Who Owns the Record? What the Biden Leak Means for Court Reporters

If you’ve been following the news, you probably saw the headlines about President Joe Biden’s leaked audio recording. While most people are talking about what he said, those of us in the court reporting profession are looking at something else entirely – the fact that the leak happened in the first place.

This isn’t about politics. It’s about the security and trust built into the legal system, and importantly, what happens when the people handling legal audio aren’t trained or held to the same standards as licensed court reporters.

Court Reporters Know the Weight of the Record

We’ve all been in the room. Depo after depo, hearing after hearing. We’re not just capturing words—we’re safeguarding them. As the “Responsible Charge” of the record, we understand the chain of custody, the confidentiality, and the trust that every attorney and witness places in us to get it right and keep it secure.

Now imagine a world where those recordings are made, stored, and passed around by people who don’t even know what a scopist is, let alone what our licensing requirements are. That’s not the future—it’s happening now.

What Happens Without Us? Just Look at This Leak

Sure, some folks online pointed out that Biden’s leak wasn’t from a deposition. It was an interview. But let’s be honest: when court reporters are pushed out, and digital recorders are left to run the show, interviews, hearings, depos—they all become vulnerable.

Without a professional in the room monitoring access and protecting the integrity of the audio, files are more likely to be mishandled, misused, or straight-up leaked. That’s exactly what happened here. Someone with access to the government’s digital recording leaked it. And if it can happen to the President of the United States, it can happen to anyone.

Courts Owning the Record? That’s a Conflict

Many states are moving toward letting courts—not neutral professionals—own and manage the record. That might sound efficient, but let’s think about the conflict. Courts are supposed to be impartial. If they also control the record, they’re acting as both judge and gatekeeper. That’s a problem waiting to happen.

Our role as outside professionals has always added a layer of protection and neutrality to the process. We’re not there to influence outcomes—we’re there to document them with precision and keep them secure.

The Ethics We Live By Can’t Be Replaced

Court reporters are bound by professional ethics that aren’t optional. We don’t just protect the record—we protect the people in the room, the attorneys who rely on us, and the system itself. When we say “off the record,” we mean it. When we say “this is confidential,” it stays that way.

Can a software program promise the same?

What’s at Stake for Us—and for Everyone Else

If we lose our position as the Responsible Charge of the record, everyone loses. Attorneys lose trust in the system. Witnesses hesitate to speak openly. Agencies face new liability. And we as reporters? We risk being replaced by systems that might be cheaper, but aren’t safer.

We’re already seeing the effects of cost-cutting over confidentiality. If these trends continue, we’ll be looking at a legal system where nobody wants to testify because they’re afraid their words will end up in a headline instead of a transcript.

We Need to Keep Speaking Up

Now more than ever, court reporters need to remind the legal world why we’re essential. We need to educate our clients, support state licensing requirements, and push for stronger protections around the chain of custody. Our job isn’t just to take down words—it’s to protect the record from start to finish.

Let’s make sure we don’t let moments like the Biden leak pass by without making it clear: if a court reporter had been the Responsible Charge of that audio, it never would’ve been leaked.

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. View more posts