Court Reporter Has Heard It All
* Mack Reed’s recent column “Welcome to Courtroom 14 . . . “ starts out with, “Picture a room that starts the workday at top speed . . . “ and ends with “Bailiffs shush the crowd, but noise washes through a storm tide, the attorneys’ arguments, defendants (sic) pleas and judge’s orders barely sticking up through it like the pilings of a flooded pier. It is a wonder anyone can hear anything at all . . . “
One person hears it all--and contemporaneously, with top speed, records all pertinent matter for the record, sifting out all the extraneous noise in a way that only a highly skilled human being can and no tape recorder will in our lifetime. I imagine the court reporter’s presence wasn’t noted in Reed’s column simply because the long-suffering court reporter was performing in his/her customary professional manner and was--also, as usual--not noticed.
TERI ANDRE
Official reporter
Ventura
superior/municipal courts
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