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[Guest Post] Court Reporters’ Role in Depositions

Monday, August 10, 2009

Below is a Guest Post from Kat Sanders. Note: Under the Indonesian Legal System, an Institution called Panitera (Registrar and court secretary) is responsible for logistic and case administration from the beginning to the end. The registrar is a civil servant working under the Supreme Court. Normally it is required that they have a law degree.

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Court Reporters’ Role in Depositions

A court reporter is perhaps the most important person in the courtroom if you’re looking for the history of the trial – he or she is responsible for ensuring that every word said in the courtroom is transcribed into indelible records that can be analyzed and scrutinized down the ages. Court reporters are also very useful when it comes to recording depositions of witnesses, especially the ones whose testimony is very important to the case.

When using a court reporter for a deposition, accuracy and precision are important. To that extent, it’s wise to:
  • Talk to the court reporter and advice them about the nature of the case
  • Familiarize them with the name of the witness and other parties relevant to the case.
  • Instruct your witness to talk clearly and concisely
  • Talk at the pace you want your witness to talk too and enunciate the words clearly.
  • Avoid talking at the same time as your client or anyone else so that the deposition is recorded clearly
  • Advise your witness to also refrain from answering questions before you’re done asking them and from interrupting your sentences.
  • Make adequate arrangements to bring copies of all your records to the courthouse.
  • Tell your court reporter how often you require copies of the deposition.

Court reporters are trained to take down every word that is said in court and record a witness’ deposition word for word. This helps lawyers build their case and argue it later in court. Court reporters also facilitate the process of appeals with their transcripts which are reviewed by the concerned lawyers and sent to the higher court where the appeal has been filed. Witness depositions help lawyers prepare their cases more efficiently and easily.

There are various court reporter schools that offer degrees in the USA – they are usually distance education degrees that can be taken from the comfort of your home. In most Eastern countries, court reporting is a profession that is learned through experience. The reporters know how to take quick notes and are trained on the job to be able to record transcripts verbatim. Court reporting is a profession that is gaining in stature all over the USA, more because of the number of cases that are being tried every day.

By-line:
This article is written by Kat Sanders, who regularly blogs on the topic of online court reporter school at her blog Court Reporter Schools. She welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: katsanders25@gmail.com.

 

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'Disruptive' Technology in Water Supply

Sunday, August 9, 2009

As I have written in the previous post, nanotech may be able to revolutionize drinking water provision. Recently at the 2009 TED, an engineer demonstrated a non chemical nano-filtration bottle that could change filthy water into drinking water in a matter of second. The cost of the bottle is still quite high, around 116-170 GBP depending on the volume (filtration of up to 4,000 to 6,000 litres).

However, with better manufacturing, the price of the filter may significantly decrease in the future. If employed in a larger scale, this technology may decentralize water treatment facility and open doors for competition in the water sector.


 

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End of natural monopoly in the water sector?

Michael Pritchard demonstrated his Lifesaver Bottle that can turn filthy water into drinkable water in a matter of second. The portable lifesaver filter is said to have 15 nanometer pores, small enough to filter viruses. The running cost to produce 25.000 litres of water through a Jerrycan equipped with Livesafer filter is 0.5 cents per day.

If the technology develops and applied to drinking water infrastructure, we may soon say goodbye to natural monopoly in the water sector. Treatment costs will go significantly low making any household eligible to build their own treatment facilities so long as water sources are available.







This could be a bad news for water companies of course :)

Regulations on water services will need to accommodate the possibilities for liberalising the water sector.

 

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What will happen if the world's population go down?

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Lower land prices, higher labor prices, said Pete Alcorn. Surely, it will bring tremendous changes to social system: land reform, democratization and the rise of middle class. Alcorn suggest us to move beyond malthusian economy and pay attention to the tendency of population decrease.

In previous posts we have discussed a little about post-scarcity economics, which is a by-product of Molecular Manufacturing (MM). It may turn out that even without MMworld's population growth may decrease to negative within one century.

The reason for decreasing population may vary. In the past, it can happen because of wars. Now it seems unlikely. So plague -- such as virulent influenza viruses -- could be a scenario. Another scenario would be a relatively successful health and social programs which increases longevity but turned population growth into negative.

See Alcorn's talk here:




 

Gecko challenging a crocodile


NYT posted a story on the recent polemic between the gecko and the crocodile:

“Now our relations are no good because the K.P.K. started picking on their high officials,” said Erry Riyana Hardjapamekas, a former deputy chairman at the commission. “We suspect each other.” More recently, an active high-ranking police official, Susno Duadji, was wiretapped by the commission and caught asking for a $1 million bribe. In an interview with Tempo, the country’s most respected magazine, the police official said he knew he was being wiretapped and played along with the caller; in an allusion to the anticorruption commission and the police, he said, “It’s like a gecko challenging a crocodile.”

Civil societies recently campaigned in support of the 'Gecko'. They called their movement CICAK or Cinta Indonesia Cinta KPK (Love Indonesia, Love the Commission for Eradication of Corruption). Cicak is the Indonesian word for Gecko. As a symbol, they release the above emblem titled: "I am a gecko. I am bold to challenge a crocodile"

 

Draft Law on Commercial Court

Saturday, July 25, 2009

The Central Jakarta Court website published a draft Law (June 2009 version) on Commercial Court (in Bahasa). Click here.

 

The New Indonesian Mining Law

Thursday, July 23, 2009

ABNR/CastleAsia provided update on the new mining law here. The Jakarta Post published some report on divestment obligations for foreign mining firms here and here. A rather academic discussion is available on a paper here. IFLR published a memo on mining -- quite thorough here. There's a presentation giving a quite extensive overview on mining law here. There is also a short memo from Makarim, as well as Roosdiono.

Well, that should save some time for your research work -- and to ask more difficult question to your lawyers :)