Court Reporting and Deposition Ethics

January 29, 2020 12:35 am Published by Leave your thoughts

Any attorney worth their salt remembers the MPRE and the legions of ethical rules placed upon practicing lawyers. Attorneys have a duty to follow the legal profession’s standards, or risk jeopardizing their cases, clients and careers. Part of this duty includes creating and maintaining proper records of courtroom procedures, when necessary—such as hiring court reporters for legal depositions in Phoenix, AZ. While not strictly required, it’s the best way to ensure a fair and accurate legal record of the fact-finding procedure.

Court reporter ethics

As a court reporter, your primary responsibility is to create and protect a fair and accurate record of each proceeding, free of your own bias and opinions. That sounds simple on the surface, but when you account for human dynamics—like unpleasant witnesses or legal professionals—it turns out to be a lot harder than it sounds.

The court reporter is required to report whether a firm has retained them, and offer the benefits of that agreement to all of the other parties involved in the case.

Finally, court reporters are bound by HIPAA, which means that not only can they not speak about what happened in the deposition elsewhere, even to their spouse, but they also have a legal responsibility to protect their files and materials associated with a case. The consequences for violating HIPAA are severe, and can destroy careers.

When choosing a court reporting firm, be sure to ask about their reporters’ training, certifications and any other applicable rules of ethics that may apply to your case.

Lawyer/court reporter ethics

Of course, ethics is a two-way street. As an attorney, you can’t interfere with the court reporter’s duty to provide an accurate and impartial record. That means that you can’t bring your court reporter gifts in exchange for anything (not even in anticipation of hiring them for another proceeding), or otherwise provide them with incentives to work for you.

Most lawyers already know that a court reporter’s skill and dedication can help them win or lose a case, which is why it’s tempting to offer them incentives to make sure your client is accurately represented. That’s a fair urge, but we suggest you leave it to exchanging pleasant words and sending the firm a holiday card, lest you open up questions about your own suitability and ethics.

Ultimately, the role of the court reporter is crucial to both sides of a case, and everyone involved must take care to preserve the integrity of the proceedings.

Get trained court reporters for your legal depositions in Phoenix, AZ

When you need the most highly-trained and professional court reporters for your legal depositions in Phoenix, AZ, look no further than Bartelt | Nix Reporting, LLC. We have been providing the best court reporting services since 1972, offering our clients skilled reporters who are familiar with the latest advances in technology. Whether you need us for traditional or video depositions, we can provide you with highly accurate and clear transcripts. Call us today to get started hiring court reporters for your deposition.

Categorised in: ,

This post was written by Writer

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *