in a
courtroom setting or does reporting for governmental agencies.

·        
Parenthetical – An expression or statement added
to a transcript by the reporter to explain non-verbal situations or movements
which occur during a proceeding.

·        
Protective Order – An order issued by a court to
permit one party to temporarily hold back certain documents or information, or
to protect a person from harassment or service of process, may also be used
when interrogatories or requests for production are oppressive or burdensome.

·        
Readback – When the court reporter reads a prior
question or answer back, from their stenographic notes, to deposition
participants or to the Court. The reporter may be requested to read back
portions of testimony following an objection, when a question needs to be
rephrased, or following a brief recess in the proceedings.

·        
Read & Sign – Deposition witnesses have the
right to read the prepared transcript and sign an errata sheet either stating
that the transcript is accurate, or listing any corrections by page and line
number.

·        
Reporter’s Worksheet – A pre-printed worksheet a
court reporter uses at a deposition to note appearances of counsel, other
people attending, start and stop times, objections, and any other special
instructions from counsel.

·        
Rough Transcript – A transcript which is not
fully edited and may contain errors; does not include a title page, appearance
page, or certificate page, but should contain a disclaimer and header or footer
stating that it is a rough draft.

·        
Stipulations – Agreements among counsel as to
certain things that occur at the beginning of a deposition, a motion hearing,
or trial.

·        
Subpoena – A court order for a witness to
appear.

·        
Subpoena Duces Tecum – A court order for a
witness to appear and produce specified documents at a set time and place.

Our helpful and professional reporters and office staff are
always here to help decipher court reporting terminology and answer your
questions. Schedule your next deposition online or by calling 919-682-7757  today!