Seattle Washington Court Reporter

Roger G. Flygare & Associates, Inc., Professional Court Reporters, Legal Video and Transcriptionists.

Federal Way, WA ~ November 28, 2008. Roger Flygare states that court reporting requests have increased over the past year and expects that to be a continuing trend. He also stated that the use of video conferencing has also increased due largely to the increased costs of travel.

Courthouses in Washington, especially the lower courts and family courts, have turned to using audio recording and to a limited amount in superior courts of Washington. Mr. Flygare said in his experience thus far that the quality isn't all that great and that there are a lot of inaudibles or undeciferables because of poor microphone reception. He noted that some states have jettisoned that practice and have started hiring more certified court reporters.

He relayed a story concerning a video trial in which a long-time client of his turned to Flygare & Associates for advice. Mr. Flygare informed the lawyer that the particular courtroom the trial was going to held in was a videotaped courtroom and that if the lawyer felt that this case may go up to the Court of Appeals that he should consider hiring one of their real-time reporters, which they ultimately followed his advice and hired a real-time reporter for the duration of the trial.

It turned out to be a very wise choice in that the audio portion of the videotaped trial failed for a number of days before it was discovered that a microphone wasn't working properly and ultimately they had to turn to the court reporter to provide a complete record in which to appeal to a higher court.

In the Beagle's blog, you can see there are a number of such failures in courthouses across the country and I think it would be an intelligent and informed idea to consult with a local court reporting agency if you have an important trial coming up down the road.

It's the Beagle's thought, though, that all trials are important...sort of a "caveat emptor" for the trial lawyer.

May the gavel fall your direction ~ The Beagle