Court reporting agencies face unique challenges as the legal system struggles to address the backlog of cases. Difficulty in finding stenographers to cover jobs leaves some agencies feeling like they are drowning in unmet client needs. Fortunately, there are tools that can relieve these stresses and allow court reporting agencies to not only stay afloat but to grow with the market’s high demands.
Here are a few challenges currently impacting the court reporting profession, along with ways that Verbit can help.
The Challenge: Backlog of Work
Backlogs in US courts spiked by one-third because of Covid-19, and now every professional who serves a role in moving cases along, including court reporters, feel pressure to make up for lost time. There are only so many hours in the day, so when work piles up, professionals may feel like they will never get back on track.
The Fix: Incorporate Efficiency-Boosting Tools
Using transcription solutions like Verbit gives court reporters a way to work faster and smarter. These tools do not replace people; they make their jobs easier. With added services like scoping and proofing, both agencies and individual court reporters can benefit by incorporating Verbit into their workflow.
Adding digital court reporters to an agency also relieves the stress of personnel shortages. These trained professionals serve in the same roles as stenographers, including the official duties of swearing in witnesses and certifying transcripts. Tapping into the pool of digital court reporters allows an agency to take on more clients and grow its business.
The Challenge: Achieving Quicker Turnaround Times While Maintaining Quality
Lawyers may require fast turnaround times and quick access to transcripts. However, when speeding up the process, court reporters cannot afford to sacrifice transcript quality.
The Fix: Use Sophisticated Software and Trained Professionals in Concert
Verbit designed its technology to address the needs of court reporters. The sophisticated software learns new words and users can upload terminology to ensure that it correctly captures unique phrases, terms of art or names. This capability allows court reporters to speed up their workflows. However, even today’s best technology cannot reach the accuracy needs of the legal industry.
Verbit solves this issue by using a layer of professional transcribers and fact-checkers to ensure that the final transcript meets the demands of lawyers, judges, and others in the legal system. With Verbit’s multiple layer approach, court reporters can continue to produce accurate, high-quality results while reducing the time it takes to get final transcripts to their clients.
The Challenge: Offering Services Remotely and In-Person
The legal system relied heavily on remote proceedings during the pandemic. Now that courts are reopening, some in-person proceedings are happening once again. However, many lawyers plan to continue using Zoom to reduce travel times and costs. Expert predictions indicate that around 50% of depositions will remain remote indefinitely. With in-person and remote proceedings split almost evenly, modern court reporting agencies must accommodate both settings.
The Fix: Use Flexible Tools and Hire Tech-Savvy Reporters
Verbit’s Live Deposition product integrates with Zoom for a user-friendly experience that helps court reporters accommodate remote depositions. Moreover, these tools work equally well when the parties are all in the same room. Our customers agree that the best strategy is to have flexible solutions that work in both traditional, in-person settings and virtual ones.
The legal industry realizes that using remote and in-person processes is the only way to tackle case backlogs and accommodate the growing market. Court reporters and agencies must also prepare for both methods in order to compete and attract new clients.
Technology is changing the legal profession, and many people are finding opportunities in these innovations. The court reporting agencies that can leverage new tools to serve the industry will emerge with a competitive advantage in the post-Covid years.
Verbit is here to support court reporters and agencies with technology designed to meet their needs. For more information about Verbit’s transcription solution, contact us.