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kleinbl00 · 2148 days ago · link · · parent · post: Court stenographers often misunderstand Black English, and their mistakes could affect people’s lives at crucial junctures.
I haven't installed every court in the United States. However, criminal proceedings generally go to a superior court. The software and equipment aren't expensive - about two months' salary for a stenographer (to put it in perspective). And we're talking about court reporting - not court interpreting. It's not at all safe to expect non-elected, trade-school trained technicians to interpret what they're hearing based on a specialized (rather than generalized) milieu. If a defendant is being misinterpreted, the onus is on their counsel to force a clarification, not on the court reporter to selectively parse nuances of register in order to render their best-fit response. This is how dog lawyers happen.