#79 - When the Record Is Ignored: A Real-World Look at Talking Over the Court Reporter

  📍 Hey, hey, hey, court reporters. Today we're talking all about when the record is ignored, a real world look at talking over the court reporter. This one's also for you attorneys. All right. The goal of this episode is really to normalize a shared experience among all of us court reporters, and we're gonna analyze why this happens, especially on Zoom, and give reporters the language, the boundaries, and the decision making clarity without shaming attorneys or glorifying confrontation. If you've ever finished a deposition completely exhausted, not really from the content, but from having to fight just to be heard, just to protect the record, today's episode is for you.

I have those days more often than not, and I'm gonna include a video that I recorded a few months ago and posted on TikTok.

I was really pondering about why, why I was so stressed out. It wasn't, it didn't even make sense to me. So I really sat down and really dumped my thoughts out and tried to figure out what was going on, and here's what I came up with: 📍 Court reporting is listed as one of the most stressful jobs that exist. The main reason and source of the stress that we experience, and I figured this out from personal firsthand experience in the courtroom, wondering like, why am I feeling so drained? This is not even like, even if it's not a difficult job, even if it's not, uh, a long job or something, but why am I feeling so drained, so upset, so frustrated.

So just like, uh, like, like I just wanna explode because the reason I figured out through walking myself through this and exploring my thoughts and feelings and doing some self coaching models, the reason is because. Our jobs depend like the, the level of success and accuracy that we can achieve when we do our jobs depends, kind of depends on how other people are acting and how other people are behaving, which is something outside of our control.

📍 Okay. I am gonna say that one more time because this is important. The way that other people are acting, whether they're following the rules or not, no matter how many times we interrupt it, we cannot control other people's behavior. That is not up to us. People will be people, attorneys will be attorneys. 📍

We can't control how people act, what they say, what they do. But we can control what we, what will be our response, what we will do when they act this way, when they break the rules, when they go outside of the boundaries, we will, we have to know how to act in those situations and how to control the room in a way that just our presence, our confidence, will command attention, will be respected, and we know and believe: I'm responsible, and I'm in control. We're not just gonna let people walk all over us and let people misbehave, let people speak out of turn and talk over each other and just sit there as if we have no power. We don't have to tolerate that. We don't. So it's time for us to take our power back because we should not be feeling so stressed out just because, because of how other people are acting, we have the power to let them know how to act and to let them know that if you do not stay in this, if you don't follow these rules, this is what's gonna happen.

And then you have to have that confidence to be able to follow through with what you say you're gonna do. So you set the boundary, you set the consequence for when they go over the boundary, and then you act on that consequence with dignity. You don't get timid and afraid when that happens. You follow through with what you said.

You stand firm in your boundaries and that is how you protect the record. Ands are, you've heard this many times and you know that this is true and you have tried to implement it probably, but it's not consistent and it's difficult and you shrink back. I, i've lived it. I know exactly how you feel if you're in that situation.

And this is exactly what we help each other with in the court reporter CEO mindset, group coaching program, I can help you transform into a person whose presence commands respect and attention, and who does not shrink back and who protects not only the record with dignity, but your mental wellbeing.

You deserve to feel empowered and in control. Because you are, you will experience massive transformation. I mean, let's, let's just talk about it. you can decide for yourself if you want to participate, if you want to transform your life, if you wanna become the court reporter that you were always meant to be. 📍

This episode is actually inspired by a real post from the court reporting community. Once again, what followed after this post was dozens of comments from reporters describing nearly identical experiences, which I can relate to too. I mean, I was one of them. All right? Talking over each other, ignoring the reporter, and pushing through, despite repeated requests to slow down.

And I'm not talking about my TikTok video. That was, yes, that was a post, but this was another post that I came across on Facebook and there was a big discussion around it, just like there was a big discussion around my TikTok video.

We are not here to bash attorneys. We're here to talk honestly about what happens when the court reporter's role is minimized and what that does to the record, to our mental bandwidth and to our professional boundaries. Here's the case study. What actually happened?

One reporter shared an experience that on its own might sound frustrating, but manageable. What followed though was dozens of comments from other reporters describing almost the exact same situation; different states, different years of experience, different types of cases.

Same problem, people talking over each other. The court reporter repeatedly saying, excuse me, with no response. Attorneys pushing forward anyway, and the quiet expectation that the reporter will somehow just keep up. We are not here to stir up drama, and we're definitely not here to glorify confrontation.

I'm not naturally a confrontational person ps, but it's something that we have to learn as court reporters. Let me paint the picture for you. This was not the beginning of a deposition when everyone is fresh and focused. This was late in the day after hours of testimony in a continuous deposition. Multiple speakers were talking over each other, not just once or twice, but repeatedly.

The reporter did what most of us do. She tried to interrupt politely. Excuse me. Excuse me. No response. Eventually she had to assert herself clearly and firmly to stop the chaos and protect the record. And even after that, the behavior continued. By the end of the day, the transcript was over 140 pages with more than a dozen interruptions noted.

This wasn't one bad moment, this was a pattern. What stood out to me when reading through the comments was how familiar this sounded to so many people, how relatable this is. Court reporters with two years of experience, 20 years of experience, freelancers, officials, zoom, in person. Different settings, same experience. And that tells us something important.

This is not just about one reporter being too sensitive. This is not just about one attorney being difficult. This is systemic. Another strong theme came up again and again. Expert witnesses, for the most part understand pacing. They understand procedure. They wait, they listen, they respond. But lay witnesses often don't.

They jump in, they speak impulsively, they interrupt without realizing it. That's not malice. It's a training gap and when no one steps in to manage that gap. The burden quietly falls on who? Yep. That's us, the court reporters, okay. Let's, let's just take a step back and talk about Zoom.

It's easier to ignore a voice when you cannot see the person. Physical presence matters more than we like to admit. Some reporters shared that when they tried to interrupt to protect the record, they were told not to interrupt while the record was actively being damaged.

This is not about sensitivity. This is about audio reality. Zoom does not naturally support overlapping speech. Someone always loses, and too often, it's the record.

Certain words kept appearing in different forms throughout the comments: exhausted, frustrated, ignored, disrespected, drained. This is the invisible mental labor of court reporting. You don't bill for it, you don't itemize it, but it is very real. Managing chaos while staying calm. Advocating for the record without escalating or going crazy.

Absorbing tension so the proceedings can continue. That takes energy. A lot of mental energy. The record is suffering. You will have no record. I am here to make a record. These aren't really like confrontational statements. They're accurate statements of fact.

The court reporter is not interrupting the proceeding because the court reporter is the proceeding. Without a record, there's nothing to review, nothing to rely on, and nothing to enforce. So here's the conflict many of us are navigating every day. We want to be professional, we wanna be liked, we want repeat work, we want peace, and we want an accurate record.

At some point, something has to give. For many reporters In this discussion, clarity became the answer. Some chose to turn down future assignments with certain dynamics. Some decided no more late day Zoom depositions and some shifted toward in-person work when possible, others simply acknowledged quietly and without drama: this is not worth the cost to my nervous system. That's not weakness. That is discernment.

This episode is not about telling you what you should or shouldn't do. It's about helping you ask yourself better questions. The questions we ask ourselves are so important. What environments allow me to do my best work? What boundaries can I set to protect my professionalism and how can I enforce them?

What assignments drain me more than they pay me? What language lets me assert myself without apologizing? Boundaries are not punishments. They're filters. If this episode felt familiar, you are not alone and if you're still figuring out where your line is and what your boundaries are, that's okay too.

It's a process. The more we talk about the real mechanics of making a record, not just the ideal version, 📍 the more clarity we gain as a whole profession . If you want more episodes like this where we analyze real world relatable reporting situations without any judgment on ourselves, make sure you're following the podcast.

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