We Interrupt This Deposition ...

I am making a valiant attempt to finish typing the transcripts of some depositions I reported last week in a car wreck case. The case is a sad one, having involved a fatality, but in all other respects the testimony has been run-of-the-mill. By that I mean, nobody who responded to the scene remembers very many details about it! But as a court reporter, I don't worry about that part. I am present at the deposition for one reason: to make a written record of every completed spoken word. And although I like to think I make it look easy, you can take my word for it that the most difficult part of my job (aside from when people speak so softly that I can barely hear them), is when the attorney conducting the deposition and the witness being deposed incessantly interrupt one another.

The way I report is by holding a small mask to my face and repeating, in a whisper, everything that is said on the record during the deposition. The mask is attached to a digital recorder that is recording on two tracks: one for what is being said in the room and one for what is being said into the mask. I can later listen to both tracks if necessary, in order to produce a verbatim transcript. Once the deposition begins, everything that is said -- by everyone in the room -- is on the record unless an attorney specifies that they wish a particular remark or series of remarks to be off the record. Now, once in a while the lawyers will engage in an impromptu side chat about their golf game or the struggles of the USC Gamecocks while we are on the record, but when the side chat is concluded, one of them will wink at me and say, "You don't have to put that on the record." I smile sweetly and say to myself "I already knew that, but thanks ever so."

But again, under the heading of Things That Make Me Want To Quit This Job And Suffer The Consequences No Matter How Dire They May Be, with no contest it would be people interrupting and/or talking over one another. And although one might think it would be a mitigating factor, it is no consolation and no help that, 99 percent of the time, the people who are doing it don't mean to do it and don't even know they are doing it! They are not being rude per se; they're just not thinking. The lawyer has questions to ask and the witness has answers to give, and all too often the answer starts before the question is completed, and vice versa. Since a deposition transcript is in "Q and A" format, a proceeding where there are constant interruptions will read like so:

Q.    Mr. Baarksendorfer, did you have prior knowledge that your neighbor --

A.     No, sir. I didn't --

Q.    -- was planning on -- to --

A.    -- even know he --

Q.    -- tar and feather --

A.    -- didn't like my dog --

Q.    -- your dog?

A.    -- until that day. I mean, he --

Q.    Okay. So you didn't --

A.    -- never complained, so -- so I --

Q.    -- know he was angry --

A.    I didn't have no -- no idea --

Q.    -- about the constant --

A.    -- he was even --

Q.    -- barking?

A.    -- bothered by the -- by it.

Q.    Okay.

Yeah! That's what I'm talking about! A deposition being conducted in that fashion sounds exactly like you would think: a hopelessly tangled thread of voices. And before my job is done, the tangled threads must be picked apart and the words set down in the order in which they were spoken, and attributed to the proper person. As a reporter I follow as closely as possible in the proceeding, whispering in my mask while taking detailed notes, but sometimes it can get tricky. After all, when two people are talking at the same time, I can only repeat what one of them is saying! I try to concentrate on the one with the softer voice, for obvious reasons, but sometimes even that isn't much help.

It's very stimulating to listen to it the second (and third and fourth and fifth and sixth) time, too, when you're obliged to finish the transcript on a deadline. As an additional bonus, in the middle of all that verbal give and take, people tend to interrupt not only one another, but also themselves! Nervous people (as deponents unfortunately are prone to be) talk in fits and starts, ending words in mid-syllable and saying "uh" a great deal -- none of which goes on the record but all of which must be listened to -- over and over again -- by the court reporter. It's not for the faint of heart.

I suppose it's poetic (or prosaic) justice (no pun intended) that in daily conversation I have a terrible tendency to interrupt! I get so excited when talking to someone, the words just tumble out all over one another and over the words of the one I'm talking to! My own daughter rebuked me for this just yesterday! All those reading this who have had the pleasure of talking to me in person or by phone, I will thank you not to snicker! Why do you think I like blogging so much? Because I have a lot to say and can say it without interruption, silly! HAHA! Have something to say to me? One at a time, please. And somebody keep a record.