ORDER NO. 16655
APPROVAL OF PAYMENT FOR MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT ON A XSCRIBE
MICRO-MASTER
On this the 12th day of May 1986, upon motion made by
Commissioner Holland , seconded by Commissioner Higgins,
the Court unanimously approved the request of the County
Court at Law Judge, William L. Baskette, Jr. and Court
Reporter Debra Hernandez, for payment of a Maintenance
Agreement on a Xscribe Micro-Master stand-alone system and
minimum supplies for use by the Court Reporter Debra
Hernandez, in the amount of $125.00 per month, effective
as of 1986.
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OF KERR CUUN'fY, TEXAS
Witham ~. Baskelte, Jr.
J udye
2 5 7 -7111 Kerr County Cow-thouse
Kerrville, Texas 7W2F3
llpril 23, 1986
Commissioner's Court
Kerr County Courthouse
Kerrville, Texas 78028
Dear Gentlemen:
Attached hereto is a copy of an article on
"computer-aided transcription," explaining how it basically
works and the benefits of having one in record ma]cing in a
court. Please review the attached article. The most valuable
benefit is that this computer will greatly reduce the time
and expense in preparing court proceedings.
I am purchasing the Xscribe Micro-Master stand-alone
system, which I feel is the most reasonable, and at the same
time one of the most efficient computers on the market.
I will be glad to show it to you as its location is
in my office at the courthouse, and try to briefly explain
how it works to you.
The cost of this computer is exactly $456.33, per
month which will be incurred by me for the next five years.
There is a maintenance agreement which covers all parts and
labor and if necessary, a "loaner"~, for $125.00 per month.
As expensive as labor and parts can run on a machine such as
this, this is necessary to have should something go wrong. I
also estimate that minimum supplies will run me $75.00 per
month on an average.
I hereby request that Kerr County bear the costs of
the maintenance agreement and minimum supplies for a total
of $200.00 per month beginning on or about April 15, 1986.
Respectfully,
Debra Hernandez Q
CSR-RPR
County Court at Law
Itii11i~~F3as~, Jr.~
Judge
County Court at Law
utee-aided transcription
.,'redoes exist an altematrvc repm'ung
technology, not examined by the FJC,
witirh em reduce both the time and ex-
pense involved in producing u~anseript
pages. It is computer-aided transcrip-
tion, or CAT \1'hen reporters use CA-I',
their stenog[aphic shorthand s}•mbols
rc rccouled on a digital cassette in•
stalled in their machine. When the rc-
pon i ngjob i s complc tectand atranscript
ordered, the reporter trausfcrs the sym-
bols un the cassette into a microcompu-
ter equipped with specialized software.
This sufiwarc includct a translation pxo-
Gram, :m editing proGrrm (similar to
word pmccssing sotuvarc), and the re-
porter's dictionary, which concrins thc•
I'.nglish equivalents to the shonhand
symbols used by the rcpuucr, llsing this
di<tionary, dte annputcr translates tht•
re•patter's notes into F-nglish at a tau
cccctYling'_5l1 p;tge•s per hour.
Once translated, dte no[e•s and their
English cquiralcn is arc stored in the
computer o• on [lupp}• disks. The tran-
script is thcuprocessed to climinateeon-
[licts (shorthand symbols with two or
more Lngl ish equivalents such as "hear"
and "here"), uutranslaces (words [or
which no English equivalent was found
in the reporter's diaionary), and [Donal
errors (i ncorrect spaci ng or punctual ion ).
t:xpcricnced CA`I' reporters are able to
make these corrections and perfect the
transcript at rates of 50 to 150 pages per
hour. Finally, the tmrtsa'ipt is printed.
Clearly, CAT technology offers the
advantage of spcrd. Transcripts arc pro-
duced at runs of 30 to GO pages per hour,
compared to the typical production rate
o[ 10 to 12 pages per hour for t}'pis[s.
This can reduce the delay in providing
trial transcripts to attorneys for prepara-
tion of appellate briefs. Tile official
reporters of the U.S. District Court [or
the Northern District of Georgia arc
completely computerized, and have, [or
the last three years, met every transcrip-
tion deadline s In the U.S. District Court
for the Southern District o[ New fork,
reporters produce mote than half a mil"
lion pages of computerized transn~ipi
each year, G5 per cent of it on a "daily
copy" basis.
An early study of CAT in state court
systems listed only seven court systems
with CAI' in operation for more than a
year (as of I~cbnrary, 1981). Even at that
early stage of CA1- development, the
report eonduded that "...CAI" can he
smoothly intcf;ratcd into court opcn-
cionsand can be expected to achieve the
intended goals o~timeand cost savingsl
In the years sincr. that study, its predic-
tion for expanded use of CAT in state
court systems has proud true.
Format benefits
Spad is r+ot the only bcucfit. -1'hc coot
5. She(nun, la C:fr rot ,`~doaf ricpnrrrrr?, 95
Na'nonnt. 9:oanr~rvu Bcronrrn 21 (19H3 ).
ti. '.Yilsor., Il 7u%:rs Mort Tlm rt a Cornputtr, 7.i
tiAnov n+Stonru evu [retort rea 7 (19fl4).
I CO \:PVI'F n-rttDF[l -t!U NSCRit9'tON IIl lttf:
(:c.vxrs IC) (1Yi11 i;unsLuq;, l7k Netiannl ('avuer
kv tiruc Courts, 17H1).
puter's ability to search out words and
phrases in a lengthy donrtncnt nffe•rs
two additional ads•;uuagcs• first, when
only a portion oC a trial transcript is
nccded, the computer's scarr6 rapabili-
tics allow the production o[ panial tr:ur
scripts as easily and quickly as complete
ones. Also, CA"C systems offer a eapabi I-
ity called kcy[vordindexing. This allows
the computer to search out particular
words or phrases selected by an attorney
or appellate court and provide a com•
purer-generated list o[ the pages and
lines (with surrounding tcxq where the
selected words appear. "T"his can jrrovide
a significant time savings when an ap-
peal focuses on one onnorc smal l aspects
of a long trial. When lnnscrip t is ordered
on a daily-copy basis, this feature speeds
the process n[ selecting testimony for
impeachment purposes as well.
Having a transcript in a compu[cr-
eanpatiblc [Donal offers benefits other
than rapid search and rctricval. "Iian-
scripts of deposi t fats, hearings, and even
trials become a significant portion o[ the
data base created by litigation support
firms [or large-scale litigation. Ileaurse
CAI--created tmnscripts arc already in a
form that computers can understand,
these transcripts can be converted to a
litigation support data base without
additional rckP.ying, saving time and
money as well as assuring that the trans-
ferred data arc accurate. The reduced
cost o[ entering data into a litigation
support system should result in savings
for the client.
CAT offers other advantages that tra-
ditional mctlrodso[transcribingcannot.
For instance, some CA-1'systems arc able
to provide a rough draft on a "rea6timc"
translation basis. In this instance, the
reporter's stenotype machine is wired
directly to the computer, and the Iransfa-
[ion process takcsplaccas the shonhand
symbols arc written. -Ihc time gap bc-
nvccrr writing thcshorthand and having
the tmrtslated material available, albeit
uncorrected, is less than 10 seconds. In
instances when auonu•ys or judges need
a transcript immediately, they can have
an unedited v<•rsion of the u:utseript
within minutes o[ the et:d o[ a hcaringor
cc.+rt scssicn.
Increasing use
-I'he•sc capabilities arc indicative of rite
types of innovations that nurdern court
rcportiug is using on achy-ut-dnc ftasis.
'hhcy art" not prc•dictiuns of thr Auure;
each of the [c:uun•s discussed is available
ua :+l 1, or nursb of the CA'1- systrnrs <ur-
rrntly nauke•ted. And these capabilities
arc not limited to a few repnning firms
or courts around the country.:\ recent
survey by the National Shorthand Kc-
parters Association indicated that more
than 14,000 reporters working in courts
and deposition firms aromtd the country
arc using CA"F, and the numbers arc
increasing at a rate of more than 40 per
cent per year.
One reason for the incrcasccf use of
CA-1-has been its decreased cost. ;\s tvi th
any new technology, the procxppe sys-
tems were expensive and sornctrhat un-
wieldy eomparect frith later and more
efficient models. A reponer ecn note
purchase astand-alone GAT system for
$12,000-approximately the rose o[ a
new car. There are also huge t:wlti-user
systems that arc appropriate for report-
ing firms and in some cases hate been
purchased by a cowl. In such a srura-
tion, the usual procedure is for the coon
to charge reporters who use its C-\I`
system a small fee per page For transla-
tion, enabling the court to recoup its
invesunent and even to generate revenue,
which helps to hull down the cost u[ the
court system to the utxpayers.
Adding personnel is not necessarily
the best answer to speeding transcript
production; making the most efficient
use of existing personnel is. G\T is no
panacea. In and o[ itself, it dots not inr
prove the quality of transcripts. The ao
curacy of the transerip[ will depend
upon the capabilities and skills of the
shorthand reporter. I-tow•ever, C:\T kill
makea competent reporter more produe•
rive and able to offer ancillary services
beyond transcript production. 16'hile
many of the benefits of G-\T aeauc to
reporters by rcduc ing labor intensity and
increasing their ability to stabilize their
costs, many of the feat w~es o[ this nu ci
ern teehnoi r,•Gy can save time and monev
for busy courts and lam•ycrs a~ ..cll.
Computer aided tautsnipticn n;n rt~•
duce the delay in lion] adjudiauiur: of
cases without additional resource de-
mandsupon courts. ^
J/LL f?ERM.4N 1N11SONisProsrdonr of tYd;on
Levy $ Associatos, n court mana~omonr Ccn-
sulling firm in Plainvinw, NY.
`[ i:)
ORDER NO. 16655
APPROVAL OF PAYMENT FOR MAINTEN-
ANCE AGREEMENT ON A SSCRIBE MICRO
-MASTER
~-12-1986
Q, Page 235