Court Reporters Protecting America’s Legal Record

Posted bystenoimperiumPosted inCourt ReportingTags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Throughout history, records have been erased, altered, or destroyed for political, personal, or ideological reasons. From the burning of the Library of Alexandria to the digital erasures of modern times, information is vulnerable when it is concentrated in too few hands. Recent efforts to delete government data—removing web pages on public health, censoring information on the January 6th insurrection, and expunging scientific findings—serve as a stark reminder of how fragile our recorded history can be. In the face of these threats, one profession stands as an unyielding protector of the truth, court reporters.

Court reporters are the unsung heroes of the American legal system, preserving verbatim transcripts of courtroom proceedings, depositions, and trials. Unlike centralized digital recording systems that are prone to cyberattacks, government censorship, or catastrophic failures, court reporters create decentralized, independent backups of the legal record. Each court reporter safeguards their transcripts, ensuring that America’s judicial history remains untouchable by those who would seek to alter or erase it. This decentralized network is an essential safeguard against a legal system vulnerable to manipulation, cyber threats, and even an Orwellian-style rewriting of history.

The Risk of Centralized Digital Recordkeeping

In an era where digital recordkeeping dominates, many courts are considering replacing stenographic court reporters with centralized electronic recording systems. Proponents argue that digital recording is cost-effective and efficient. However, such a shift introduces enormous risks. When records are stored in a single digital repository, they become susceptible to:

  1. Mass Deletion or Censorship If court proceedings are electronically recorded and stored in a centralized system, a single bad actor with administrative access could erase or manipulate legal records. Just as entire pages of government websites vanished without explanation, what’s to stop a future authority from altering legal transcripts to serve their own ends? A rogue administrator could simply “delete” a case, removing vital evidence from existence.
  2. Cybersecurity Threats Hackers have infiltrated even the most secure government and corporate databases. A single cyberattack could compromise an entire repository of legal records, leaving thousands—if not millions—of cases in legal limbo. Ransomware attacks, in which criminals lock databases and demand payment to restore access, are an increasing threat to centralized systems.
  3. Technological Failures Even without malicious intent, technology can fail. Servers crash, databases become corrupted, and software glitches can render data irretrievable. A decentralized system, where each court reporter maintains their own transcripts, ensures that no single point of failure can obliterate the record.

Court Reporters as the Best Defense Against Erasure

Court reporters serve as individual archivists, each maintaining a detailed and accurate transcript of proceedings. This decentralized approach ensures redundancy, making it nearly impossible for a single actor to erase the record of justice. The advantages of court reporters over centralized digital recording systems are clear:

  1. Independent Verification Every court reporter keeps an independent record, which can be cross-referenced with others to prevent fraudulent alterations. Unlike digital files that can be edited without detection, stenographic records provide a clear and accurate history that cannot be easily manipulated.
  2. Redundant Backups Court reporters store multiple backups of their transcripts, both in digital and hard-copy form. This ensures that even if an electronic copy is lost, a physical backup remains intact. The redundancy of court reporters’ records makes them highly resistant to systemic failure or sabotage.
  3. Tamper-Proof Transcripts Unlike digital recordings, which can be edited with a few keystrokes, stenographic records require expert knowledge and extensive effort to alter. The meticulous nature of court reporting creates an audit trail that protects against tampering.
  4. Immediate Accessibility Court reporters provide real-time transcripts during proceedings, ensuring immediate access to records. Digital systems often require post-processing, which introduces the risk of data loss or corruption before transcripts are finalized.

Lessons from History on the Dangers of Data Destruction

The wholesale deletion of government web pages during political transitions serves as a chilling reminder of how quickly and easily records can be erased. From scientific data to legal history, no record is safe when stored in a centralized system controlled by a few individuals. The “digital book burning” of recent years proves that a decentralized approach—where individual actors maintain and protect records—is the best defense against historical revisionism.

The courts must recognize the invaluable role court reporters play in safeguarding justice. If the legal system transitions entirely to centralized digital recording, what’s to stop history from being rewritten by those in power? What happens when a high-profile case mysteriously disappears from the record? Who ensures that justice is preserved, unaltered and accessible for future generations?

Ensuring the Integrity of Justice

Court reporters are more than stenographers; they are the frontline defenders of the American legal system’s integrity. Their decentralized recordkeeping ensures that no single entity can erase, alter, or manipulate the legal history of the nation. The dangers of centralizing all court records in digital systems are too great to ignore. In an age where information is increasingly vulnerable to deletion and distortion, the need for human guardians of justice has never been more critical.

If courts relinquish control of the record to an electronic system, they risk repeating the mistakes of history—allowing data to be erased, records to be manipulated, and justice to be rewritten. The safest, most reliable solution remains the decentralized, dedicated, and incorruptible system of court reporters. By entrusting the legal record to these skilled professionals, America ensures that justice is not just served, but permanently recorded for all time.

Published by stenoimperium

We exist to facilitate the fortifying of the Stenography profession and ensure its survival for the next hundred years! As court reporters, we've handed the relationship role with our customers, or attorneys, over to the agencies and their sales reps.  This has done a lot of damage to our industry.  It has taken away our ability to have those relationships, the ability to be humanized and valued.  We've become a replaceable commodity. Merely saying we are the “Gold Standard” tells them that we’re the best, but there are alternatives.  Who we are though, is much, much more powerful than that!  We are the Responsible Charge.  “Responsible Charge” means responsibility for the direction, control, supervision, and possession of stenographic & transcription work, as the case may be, to assure that the work product has been critically examined and evaluated for compliance with appropriate professional standards by a licensee in the profession, and by sealing and signing the documents, the professional stenographer accepts responsibility for the stenographic or transcription work, respectively, represented by the documents and that applicable stenographic and professional standards have been met.  This designation exists in other professions, such as engineering, land surveying, public water works, landscape architects, land surveyors, fire preventionists, geologists, architects, and more.  In the case of professional engineers, the engineering association adopted a Responsible Charge position statement that says, “A professional engineer is only considered to be in responsible charge of an engineering work if the professional engineer makes independent professional decisions regarding the engineering work without requiring instruction or approval from another authority and maintains control over those decisions by the professional engineer’s physical presence at the location where the engineering work is performed or by electronic communication with the individual executing the engineering work.” If we were to adopt a Responsible Charge position statement for our industry, we could start with a draft that looks something like this: "A professional court reporter, or stenographer, is only considered to be in responsible charge of court reporting work if the professional court reporter makes independent professional decisions regarding the court reporting work without requiring instruction or approval from another authority and maintains control over those decisions by the professional court reporter’s physical presence at the location where the court reporting work is performed or by electronic communication with the individual executing the court reporting work.” Shared purpose The cornerstone of a strategic narrative is a shared purpose. This shared purpose is the outcome that you and your customer are working toward together. It’s more than a value proposition of what you deliver to them. Or a mission of what you do for the world. It’s the journey that you are on with them. By having a shared purpose, the relationship shifts from consumer to co-creator. In court reporting, our mission is “to bring justice to every litigant in the U.S.”  That purpose is shared by all involved in the litigation process – judges, attorneys, everyone.  Who we are is the Responsible Charge.  How we do that is by Protecting the Record.

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