Professional Responsibility, Confidentiality, and Notary/Deposition Rules
Status and duties
Illinois court reporters are licensed certified shorthand reporters under the Court Reporters Act, regulated by the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. At a deposition the officer's independence is structural: the officer may not be a relative, employee, or attorney for a party, must administer the oath, must record objections concisely, and must certify the transcript.
Deposition mechanics under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 206
Objections are stated briefly and non-argumentatively ("Objection, form"). Counsel may not instruct a witness not to answer except to preserve a privilege or to enforce a court limitation. The transcript may be submitted to the witness for review and signature unless that right is waived, and the officer certifies and delivers it as the rules direct.
Confidentiality
Protective orders under Rule 201(c) can seal testimony; grand jury material and HIPAA-protected records carry their own limits. Reporters do not discuss testimony, do not circulate notes, and do not release transcripts to nonparties without a court order or subpoena.
Notary duties
An Illinois notary commission comes from the Secretary of State and runs four years under the Notary Public Act. A notary must be in the signer's presence, must not notarize their own signature, and must identify the signer.
Worked example
An attorney asks you to delete a question he withdrew. Reasoning: you do not alter the record. The withdrawal is captured as spoken or noted by parenthetical, and the transcript reports what occurred. Deleting it would make your certificate false.
Traps
Notarizing outside the signer's presence; assuming an off-the-record request suspends your duties; offering an opinion on a witness's credibility; releasing a transcript without authority.