Court Reporting Blog

March 15, 2013 By Dawn Houghton

Kalamazoo Court Reporter Expands Knowledge in a Wide Variety of Areas

O'Brien & Bails isn't just another court reporting firm. We are made up of individual people who happen to be Michigan court reporters. We thought we would take some time to let you get to know our court reporters. Mary Howland has been a court reporter since 1978. She has been with O'Brien and Bails since 1987 and is based out of our … [Read more...]

February 16, 2013 By Dawn Houghton

Michigan Court Reporter Appears in Hollywood Movie

Paul Brandell, Ingham County Circuit Court Reporter, recently had the opportunity to appear in the movie "Real Steel" with Hugh Jackman. We liked his story so much, we wanted to share it with you. Here is Paul's account as it appeared in The Record Times, a publication by the Michigan Association of Professional Court Reporters. Right Place At … [Read more...]

February 15, 2013 By Dawn Houghton

3 Top Skills of the Best Legal Assistants

Legal assistants are a necessary, important part of any law practice. The best legal assistants provide integral support for attorneys and clients. An assistant with exceptional skills is a valuable asset to a legal office. We just released a new report, The Top 10 Skills of the Best Legal Assistants, and wanted to go ahead and discuss 3 of the 10 … [Read more...]

February 8, 2013 By Dawn Houghton

Streaming Realtime Transcription For Legal Depositions

Streaming Realtime transcription is the term for transcription by court reporters to deliver computer text of speech over the Internet within seconds of the words being spoken. Realtime can also mean transmitting audio and video of the proceedings. Users can see the text and video from any computer with Internet access as the witness answers … [Read more...]

January 17, 2013 By Dawn Houghton

10 Notable Legal Courtroom Scenes in Movies

As court reporters, we are very critical of courtroom scenes in movies. Often, they are unrealistic and contain inaccurate procedures. Since we see a lot of testimony, courtroom scenes in movies often do not live up to the real thing. We've discovered this list of ten notable courtroom scenes. Whether accurate or not, this is a pretty good list … [Read more...]