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Across the country, litigators carry on their tasks of gathering evidence for civil litigation in a wide variety of ways depending upon the states’ rules of civil procedure and the regional area customs regarding this very tedious task; record retrieval.

Record retrieval or records procurement as some may call it is the collection of records from a custodian, company, government agency, medical provider, etc.  for the purpose of gathering evidence in civil litigation for trial purposes. During the discovery phase of a civil cause of action, the plaintiff and defense have the right as well as the duty to their client to ask for certain documents or what we are calling “records” for the case they are either defending or pursuing for their client.

Litigation is truly a compiling of a great wealth of information in order for any prudent firm and/or attorney to properly represent their client. Every claimant and every defendant feel they are either being wronged or pursuing justice in their own eyes. The litigators have the duty to follow every possible lead and leave no stone unturned in regards to representing their client. Hence, collecting records is and has been a crucial piece of the evidence gathering process for years and years.

Different states have different civil practices regarding record retrieval during the discovery process. Some states require the attorneys to gather documents from one another and the burden falls squarely upon the requestor to deliver. Other states require the individual sides, so to speak, to seek their own means of procuring evidence by and through custodians (legal guardians), companies, government agencies, etc.  Here is where record retrieval companies have made their mark. Record retrieval companies relieve the litigators and their staff the burden of collecting the necessary records from the custodians. If the job of collecting records was easy, litigators and staff personnel would not need independent companies.

Custodians do not quickly comply with requests for records because it is a burden no one desires to perform especially if their own company is involved in the cause of action. This becomes a huge tug of war when it comes to finally retrieving the necessary records to facilitate the case properly and to disseminate the evidence to ultimately present to the court in an understandable and easily comprehendible manner. Litigators are experts in disseminating evidence or records. This is their job and the good ones make a lot of money being good at their job. Representing your client is not an easy task. The litigators that make their mark are the ones who work many hours where a lot weekends are busy at the office instead of being home with the family.

Record retrieval companies assist litigators and their staff by taking the burden off of the litigators’ staff and retrieving the documents/records themselves in which are needed for the cause of action to be presented thoroughly and correctly with the documents and/or records that are required for the case to be discovered completely.

Completely is a key word in record retrieval. Many times companies, government agencies and the like do not send a “complete” document request. Here is where litigators truly save precious time and money by hiring an independent company to obtain a complete set of records. The record retrieval company must make sure the records obtained are complete and all the necessary legal documents are signed and notarized, when necessary, and all paper work is done according to the laws of the state in which the cause of action has been filed. Not anyone can handle the daunting task of obtaining everything requested, signed and delivered and of course, when the litigators need or have requested the records to be obtained.  Custodians are notorious for stalling for time or sending incorrect information requested along with improperly filled out Affidavits and un-notarized documents. The record retrieval company’s task is to go back to the custodian and reopen the request for the documents. Once again, they find themselves being put on the back burner with the custodian in regards to the custodian complying with the legal request of documents the plaintiff and/or defense are duty bound to obtain. The cat and mouse game starts again and the record retrieval company must pursue the request, everyday if possible, to obtain a correct and complete record.

Record retrieval companies, only a handful in the country, earn their keep and their usefulness in the litigation support industry. Their job of collecting records from people, companies, agencies, medical providers and many more venues is not easy to say the least. They must have knowledge of civil rules and procedures and have the effectiveness and many times  salesmanship qualities in gathering evidence in the form of records retrieval.

Our company has been successfully procuring documents and records for litigators for over 25 years.

Tim McCarble
Marketing Coordinator
Southwest Reporting & Legal Video
www.swreporting.com

In today’s high-tech world of technology ever changing and improving, court reporters continually come under attack by possibilities of being replaced by machines. As machines seem to improve and computers become faster and are able to perform vast different tasks seemingly simultaneously, one facet of life seems to stand out alone among all the rest; voice recognition.

With voice recognition, computers are supposed to be able to listen to a person’s voice and then instantaneously transcribe the words into text. Even though voice recognition has come a long way since dictating machines, one particular peculiarity stands out in blazing obvious hindrance; voice dialect, tone and meaning.

A recording device may compute what it thinks it hears but an entirely different word was actually used due to dialect, which machines cannot comprehend.  This small and sometimes minor discrepancy may seem frivolous to the outside world, but in the world of justice and litigation it can mean the difference in swaying the jury one way or the other when a single word is recorded and typed incorrectly.

Machines have their place in society and we have become dependent upon their necessity in creating our world of speed and functionality. But in the world of justice and the world of the legal written word, where every word holds the utmost importance, not only on its meaning but in the context in which it was used, the human ear cannot be replaced by a machine; simply because machines cannot think nor reason nor understand the inflection of a voice or the desired meaning behind the words.

Court reporters can be replaced by court recordings but on appeal or when the words need to be put on paper, only a human can listen, reason and hear the true words spoken which in litigation makes all the difference in winning or losing and justice rings true.

Why would you trust a machine, which does not think, over a human that has far greater abilities than a machine and an incredible ear that transcends far above any listening device any man can invent?

We employ highly trained and skilled certified reporters who have spent years listening and writing complex hard to understand legal words so that the jury has no doubt the words being spoken or read in trials and mediations are 100% the actual words spoken without any possibility the batteries died or the power grid went down even for a second.

A Witness’ demeanor in today’s society has become a critical aspect for jury’s across the country. Our society today is accustomed to watching sitcoms, news and entertainment via the television in an increasing fashion. We gain our insight and news through media outlets from television, handheld PDA’s and cell phones nearly twenty fours a day.

Trials are based upon evidence which is gathered during the discovery phase of civil litigation and the attorneys, paralegals and legal secretaries disseminate the evidence by pouring over thousands of pages of documents, written depositions and pleadings all submitted to the courts for either the defense or for the plaintiff regarding a cause of action a jury will sit and listen and render a verdict either for or against the claimant or the defendant. The trial lawyers’ job is to create a plausible and understandable presentation for everyone to clearly follow and determine a just outcome for one side or the other. The attorney’s job is give their client the best possible presentation of evidence and clearly using every means available to bring all evidence to the court’s eyes and ears.

During a trial, either by judge or jury, the record becomes the critical evidence the court will utilize in determining guilt or innocence. The attorneys and their staff have the daunting task of making the evidence understandable and clear for the lay jury to mentally and concisely make a just decision.

During the trial, the defense or the plaintiff counsel have the ability and legal right to either read the written transcript or play the deposition testimony in the form of video recordings to the court to be admissible as evidence for the court to hear and weigh the evidence presented. The option of video recording in conjunction or simultaneously to the written record, performed by freelance court reporters, is predetermined prior to the notice of deposition (NOD) when the witness is summoned to present themselves for questions and answers (depositions).  Most of the time, deposition notices (NOD’s) are served upon the witness with wording that allows for both a court reporter and a legal videographer to be present. This gives the noticing party the right to choose how the deposition or statement is to be recorded.

Whether or not both forms of recordings are actually performed simultaneously are normally determined by the ordering attorney; where many different factors can determine the outcome of this decision one way or the other or both. Some frequent reasons a legal videographer is used in conjunction to a certified court reporter taking down every word is; the witness is gravely ill, the witness may not be able to attend the trial, the witness is hostile and the attorney may want the witnesses’ demeanor shown to the court for their client’s benefit, etc.  In a famous case where a witness was videotaped for demeanor and where no doubt upon what was said and how it was said was in the case of Monica Lewinsky vs. US, President Bill Clinton’s famous videotaped deposition and his infamous answers to direct questions regarding the subject matter.

There is positively no doubt video recordings capture not only demeanor and clarity of speech and a leaves little to no room for errors in questions and answers but it brings to life the words and meanings of words of how they are spoken, tone, voice inflection and most importantly; brings the most important facet of face to face eye contact to the audience; the truth factor and body language. The written word/record or transcript can never portray these aspects of the record.

Legal video records and in specific expert legal video specialists who are formerly trained by the National Court Reporting Agency (NCRA) and become Certified Legal Video Specialists (CLVS by NCRA training) capture and preserve the video record holding their jobs to the highest form of standards and importance with capturing and maintaining the integrity of exactly what was asked and answered during legal proceedings without missing a single word, grunt or groan.

Legal Video specialists take their jobs seriously and bare in mind the record they are creating is as important as the written transcript and in some cases, become more important.

We are committed to excellence and integrity when it comes to legal videography. We have been transcribing and legal video recording since 1972 with an impeccable reputation.

Tim McCarble
Marketing Coordinator
Southwest Reporting & Video Service
Houston, Texas

After all is said and done, it all ends up in the capable hands of
our production department. As production manager it is crucial
to be on the ball at all times…we definitely cannot drop the ball!
Our clients depend upon our quick and efficient work ethic in order
for their success and the success of their clients’. What we do or
do not do reflects back to our client. Their success is our success.

Once the reporters and videographers have done their part, it is up
to our production department to make sure that the transcripts and
videos mpeg’s are produced and delivered in a timely manner.
Fortunately, technology has given us many ways to speed up this
process. As an example; the e-Transcript is a quick and efficient way
to deliver a rush transcript to our clients anywhere in the U.S. In
the past, delivering a rush transcript had to be sent via Fed-Ex, etc.
and it did not arrive until the next day and as we all know, delivery
services can be late.

With the combination of our excellent court reporters and modern
technology, the production process today makes it possible,
if needed, a transcript being delivered the very same day the
deposition took place; in another city or state or even worldwide.

I’m just waiting now for an invention that makes it possible
to produce the transcript before the deposition actually takes
place…just kidding!

Carla Talmadge
Production Manager
Southwest Reporting & Video Service, Inc.
713.650.1800
www.swreporting.com

This is a site made by court reporters, and for court reporters. This is a place for all of you overworked, tired, and lightning quick typer’s can come and talk about anything, and everything. From something as small as a new litigation support job in your area, to court reporting in Alaska for a once in a lifetime exerience….

No matter what it is, if its related to Court reporting and Litigation services, its welcome here. Posts your problems, questions, or current projects that you may need some assistance with and our administrative staff as well as YOU (the members) will all help eachother out.

So remember, let’s keep it fun, new, interesting, but most importantly keep it ALL ABOUT COURT REPORTING!

TM

Court Reporter with www.swreporting.com

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