Picture this: You’re in the middle of a critical cross-examination. The witness mumbles something that sounds like it contradicts their earlier testimony. Your co-counsel is sitting in another office across town. Your expert witness is on standby, waiting to weigh in. And you need to know right now, not tomorrow, not after lunch, exactly what just came out of that witness’s mouth.
This is where the rubber meets the road in the debate between real-time court reporting and traditional post-production transcripts.
For most lawyers, transcripts aren’t just paperwork to file away and forget. They’re your memory, your impeachment ammunition, your insurance policy on appeal. So when you’re deciding whether to spring for real-time reporting (live feed streaming to your laptop) or stick with the traditional “we’ll transcribe it after the hearing” approach, you’re not just making a budget call. You’re making a strategic decision that could shift the entire trajectory of your case.
