National Court Reporters Association Registered Merit Reporter (RMR)

Under NCRA guidelines, a court reporter must not go off the record unless all parties agree to do so. Therefore, the reporter must continue writing to maintain an accurate and impartial record, contrary to the hiring attorney’s request. The other options violate the reporter’s duty of impartiality or standard reporting procedures.

A bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy refers to the removal of both fallopian tubes (salpingo) and ovaries (oophorectomy). A hysterectomy is the removal of the uterus, while the other terms refer to procedures involving the gallbladder and bile ducts.

The clause ‘which was patented in 2015’ is nonessential to the meaning of the sentence and must be set off by commas on both sides. Additionally, ‘high-frequency’ functions as a compound adjective modifying ‘laser’ and requires a hyphen.

‘Res ipsa loquitur’ translates to ‘the thing speaks for itself,’ meaning negligence is presumed from the very nature of the accident. ‘Res judicata’ means a matter already judged, and the other options incorrectly describe the burden of proof or appellate standards.

NCRA COPE requires reporters to avoid conflicts of interest and to immediately disclose any potential conflict, such as a past contentious relationship, to all parties. Failing to disclose, or abandoning the job without explanation, violates professional obligations of impartiality and reliability.

To comply with HIPAA when using cloud storage for protected health information (PHI), the provider must offer adequate security measures like encryption and must sign a Business Associate Agreement. Standard free services without a BAA are non-compliant, and deleting audio files prematurely violates professional retention requirements.

Standard transcript formatting requires the reporter to treat the interpreted words as if the witness is speaking directly in the first person. Using the third person or attributing the words to the interpreter creates a confusing and technically inaccurate legal record.

‘Principal’ is the correct spelling for the primary or main argument, whereas ‘principle’ refers to a rule or belief. ‘Superseded’ is correctly spelled with an ‘s’ in the middle, not a ‘c’, which is a common misspelling.

A court reporter must remain a neutral officer of the court and cannot provide legal advice or procedural instructions to a witness. It is solely the responsibility of the attorneys to advise the witness on how to proceed following an objection.

Spinal stenosis is the specific medical term for the abnormal narrowing of the spinal canal. Spondylolisthesis is the slipping of a vertebra, ankylosing spondylitis is an inflammatory arthritis, and radiculopathy refers to pinched nerve roots.

Under the NCRA Code of Professional Ethics, reporters must provide comparable services to all parties. If a rough draft or expedited transcript is requested by one party, the reporter must offer it to all other parties simultaneously to maintain strict impartiality.

A reporter should describe the physical action (nodding) rather than interpreting the meaning of the action (indicating yes or affirmative response). The reporter must not put spoken words in the witness’s mouth, making ‘A. Yes’ incorrect for a non-verbal gesture.

‘Voir dire’ is the legal term for the preliminary examination of a witness or a juror by a judge or counsel. ‘Certiorari’ relates to appellate review, ‘duces tecum’ is a request to produce documents, and ‘habeas corpus’ challenges unlawful detention.

Sealed portions of a record must be preserved for appellate review but kept confidential from the public record. This is properly accomplished by producing a separate, clearly marked sealed volume, rather than omitting or redacting the actual text.

When a conjunctive adverb (like ‘therefore’) joins two independent clauses, it must be preceded by a semicolon and followed by a comma. The other options result in comma splices or omit necessary punctuation.

A court reporter must produce an accurate verbatim record; guessing or asking a party to fill in blanks compromises the integrity of the transcript. Using a standard parenthetical like (indiscernible) correctly indicates that the audio was not clear without altering the record.

‘Distal’ means situated away from the center of the body or from the point of attachment. Conversely, ‘proximal’ means closer, ‘anterior’ means toward the front, and ‘posterior’ means toward the back.

NCRA has strict Transcript Format Guidelines designed to standardize page layouts and prevent page-padding. A certified reporter has an ethical obligation under COPE to adhere to standard formatting and ensure honest billing, regardless of a firm’s unethical directives.

‘Intestate’ is the legal term for dying without a valid will. Dying outside a state or with excessive debt does not define intestacy, and having multiple wills would involve a will contest, not intestacy.

A realtime dictionary links specific steno strokes to their English equivalents, enabling the CAT software to translate shorthand into readable text instantly as the reporter writes. While CAT software has audio sync and spellcheck features, these are not the function of the realtime dictionary itself.