In California, Certified Shorthand Reporters are licensed by the Court Reporters Board of California and serve as officers of the court.  As such, they have the important duty to administer the oath and to serve as custodians of the official record.

Court reporters create verbatim transcripts of proceedings.  They are highly trained professionals who capture the spoken word in a wide range of official legal settings, including depositions, court hearings, trials, arbitrations, and other litigation-related proceedings.  As the impartial person in the room, the court reporter is an essential component of the justice system.  Court reporters do not analyze, interpret, or evaluate testimony; their responsibility is to accurately preserve what was said.

In an era of rapidly advancing artificial intelligence, that reponsibility has never been more important.  The accuracy and integrity of the official record cannot depend on whether an automated system correctly recognizes a speaker, understands context, distinguishes technical terminology, or accurately captures every word.

As one California legislative committee correctly observed:

"Moreover, the testimony in civil and criminal cases is often thick with technical jargon.  A medical malpractice case where specialist experts from both sides contradict one another can involve complex medical terminology; criminal cases can involve scientific language related to DNA identification; anti-trust cases can involve diction from economic theory, and so on.  No matter how obscure or technical, such jargon must to-the-word accurately be reflected in the written transcript."

The need for an accurate, reliable and impartial record extends across every type of legal proceeding. A court reporter's training and professional judgement are particularly important when testimony involves specialized terminology, multiple speakers, objections, interruptions, accents, unclear speech, exhibits, or other circumstances that require more than simply converting audio into text.

The Deposition Reporters Association of California (DRA) is devoted to advancing the interests of these highly trained and essential officers of the court, and to protecting the accuracy, integrity, and reliability of the official record upon which our justice system depends.