The Ethical Standards of a Court Reporter: Info from a Legal Transcription Service in Phoenix, AZ

Court reporters act as a neutral third party in all court cases, and as such have some extremely stringent ethical standards that regulate the kind of work they do. The National Court Reporters Association has a strict code of professional ethics that all reporters are expected to adhere to.

Here, from the NCRA’s website, is how the organization’s code of professional ethics reads:

“A Member Shall:

1. Be fair and impartial toward each participant in all aspects of reported proceedings, and always offer to provide comparable services to all parties in a proceeding.
2. Be alert to situations that are conflicts of interest or that may give the appearance of a conflict of interest. If a conflict or a potential conflict arises, the Member shall disclose that conflict or potential conflict.
3. Guard against not only the fact but the appearance of impropriety.
4. Preserve the confidentiality and ensure the security of information, oral or written, entrusted to the Member by any of the parties in a proceeding.
5. Be truthful and accurate when making public statements or when advertising the Member’s qualifications or the services provided.
6. Refrain, as an official reporter, from freelance reporting activities that interfere with official duties and obligations.
7. Determine fees independently, except when established by statute or court order, entering into no unlawful agreements with others with respect to fees to any user.
8. Refrain from giving, directly or indirectly, any gift or anything of value to attorneys or their staff, other clients or their staff, or any other persons or entities associated with any litigation, which exceeds $150 in the aggregate per recipient each year. Nothing offered in exchange for future work is permissible, regardless of its value. Pro bono services as defined by the NCRA Guidelines for Professional Practice or by applicable state and local laws, rules and regulations are permissible in any amount.
9. Maintain the integrity of the reporting profession.
10. Abide by the NCRA Constitution & Bylaws.”

This gives you a sense of not just the kind of work a court reporter does, but also the ethical standards to which they are held. Any information contained in a transcript written by a court reporter is assumed to be factually accurate and the exact words spoken by everyone in the courtroom. If the court reporter fails to meet this standard, he or she compromises the integrity of the profession and risks losing his or her career.

Courts take these responsibilities extremely seriously, as do court reporting agencies. Therefore, when you work with a court reporter or stenographer in Phoenix, AZ, you can trust that not only do the court reporters themselves take these ethical responsibilities extremely seriously, but so does the agency itself. When ethics violations occur, agencies move swiftly to take corrective action and hold all parties responsible.

For more information about the duties and ethical responsibilities of court reporters, or to schedule the services of one of our professionals, contact the Phoenix-based team at Bartelt | Nix Reporting, LLC today.

Categorised in: Legal Transcription Service, Stenographer

This post was written by Writer