Overview
Realtime technology allows court reporters to instantly convert their stenographic notes into English text.  The text is then displayed on computer monitors or large projection screens placed around the courtroom.  The steno machines used today by court reporters are fully computerized. The realtime software translates the stenographic symbols and allows reporters to keep courtroom records in a digital format.  This technology is the nucleus of computerized courtrooms and lets court reporters deliver transcripts within hours, or even minutes, after court adjourns.

Realtime Technology Skills
To perform realtime writing, court reporters must learn a “conflict-free” theory. Court reporters continuously build their software translation dictionaries so possible words, names, places or events that may be mentioned will translate correctly.  They also need to build and customize their software dictionaries to translate homophones (for example, three separate and distinct entries for their, there, and they’re).  In addition, another important element of realtime writing is speed skills.  Court reporters generally take down testimony at an average speed of 180 or more words per minute.  To be certified nationally as a realtime writer, court reporters must be able to take down testimony at speeds up to 225 words per minute.

How Realtime Works In A Computerized Courtroom Like Courtroom 23

• During the trial, the judge and attorneys can review and mark portions of testimony and make notes within the transcript on their computer screens without interrupting the proceedings.  They can perform searches for specific words, phrases, roots of words, and other more complicated information in one or more documents simultaneously.  Searches through a file can be made forward or backward, or the search can be set to tag or highlight certain words as the trial proceeds.

• Court reporters utilize realtime technology to print rough transcripts of testimony or copy them in ASCII format onto floppy disks for attorneys and judges during breaks in the trial.  Final copy can be delivered in printed text, on disk, by e-mail or posted to a Web site for authorized users to access after court adjourns for the day.

• In-court computerization opens a world of research capabilities.  Attorneys and judges can call up depositions to compare with current testimony.  CD-ROM technology enables attorneys to bring volumes of legal research into the courtroom on a thin disk.  Through e-mail and the Internet, attorneys can send the trial proceedings off-site, access online legal research programs or communicate with co-counsel and consult expert witnesses off-site.

• Court reporter technology can be used to provide compressed transcripts for the trial.  These condensed formats can capture up to 15 standard transcript pages on both sides of a single sheet of paper, with three columns of easily readable type.  In addition, the technology can produce a printed concordance of keywords in the transcript listed by page and line number.
  
• Realtime-based programs allow attorneys to organize marked testimony, enabling them to get more accurate notes than a pad and pencil would allow.  Also, with a cut and paste feature, individual notes taken from the court reporter's transcript can be put together on screen or in a printed report.
  
• Realtime provides the capability for the text of transcripts to be faxed or electronically transmitted anywhere in the world on a daily basis to law firms or attorneys involved in a case.
  
• Realtime technology can be used to synchronize video with computerized court reporting.  Stenographic text of the proceedings taken down by the court reporter is translated by realtime and integrated with a simultaneously created videotape so that the text of the testimony appears on the screen with the video record of courtroom events.  An internal clock in the video camera or VCR is synchronized with the court reporter's computer to ensure that the video and text records of trial proceedings match.  This allows a specific portion of the video record to be found by searching the text record, which is a much more efficient and thorough method than a video-only search.

• Through realtime reporting, a hard-of-hearing pro se litigant in New Jersey was able to follow and deliver his own oral argument in the State Appellate Court.  The technology also allowed him to respond to questions by the panel of judges.

• Realtime has allowed a hard-of-hearing appellate judge in Wisconsin to use the telephone, listen to proceedings and communicate with court personnel.  In addition, he utilizes a realtime court reporter whenever he attends conferences or gives speeches.
  
• At least two court cases, one in Michigan and one in Texas, were appealed and retried because the deaf litigant didn't fully understand what went on in the first trial.  Realtime played an integral part in the retrials, allowing those deaf litigants to understand and take an active part in their second trials.
  
• Recently in Maryland, realtime translation was used for the first time in lieu of a sign language interpreter when a deaf juror wanted to see the words that were said without interpretation.  She also felt realtime allowed her to better "blend in" with the rest of the jury.
  
• In Texas, realtime translation was used to caption jury selection proceedings for a deaf potential juror who wished to participate in a trial.  The juror, who was not able to read sign language, was then picked for a jury for State Criminal District Court and followed the trial by reading the testimony on a computer screen placed in front of her.   

Realtime's Expanded Possibilities
Realtime technology can also be expanded to include systems that provide judges and court clerks access to administrative data from information captured by the court reporter, known as Reporter Electronic Data Interchange,  as well as systems that help the courts meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.

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