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Welcome to the Court Reporters Office

Welcome to the Court Reporters Office

Mission Statement

The mission of the Official Court Reporters is to serve the citizens of Berks County, the Board of Judges, and members of the Bar by stenographically recording all proceedings presided over by the Board of Judges of the Court of Common Pleas and to provide verbatim transcripts of proceedings to the Court and any interested parties as required


General Department Information

The office of the Official Court Reporters is made up of a Chief Court Reporter and 17 highly skilled and motivated court reporters who have the responsibility of stenographically recording all proceedings brought before the Court of Common Pleas and preparing transcripts of said proceedings as directed. Also within the department is the Exhibit/Evidence Storage Technician, who also is the video conferencing operator, whose dual responsibilities are to collect, log, and store all exhibits marked by the court reporters on a daily basis and also to operate the video-conferencing equipment which is used for arraignments involving inmates in Berks County Prison and also by various Court of Common Pleas judges for hearings with inmates in Berks County Prison as well as those housed at various Pennsylvania state correctional institutions and correctional institutions throughout the United States.

History

In 1981 Berks County became the first county courthouse in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to use a Computer Aided Transcription (CAT) system. Today, all court reporters currently utilize the latest state-of-the-art CAT software and equipment.