When legal cases are presented in court it is necessary to record what is said by each participant during the proceedings; this testimony is recorded verbatim which means that it must match exactly with the words that were used by the person. Verbatim court reporting is required for hearings, trials, sworn statements and depositions. By listening carefully to what is said, the reporter produces an exact written transcript that will be used by the judge and attorneys that are involved with the case.
There are many ways to produce court reporting transcripts including using stenography, electronic techniques and voice writing. A stenotype machine is often used by a court reporter to help with this process which allows the reporter to type syllables rather than whole words and is much faster than using a keyboard. Electronic techniques use a voice recording of what was said that is later transcribed by the reporter.
