Court Reporter

A person who makes a word-for-word record of what is said in court, generally by using a stenographic machine, shorthand or audio recording, and then produces a transcript of the proceedings upon request.

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Answers.com

Persons certified to operate tape-recording devices or to use shorthand or stenographic means to record that which is said in court or at a deposition. The recording is later turned into a transcript and forms the official record of the proceeding. Contemporaneous transcripts made by computer systems and which are viewable by persons in the courtroom are known as real time or live view transcripts.

FindLaw

A stenographer who records and transcribes a verbatim report of all proceedings in a court of law.

Lect Law Library

A person who makes a word-for-word record of what is said in court and produces a transcript of the proceedings upon request.

A court reporter is a person trained to take down a verbatim account of all proceedings in the courtroom (but usually not in the judge's chambers unless a party requests it). Most court reporters today use special machines that enable them to get down every word. Later, they prepare typed transcripts for use by the parties and the judge on appeal. Court reporters also record and transcribe depositions.

Until recently, court reporters had to manually type out the transcript from their shorthand notes. Now, however, many reporters have machines that read the recording machine tape and create a text file that can be printed out on a standard computer printer.

Wikipedia

A court reporter, stenotype reporter, voice writer or stenomask writer is a person whose occupation is to transcribe spoken or recorded speech into written form, typically using machine shorthand or a voice silencer and digital recorder to produce official transcripts of court hearings, depositions and other official proceedings. There are two major methods of live person court reporting, machine shorthand and voice writing. Machine shorthand allows the stenotype reporter to keep up with the flow of speech so that no words are missed. The voice writer, on the other hand, repeats verbatim what attorneys, witnesses, and others are saying in a proceeding. In the United States, the court reporter is often also a notary public who is authorized to administer oaths to witnesses, and who certifies that her or his transcript of the proceedings is a verbatim account of what was said.