Court Reporter Ethics, Professional Responsibility, and Confidentiality
The duty that outranks the rest
Accuracy and impartiality. The transcript is the official record; you do not summarize, improve, or omit. Certification is a personal attestation that what you signed is what you heard, and it is the reporter - not the parties - who answers for it.
Confidentiality
- Grand jury: secrecy attaches to proceedings and to the notes and transcripts generated from them; release only as authorized.
- Juvenile matters, sealed and expunged records, protective orders, and in-chambers conferences carry their own restrictions.
- Medical records read into the record contain personal health information; store and transmit accordingly.
- Do not discuss testimony with parties, counsel, or the media, and do not leave working files unsecured.
Boundaries with counsel
- No ex parte coaching, no advance peek at a transcript for one side only, no advice about objections or appeal.
- Disclose conflicts: prior employment with a firm in the case, a close relationship with a party or witness, a financial interest in the outcome.
- Authority to go off the record belongs to the judge. If counsel stipulates, confirm it aloud on the record before stopping.
Worked example
During a recess, defense counsel asks you to "clean up" a witness's answer and drop an audible aside. Decline. Only the judge, on the record, can strike or correct testimony, and only for a proper reason. When court resumes, if counsel moves to strike, record the motion, the response, and the ruling verbatim; mark the struck material as directed rather than deleting it.
Traps
Treating "off the record" as counsel's call; editing a witness's grammar in testimony; certifying a transcript you have not proofread; assuming that because Kentucky does not license court reporters, no enforceable standards apply.