A deposition is the giving of testimony under oath, the actual testimony of an individual or individuals.  Depositions are taken before a case goes to trial, during the discovery phase of the case. 

An exhibit is a document or object shown in court as evidence.  Exhibits are marked with an identifying number by the court reporter and then indexed and described in the transcript of the proceedings.

 A Latin phrase, meaning on one side only, is ex parte.  An ex parte hearing is held in behalf of one party only.

 An expedite is a job that has been explicitly ordered by one of the attorneys at a deposition to be delivered sooner than normal in exchange for an increased fee.

 A type of witness who gives testimony in relation to some scientific, technical, or professional matter is an expert witness.

 Interrogatories are formal or written questions, or series of questions, which must be answered under oath.  In some cases, there is no attorney present at a deposition.  Rather, the court reporter is given a written list of questions which she herself asks the deponent and then reports his answers.  Such a court reporting job is referred to as an interrogatory.

 The word “job” refers to one court reporting event.  A reporter’s work at one location on one day with one client is usually what defines a job, and may cover multiple deponents.

 Litigate means to carry out a dispute or contest with someone before the law, or to sue someone.

 Litigation is a contest in a court of justice for the purpose of enforcing a contract or right.

 All of the tools that an attorney may use to help categorize and display information about the case, things that support the litigation, are broadly referred to as litigation support.  This often includes visual aids used in a courtroom such as charts and computerized recreations of an accident scene.  In court reporting, litigation support refers more narrowly to the production of transcript text in computerized form, such as an ASCII copy of the testimony on diskette, or graphic copies of the exhibits on CD-ROM.

 A motion is an application, usually from an attorney, made to a court or judge for an order or ruling.

 The original stenographic marks made by a court reporter during the proceedings being reported are called notes.  Notes can be made by hand with pen and paper or with a steno machine.  A steno machine prints the notes on folded paper tape and may also record them in electronic form such as a computer file on diskette.  Notes usually refer to the stenographic record of one session.

 In a legal sense, a notice is information or written warning, in more or less formal shape, intended to inform a person of some proceeding in which his interests are involved, or informing him of some fact which is his right to know, and which it is the duty of the informing party to communicate.  When a lawyer subpoenas a witness, he also gives notice to other counsel in the case of where and when the testimony of whom will be taken.

 O and 1 is a term which means that the original transcript plus one copy is being made of a transcript.  O and 5 would mean the original plus five copies are being ordered.

 A person who takes part in the performance of any act, or who is directly interested in any affair, contract, et cetera, who is actively concerned in the prosecution and defense of any legal proceeding is called a party.

 P.I. stands for personal injury.  It is a category of litigation which involves individuals who are victims of personal injury.

 The plaintiff is a person who begins a lawsuit.  The plaintiff accuses another of wrongdoing.

 Realtime as a computer term means happening right now, in present time.  It is used loosely to refer to techniques and types of software used by attorneys and reporters during a deposition.

 The earliest use of the term “realtime” in court reporting referred to the concurrent translation of the reporter’s notes into English.  Up until recently, translation was done after the deposition was taken, typically on a computer back in the court reporter’s office.  The reporter’s notes, recorded on tape or diskette, were fed to a desktop computer.  With the advent of powerful notebook computers, it is now possible for a CAT system to translate the notes as they are stroked in by the reporter.  The reporter’s steno machine is connected to her notebook computer by a cable and the data is transferred over that wire as it occurs instead of later on a diskette.  The notebook computer translates the notes as they are received.

 The term “realtime” is more recently used to refer to the simultaneous broadcast of the text of a deposition, in realtime, from the reporter’s realtime CAT system to one or more attorneys’ computers.  This is captured by a program running on the attorneys’ computers that is designed for this purpose.  This program allows the test to be marked, annotated, searched, reviewed, or printed during the proceeding or immediately afterwards without distracting the attorney.  A more formal but less popular name for this technique is CIC, or computer-integrated courtroom.

 The process of editing the first rough translation of the court reporter’s notes into final form is called scoping.  A court reporter may do this step or may hire a scopist.  The scoped transcript is then proofread by the reporter.

 A stipulation is a name given to any agreement made between the attorneys having business before the court.  It is not binding unless agreed to by all counsel present, and most stipulations are required to be in writing.  In a deposition, a stipulation is often spoken into the record by the taking attorney and agreed to verbally and on the record by the other counsel present.

 Stroke means to press the keys on a steno machine so as to produce stenographic marks.  The keys are often pressed in combinations using both hands, somewhat like playing a chord on a piano.  Each downward motion of the hands is a stroke and the mark so produced is also sometimes referred to as a stroke.

 The taking attorney is the one who ordered the deponent to appear for questioning.  The taking attorney notices others in the case about the time and place of the deposition, subpoenas the deponent if needed, and orders the court reporter.

 The statement or declaration of a witness under oath is their testimony.

 The written copy of what occurred at a legal proceeding, produced by the court reporter from stenographic notes taken at the time, is called the transcript.

 Uncertified notes is a term that refers to the first rough translation of the reporter’s notes into English.  Because the text has not yet been edited and proofread by the reporter, the reporter cannot certify that the record is complete and correct; therefore, the text is said to be uncertified.  Another phrase for this is rough transcript.  An attorney using a realtime program at a deposition is receiving the uncertified notes or rough transcript of the job.

 Untranslates are instances of untranslated stenographic markings appearing in a work which has been translated from stenographic notes.  Untranslates will be present in a transcript which has been translated but not yet scoped, and some will appear in realtime text during a deposition.

 The worksheet is a cover sheet attached by a court reporter to each job, giving all the data necessary for rapid processing by the agency.