Court reporting and deposition glossary

The words you will hear in a deposition room and read on a court reporting invoice, defined in plain English. Terms in our guides link here, and each entry points back to the guide that explains it in depth. Definitions are general; procedures vary by jurisdiction and your attorney’s guidance controls.

46 terms · By Western Reporting Services

A

Appearance fee: The charge for the court reporter's time at a deposition or hearing: travel, setup, swearing the witness, taking the record, and managing exhibits. It is usually billed by the half day, full day, or hour, is typically paid by the noticing party, and applies whether or not a transcript is ordered. Read more →
Arbitration: A private dispute-resolution proceeding in which one or more arbitrators, rather than a judge or jury, hear evidence and issue a decision. Arbitration hearings are often reported by a court reporter so the parties have a verbatim record.
ASCII transcriptalso: ASCII: A plain-text electronic version of a transcript that can be loaded into litigation-support and transcript-management software. Rough drafts are often delivered as ASCII files.

C

CARTalso: Communication Access Realtime Translation: Communication Access Realtime Translation: realtime stenographic captioning provided as an accommodation for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, displayed on a screen as the words are spoken. CART uses the same skill as realtime court reporting but is a service to a person rather than a record of a proceeding. Read more →
Case captionalso: caption: The heading of a court filing that identifies the court, the parties, and the case number. The caption appears on the title page of a deposition transcript and on the notice of deposition.
Certified Court Reporteralso: CCR, certified reporter, licensed court reporter: A court reporter who holds the license or certification required by the state in which they practice. Most states, including Nevada, license court reporters through a board or the courts, and the license is what qualifies the reporter to administer oaths and certify transcripts. Requirements vary by state. Read more →
Certified transcriptalso: certified copy, certified copies, certified original: The official, final transcript of a proceeding, carrying the reporter's signed certificate attesting that it is a true and accurate record. Only a certified transcript is used for filings, motions, impeachment, and trial.
Condensed transcriptalso: condensed copy, condensed copies, mini transcript: A compact print format that places several transcript pages on one sheet, usually with a word index. Useful for motion work and deposition digests; the page and line numbers match the full-size certified transcript.
Counsel: The attorney or attorneys representing a party.
Court reporteralso: court reporters, stenographer, stenographers: A trained professional who creates a verbatim record of depositions, hearings, trials, arbitrations, and other proceedings, administers the oath to witnesses, and produces the certified transcript. Most court reporters write on a stenotype machine; some use voice writing. Read more →

D

Daily copyalso: dailies: Expedited delivery in which each day's testimony in a multi-day deposition or trial is transcribed and delivered before the next session begins. Read more →
Deponent: The person giving sworn testimony at a deposition. Also called the witness.
Depositionalso: depositions, depo: Sworn, out-of-court testimony given by a witness in response to questions from attorneys, recorded verbatim by a court reporter and often by video. Depositions are a central tool of discovery; the transcript may later be used in motions and at trial. Read more →
Digital reportingalso: electronic recording, digital reporter, digital court reporting: A method in which a technician records the proceeding on audio equipment and logs speakers and events, and a transcriptionist later produces the transcript from the recording. It differs from stenographic reporting, where a certified reporter writes the record live. Whether a digital reporter may administer oaths or certify a transcript depends on the jurisdiction. Read more →
Discovery: The pre-trial phase of a lawsuit in which the parties exchange information and evidence through tools such as depositions, written interrogatories, requests for documents, and subpoenas.

E

Errata sheetalso: errata: The form on which a witness lists corrections to a deposition transcript after reviewing it, with the page and line of each change and the reason for it. The errata sheet is attached to the certified transcript; the original testimony remains part of the record. The review period and the kinds of changes allowed vary by jurisdiction. Read more →
Examination under oathalso: EUO, examinations under oath: Sworn questioning of a policyholder or claimant by an insurer under the terms of an insurance policy, taken down by a court reporter. It resembles a deposition but is a contractual procedure rather than a step in a lawsuit.
Exhibitalso: exhibits: A document, photograph, or object marked and identified during a deposition or hearing so that it can be referred to on the record. The court reporter marks exhibits with sequential numbers or letters and attaches copies to the transcript.
Expedited transcriptalso: expedite, expedited delivery, rush transcript: A transcript delivered faster than the firm's standard turnaround, priced as a percentage uplift on the per-page rate. Tiers commonly range from a few business days down to next-day or same-day delivery. Read more →

H

Hearingalso: hearings: A proceeding before a judge, hearing officer, or arbitrator at which argument or evidence is presented. Hearings are often reported so the parties have a certified record of what was said and ruled.

I

Instruction not to answer: A direction from the witness's attorney not to answer a particular deposition question, generally reserved for protecting a privilege or enforcing a court-ordered limit. The instruction and the question are both recorded so a court can rule on it later if needed.
Interpreteralso: interpreters, court interpreter: A neutral, sworn professional who renders testimony between English and another language, or between spoken and signed language, during a deposition or hearing. Certification requirements for court interpreters vary by state.

L

Legal videographeralso: videographer, legal videography, video deposition: A technician who video records a deposition according to professional standards, announces when the record goes on and off, and produces the certified video. Video is often synchronized to the written transcript so clips can be played at trial with scrolling text.
Litigation support: Services provided to law firms around a proceeding beyond the transcript itself: videography, exhibit management, trial presentation technology, conference rooms, videoconferencing, and document handling.

N

Notice of depositionalso: deposition notice, noticing party, noticed the deposition: The formal document by which one party informs the other parties that it will take a witness's deposition, stating the witness, date, time, place, and method of recording. The party that serves it is the noticing party and typically pays the appearance fee and orders the original transcript.

O

Oathalso: sworn, swearing the witness, under oath: The formal promise to tell the truth, administered to the witness at the start of a deposition or hearing by the court reporter or another authorized officer. Testimony given under oath carries the same penalties for falsehood as testimony in court.
Objectionalso: objections, objection to form: A statement by an attorney that a question or answer is improper, made on the record so the issue is preserved for a judge to decide later. At a deposition most objections are to the form of the question and the witness is usually told to go ahead and answer.
On the recordalso: off the record, go off the record: Testimony and statements that the court reporter is taking down are on the record. Going off the record, which requires the agreement of counsel and is announced to the reporter, pauses the record for breaks or private discussion. Anything said while the record is open goes into the transcript.
Original transcriptalso: original and one: The first certified copy of a deposition transcript, usually ordered by the noticing party and billed at the original per-page rate, which covers the reporter's editing, proofreading, certification, and exhibit handling. Other parties order copies at a lower rate. Read more →

P

Per-page ratealso: page rate, per page: The unit price of a transcript. There are separate rates for the original and for copies, and expedite charges are applied as a percentage of the page rate. Page count depends on the length of the testimony and the standard transcript page format. Read more →
Privilegealso: privileged: A legal protection that allows certain communications, such as those between attorney and client, to be withheld from disclosure. At a deposition, privilege is the most common basis for an instruction not to answer.
Proofreader and scopistalso: proofreader, scopist, proofreading: Members of the production team who review the reporter's draft transcript. A scopist edits the raw stenographic translation against the audio; a proofreader performs the final read for accuracy and format before the reporter certifies the transcript.

R

Read and signalso: read-and-sign, reading and signing, signature waived: The witness's opportunity to review the deposition transcript, note corrections on an errata sheet, and sign it. Counsel may waive it on the record. The procedure and review period vary by jurisdiction. Read more →
Realtime reportingalso: realtime, real-time reporting, realtime feed: Stenographic reporting in which the reporter's translation is streamed to attorneys' laptops or tablets within moments of the words being spoken, allowing the team to read, search, and annotate testimony as it happens. The same skill powers broadcast captioning and CART. Read more →
Remote depositionalso: remote depositions, videoconference deposition, Zoom deposition: A deposition in which some or all participants, including the witness, attend by videoconference. The court reporter administers the oath, takes the record, and handles exhibits through screen sharing or a secure exhibit link. Rules on remote oaths and where the deposition is deemed to take place vary by jurisdiction. Read more →
Rough draftalso: rough ASCII, rough transcript, rough drafts: The reporter's unedited, uncertified translation of the proceeding, delivered electronically soon after the deposition. Useful for preparation and internal review; not a substitute for the certified transcript in any filing. Read more →

S

Stenotypealso: steno machine, stenographic, stenography: The specialized keyboard court reporters use to write syllables and phrases in a single stroke, at speeds above 225 words per minute. Software translates the strokes into English text, which is how realtime reporting and rough drafts are possible. Read more →
Stipulationalso: stipulations, stipulate, usual stipulations: An agreement between counsel placed on the record, for example about how exhibits will be handled, whether the witness will read and sign, or that objections except as to form are reserved. Reporters typically ask about stipulations before testimony begins.
Subpoenaalso: subpoenas, subpoenaed: A legal command requiring a person to appear and testify, at a deposition or in court. A subpoena duces tecum also requires the person to bring specified documents or things. Service, witness fees, and geographic limits are set by the rules of the jurisdiction.

T

Transcriptalso: transcripts: The verbatim written record of a proceeding produced by the court reporter, with a title page, appearances, an index, the testimony by page and line, exhibit references, and the reporter's certificate.
Trial presentation: The use of technology in the courtroom to display exhibits, play synchronized deposition video, and present demonstratives to the judge and jury, often run by a dedicated technician.

V

Verbatim: Word for word. A verbatim record captures exactly what was said, including false starts and interruptions, rather than a summary.
Video synchronizationalso: video sync, synced video, synchronized video: Linking the deposition video to the certified transcript so that each line of text is time-stamped to the recording. Synced video lets attorneys build clips by selecting transcript passages and play them at trial with scrolling text.
Voice writingalso: voice writer, voice writers: A method of court reporting in which the reporter repeats the proceedings into a masked microphone and speech-recognition software converts the dictation to text. Like stenography it is a live method capable of realtime; licensing of voice writers varies by state. Read more →

W

Witnessalso: witnesses: A person who gives testimony under oath. At a deposition the witness is also called the deponent.
Word indexalso: keyword index, concordance: An alphabetical list at the back of a transcript showing every page and line where each word appears. Standard in condensed transcripts and electronic formats; it is what makes a transcript searchable in print.