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National Court Reporters Foundation Supports the Courtroom 21 Project
Great Strides Made in Educating Student Lawyers about Court Reporting
Williamsburg , VA , January 20, 2006
The National Court Reporters Foundation (NCRF), in association with the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA), is pledging continued sponsorship of the Courtroom 21 Project in 2006. Operating with the McGlothlin Courtroom at the William & Mary School of Law, and through the support of the NCRF and other associations, the Courtroom 21 Project is able to employ a full-time court reporter to assist in the education of students, lawyers, judges, architects and others.
“One of our goals is to create better lawyers by teaching law students what is involved in making the court record and what the court reporter needs,” says Diane M. Gray, RPR, CRR, Courtroom 21 Court Record Manager and on-staff Court Reporter. “As future lawyers, students need to realize the details necessary to make a court record for appeal purposes. I provide them with this type of information as part of the Technical Trial Advocacy and Legal Skills courses, along with providing additional training on how to use litigation support software with real-time transcripts.” In working with the Legal Skills trials, Diane also coordinates with court reporters in the state to assist with the court record for the students’ trials, and they e-mail transcripts to the students for appellate purposes.
Yearly Lab Trials are conducted in Courtroom 21 that deal with a timely subject in conjunction with difficult technical management problems - in and out of the courtroom – as part of the trial. The on-staff court reporter is a major part of the trial and is involved with cutting edge processes like webcasting transcripts in real-time. Inclusive in this process is meeting with appropriate vendors, training, experimenting, evaluating and using new software and hardware relating to the court record.
Regular demonstrations on Court Reporting and making the court record are provided to Judges, Court Administrators, Courtroom Designers, Architects, Audio/Visual Specialists, students, and other interested parties. Demonstrations on real-time reporting are also presented to visitors of the neighboring National Center of State Courts (NCSC). Fred Lederer, Project Director for Courtroom 21, commented that “having an ‘on-staff,’ full-time Court Reporter has been invaluable in both the knowledge imparted, as well as managing the current technology to improve the reporting and court record process. We are very grateful for the funds and support that the National Court Reporters Foundation has provided us in the past and continues to make possible for the Courtroom 21 Project. The NCRF was one of our earliest benefactors, and our contributions in this field would be sorely diminished without their support.”
The world-renowned Courtroom 21 Project
, a joint initiative of the William and Mary Law School and the National Center for State Courts, is an ongoing international demonstration and experimental effort which seeks to determine how technology can best improve all components of the legal system. The Project’s McGlothlin Courtroom is the world’s most technologically advanced trial and appellate courtroom. For more information on the Project, visit www.legaltechcenter.net.
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