When you're an attorney conducting a deposition, a shorthand reporter is an essential partner. Their transcriptions will be used by you and other lawyers to build your cases for trial, so ensuring they are able to do their work well is important. Make things easier for you and your reporter with these suggestions.

Consult Your Reporter Beforehand

A few days before the scheduled deposition, it's smart to take a bit of time to meet with the shorthand reporter. They will talk with you about what kind of setup time they need and discuss materials that they may need in order to perform accurately. Of particular note are witness names and any documents that will be referenced during the proceedings. Having a list of everyone they'll be transcribing can prevent misspelled names, and being able to mark up documents with quotation marks will allow them to be more precise with any language read out loud during the proceedings. If there are special acronyms that will be used, you might also compile a list of those.

This meeting is also beneficial for you, as you can discuss how you'd like to receive completed transcripts. Do you want them emailed? Do you need them to be marked confidential? Ask for whatever you'll need in order to consider the job done well.

Set Helpful Rules for the Deposition

When you're about to depose a specific witness, you may already have some guidelines for them to follow. Remember to include some suggestions for how they can be helpful not only to your case, but the shorthand reporter. For example, you may ask a witness to speak up or wait until you've finished a question before they begin to respond. If the deposition and you find that you're interrupting the witness or vice versa, stop and allow everyone to say their piece without crosstalk. That way, the reporter can make a more accurate record.

Read Slowly

Even if you've provided documents to the reporter, read slowly when going through them. This will help your witness to understand what is being read, but it will also help your reporter. Take a slow, deep breath before each passage to remind yourself not to speed read.

Your court reporter should be able to work easily when you and those in your firm observe these pointers. Discuss your depositions with a local shorthand reporting firm like L & L Reporting Service, Inc. so that they can assign the most suitable reporter for your needs.