Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Maria, and I'm a digital court reporter with Elizabeth Gallo Court Reporting. I have been a digital reporter for eight years now, and I am nationally certified as well. I want to give you guys a little bit of an introduction into what the life of a digital reporter entails. So a little bit of the day-to-day includes showing up to a job, for example, a deposition or some sort of legal proceeding, and pretty much taking charge of the room in the sense of organizing the proceeding. So you will show up and take down everybody's contact information. After that, once everybody is ready, you will go on the record and swear in a witness. After you do that, for the most part, the deposition or legal proceeding will pretty much just go. And then from there, your job, while it's happening, is to make sure to take accurate notes and annotations of everything that is being said. The final product is supposed to be a verbatim transcript of the legal proceeding. So because of that, it is very important for you to take down notes. Something a digital court reporter does not do is hit record and then walk away. You want to make sure you're there so that you can provide a perfect verbatim transcript for your client. So you can make sure to annotate things like spellings that you will need clarification of at the end. And then at the end of the deposition, you will ask for those clarifications. After you do that, you will be producing a transcript. Now, the way to do that has a couple of different options that you can do. You can transcribe it yourself based on all of your notes and the audio, or you can also work with a certified transcriber to help you with this. Now, just because you're working with a transcriber does not mean that you will never look at the transcript again and they will provide the final product. No, no. We want to make sure that we do everything from beginning to end. So the full product will be our product and that's how we can ensure quality for our clients. Going from there, the differences between a digital reporter and the other methods of reporting such as steno or voice reporters, for example, is not very different in the sense that we go to the same legal proceedings and we do the same things in terms of providing a transcript for the client. We just happen to use different software and different methods to do so. The biggest differences between digital and the other forms of reporting is truly the schooling that it requires to get there. So with digital reporting, you can get certified probably within about six months time, depending on how hard you work, of course, versus the other schooling takes about two to five years potentially, and it is much more expensive. It's not that it's going to be a breeze because it is an accelerated program. So they will teach you everything you need to know for these legal proceedings and to take down an accurate transcript. What I would tell you is that I do find this field of work extremely rewarding. I believe the flexibility that digital reporting and court reporting provides cannot be beat. A deposition can last anywhere from two to four hours on average, or it could last all day, but you probably would have a heads up on that. And it's up to you whether you want to take more work or less work. It's however driven you are. It's also great if you have a family at home and your hours can be somewhere from ten to two during a legal proceeding and then working on your transcripts on your own time. Let me tell you that it is very important to know how to manage your time well. We do work on deadlines, so it's important to meet those deadlines for our clients. Like I said, I have been working at this for eight years. It provides me with a perfect work-life balance. Digital court reporting has been the most rewarding thing for me, and I would not have it any other way. Okay, we are now on the record. Please raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give in this case will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. Yes. Good morning. Good morning. Please state your name for the record. John Doe. And what is your current address?

Speaker 2: 234 Berry Lane in Atlanta, Georgia.

Speaker 3: And how long have you lived in Georgia?

Speaker 2: About six years. And where did you live before that?

Speaker 3: I lived in Atlanta, Georgia.

Speaker 1: I live in Atlanta, Georgia.