Hints
- Explain the role of the court reporter to the witness. Instruct the witness to answer with an audible response, as opposed to “uh-huh,” “uh-uh,” sounds or shakes or nods. Instruct the witness to wait until the question has been completely asked before beginning their answer.
- Try not to speak on top of one another. Court reporters have difficulty transcribing two or more people talking at once.
- When numbers are involved, specify the context. Numbers can be confusing in a transcript when lawyers do not specify whether they are talking about dollars, quantities or percentages.
- Before the proceeding, give your card to the court reporter and write on it who you represent so you will be properly identified in the transcript.
- Be sure to clearly specify letters of the alphabet if they are discussed individually and identify them in spellings; i.e., “V” as in Victor.
- If an interpreter is used for a foreign language-speaking witness, be sure the interpreter speaks in lieu of the witness and in the first person. The court reporter must be able to understand the interpreter to accurately transcribe the proceedings.
- Don’t hesitate to ask the reporter to read back a question or an answer if you are in doubt as to a response.
- Spell all proper, foreign or unusual words and acronyms. If time permits, provide the reporter with a word list before the deposition begins.
- If you are planning to have your deposition videotaped or require realtime services, advise all opposing counsel by so indicating in the deposition notice to avoid objections at the time of the deposition.
- Communicate all special requests such as expedited delivery, rough ASCII disk, realtime hookup to the court reporting firm at the time you schedule the deposition.