Every city and state has its own court reporters, and not all of them are equal, as you may think. Some reporting companies offer general bottom line services, while others try harder to give accurate information with the best possible techniques.
Court reporters are the people who type, video tape, and record court sessions. Some Arizona court reporting companies even offer counsel on expert witness testimony. Although their services are nearly all the same, all Arizona court reporters are not equal. Make sure you find a company that works for what you need.
I have never been in trouble in my life, but there was this one time that I had to go to court. It was really all a misunderstanding, and although all criminals say that, it is actually true for me. I was in a college biology class with a good friend of mine (I’ll call her Jill), and we sat in the front row of class. I met her in that class and we became pretty close. Before each exam or lab test, Jill and I would meet with our professor in his office to ask extra questions we had and get some additional preparation help.
The teacher loved us, and we were clearly his favorite. I think it was partially because we showed that we actually cared about the class by visiting him during office hours, and partially because we were the only students in the once-a-week, 3-hour night class that weren’t completely rude and disrespectful. I think the poor professor dreaded our class as much as we did, not because of the lecture and lab topics, but because of the students.
One night when Jill and I got to class early, we were sitting in the hallway discussing the real human brain that we had to touch in the previous week’s lab. Disgusting. That week we were going to dissect baby pigs. Yes, baby pigs. I thought in this day and age, dissecting animals was a thing of the past, but apparently not. (At least in the small town we lived in.) Also disgusting. The smell of formaldehyde, anything to do with blood or organs, and I’m a mess. We were discussing ways I could try to stay conscious during the lab, because I needed the grade, and Jill needed a lab partner that wasn’t lying on the floor pale.
The baby pig lab came and went, and I learned that vicks vapor rub is good for more than just being sick; it made a great smell distraction from the formaldehyde. We put it on our noses and above our lips and it was a great cover. We ended up having a guy in our group, so I made him do most of the “cutting”. Disgusting…and sad.
A couple weeks later, Jill and I were happily walking to class when we were intercepted by our biology teacher. He said “I need to talk to you girls” in a very serious voice. We followed him to his office, where he told us that there were police officers waiting in our classroom to give us court documents about a restraining order. What? Huh? I don’t even have any enemies.
Apparently Jill had a high school battle with a girl who was in our class. She sat in the back row, and I honestly had never paid attention, heard about the battle, talked to this girl, or even known her name. Long story short-she heard Jill and I talking about the “disgusting” human brain and baby pig experiments and naturally assumed we were talking about how SHE was disgusting. I know, it doesn’t even make sense. So I had to go to court, talk to a real-life judge, and fight to not let this restraining order against me and my friend pass because all 3 of us needed the class to graduate.
This is where this story is relevant. Our tiny town didn’t have court reporters, so they hired a company of Phoenix court reporters to come in. Because it was just a small civil case, they recorded the audio and video recorded some parts of the event. After explaining to the judge that I didn’t even know this girl’s name before she dragged me to court, and that the word “disgusting” was most likely referring to dead baby pig spleen and human brains dissections, he almost laughed. The case was dismissed and there were cops outside our classroom every night the rest of the semester. You know, just in case a fight broke out.
The audio and video from that case are classic, because there were many times when I couldn’t hold in my laughter. I can’t believe I was even in that situation in the first place, and all by a girl I didn’t’ know. I love telling people that story.
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