Court Reporting Practice and Procedure
What this domain tests
Court Reporting Practice and Procedure tests the reporter's role in Louisiana proceedings: administering oaths, making a verbatim record, handling objections and exhibits, and managing the on/off-record boundary in depositions and trials. Expect scenario questions, not just definitions.
Core rules and concepts
- The reporter is an officer of the court, not a participant. Do not rule on objections, coach a witness, or summarize testimony.
- In a Louisiana deposition, the officer must be disinterested; counsel and counsel's employees cannot serve as the officer. The witness is sworn before testimony begins.
- Objections must be recorded verbatim with the question and answer. If counsel instructs a witness not to answer, the reporter records the instruction and the colloquy; the reporter does not decide whether the instruction is proper.
- Go off the record only when all counsel agree or the presiding judge directs it. Mark the exact point: '(Off the record at 10:42 a.m.)' and the return.
- Identify speakers clearly, mark exhibits with sequential numbers or letters, describe them on the record, and preserve them with the transcript.
- Read-back requests should be answered from the record, not from memory.
Worked example
Defense counsel objects: 'Objection-leading; don't answer.' Plaintiff's counsel asks the reporter to strike the objection. Correct handling: the reporter records the objection, the instruction, and both lawyers' statements verbatim, then asks whether the witness will answer. The reporter does not strike anything and does not call the objection frivolous. If the parties cannot resolve it, they may suspend the deposition and seek a court ruling. Reasoning: the transcript is evidence of what occurred; the reporter's silence or editing would destroy the record.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating an 'off the record' request as automatic.
- Omitting sidebar or colloquy because it seems irrelevant.
- Failing to swear the witness or to state the oath on the record.
- Renumbering exhibits to 'fix' a gap, which breaks the record.