Court reporting fees can be costly, but getting an accurate transcription of legal proceedings in discovery is almost always required to advance your case. Fees vary by provider, but the following tips used together offer the potential for you and your clients to realize savings of 50 percent or more. The tips marked with *** can provide the greatest cost savings.

1. *** When using a provider you are unfamiliar with, ask for a rate schedule. Be wary of national firms that provide what amount to introductory rates and then jack up the price after they believe they have you as a client. Confirm fees in writing when you schedule.
2. Prepare and send your own deposition notices. Remember to send a copy to the court reporter!
3. For depositions that require subpoena service, prepare your own subpoena and contact a local process server directly. Remember to schedule the deposition with the court reporter!
4. Consider conducting depositions by Zoom to save travel costs, but always verify fees. Although some fees for videoconference proceedings are justifiable, many court reporting firms charge exorbitant rates.
5. Schedule depositions in advance to avoid late-scheduling fees and reduce the risk of not getting coverage. Notice of at least one to two weeks is preferred.
6. Cancel depositions that will not be going forward by 4:00 p.m. the business day prior to avoid cancellation fees.
7. *** Be sure to schedule depositions well before any deadlines which would require the transcript to be expedited. Expedited transcripts can sometimes double costs.

If you absolutely must have a transcript expedited, let the court reporting company know that when scheduling. Due to their skill level or because of planned time off, not all court reporters can provide expedited turnaround. At best, you may be charged more than if you had given notice in advance; at worst, you may not have the transcript when you need it.

When unexpected deadlines come up and you need an expedited transcript, kindly let the reporter know exactly when you need it. Avoid using the phrase “as soon as possible.” Because of a backlog, a planned vacation, or simply because the court reporter doesn’t work efficiently, that might mean that you get the transcript in a month. Alternatively, it could mean that you get the transcript the next day at a considerable upcharge when 9 or 10 business days would be sufficient. Ask for fees in writing to avoid any misunderstandings.

8. *** Make a great record. Sustained overly fast, heavy technical terminology, garbled speaking, heavy accents, and/or overlapping speech – when any of these factors are at play, it makes it much more difficult to capture and create a readable, accurate transcript, with all being avoidable except a heavy accent or technical terminology. This is a fairly common surcharge from court reporters, as the art of making a great record seems to be waning. Having a video recording does not obviate the need to make a great record.

Learn how to protect your record plus access Tips On How To Make A Great Record.

9. *** Use a local court reporting company that does not charge transcript rates for word index pages. Word index pages can add roughly 20 percent more pages to a transcript. See our Transcript Comparison Study.
10. Premark your exhibits with electronic exhibit stickers* and provide the files electronically to the court reporter. A hard copy can be printed to provide to the witness and opposing counsel during in-person proceedings. Unless exhibits have been marked on, printed exhibits given to the witness can be retained by the witness or their counsel. Then order the transcript electronically to save on shipping and handling fees. *We recommend ExhibitSticker.com.

IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION: Scanning your own exhibits after a deposition or other legal proceeding can introduce chain of custody issues. Exhibits produced during the deposition should be provided to the court reporter at the deposition either in printed form or, by agreement of counsel, electronically.

11. Pay invoices by check, ACH, or debit card to avoid credit card fees.
12. Although it may sound counterintuitive, if you or your staff currently prepare deposition summaries, consider ordering a transcript summary from the court reporter. This may save you hours of time.

Be aware that not all AI summaries are the same. We offer class-leading summaries prepared by THREADEO.

Summaries are delivered in a format designed to be intuitive and information-rich, allowing legal pros to grasp the essence of a transcript in less than three minutes. No other summaries on the market promise this level of depth, clarity, and strategic insight.

Summaries are provided as both PDF and DOCX files. DOCX files are obviously easier to edit, if you would like to do that.

When exhibits are attached to the transcript, exhibit summaries are included at no additional cost.

If you need a transcript summary of a proceeding that we did not report, no problem. All we need is the complete transcript in ASCII (.txt) format sent to [email protected] along with a request for a summary.

We hope these cost-saving tips help you and your clients. If we can answer any questions or be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us. We appreciate each opportunity we have to work with you.