13.2 References, Internet Research & Understanding the Case

Blueprint topics 30409 to 30411 ask you to define best practice for standard references and research materials, discuss how transcribers can use the Internet effectively for research, and explain why comprehending the case matters.

Standard references

The CET blueprint lists its references. Here is what each is for:

Add a medical dictionary and a drug reference for medical testimony (Chapter 18), and keep AAERT's federal format samples and template at hand.

Best practice: use current editions, prefer the authoritative source over a summary of it, keep a job-specific word list (names, places, terms, spellings, speaker voices) and reuse it for related jobs in the same case.

Researching on the Internet

A reliable order of sources

1. The case materials: case information, log notes, exhibits, appearances. These are the most authoritative for the case itself.
2. Official sources: court websites (judges' names and titles, courthouse addresses), state bar attorney directories (attorney names), government agency sites, company websites for business names and their exact styling.
3. Reference sites: online dictionaries, map services for street and place names, and professional directories for doctors.
4. Court records: PACER (federal) or state court portals can confirm a caption, party names and a case number. They may charge fees; follow your client's policy.
5. General search, used carefully, to find a candidate spelling that you then confirm in an authoritative source.

Search techniques

• Put exact phrases in quotation marks: "Laffredo" "Essex Police".
• Limit to an authoritative domain, as in site:uscourts.gov or a state court domain.
• Combine a name with a role and a place to narrow the result: Dr. [name] orthopedic Burlington Vermont.
• Confirm in two independent sources when the stakes are high, such as a party's name or a drug name.

What the Internet cannot do

• It cannot tell you what was said. A plausible spelling found online does not prove the speaker said that word.
• It does not outrank the case materials. If the caption spells a party's name one way, use it, even if a website differs, unless the record itself shows otherwise.

Researching without breaching confidentiality

Research exposes information to outside services, so:

• Search single terms, not quotations of testimony.
• Never paste transcript passages into public search engines, translation services or AI chat tools. Those services may store or reuse the text (Chapter 2).
• Do not contact witnesses, parties or attorneys to ask about spellings unless the client authorizes it; go through the agency.
• Protect work product. Your word list for a sealed case is itself confidential.

Comprehending the case

Understanding what the case is about makes a transcriber more accurate:

• Homophones: in a loan dispute, "principal" (the amount); in an ethics hearing, "principle."
• Punctuation: knowing who is who and what is at issue shows where sentences end and whether a line is a question.
• Speaker IDs: knowing which attorney represents whom, and who is examining, prevents misattribution.
• Terminology: a products-liability case brings engineering terms; a custody case brings family-court terms. Preparing a word list in advance saves time.

How to get up to speed: read the case information and log notes before listening; skim the exhibits; listen to the opening minutes where counsel usually identify themselves and the issues; review earlier transcripts in the same case if the client provides them.

A worked research example

A physician testifies about prescribing "Lyrica" and "gabapentin" and names a colleague, "Dr. Nguyen," at a clinic that sounds like "Copley Ortho."

1. Drug names: confirm in a drug reference or DailyMed. Lyrica is a brand name (capitalized); gabapentin is a generic name (lowercase).
2. The colleague: search the clinic's official website and the state medical board's license lookup for a Dr. Nguyen at that practice. Two sources agree on the spelling.
3. The clinic: the practice's website shows its exact name and styling.
4. What you do not do: paste the physician's testimony into a search box, or phone the clinic.
5. If verification fails: keep the spelling as heard with (phonetic) on first use (Chapter 12).

Add every verified item to the job's word list with its source, so a later transcriber in the same case can reuse it.

The limit

Comprehension informs choices between possibilities you actually hear. It never licenses adding or changing words to make testimony "make sense." If a witness says something that seems wrong for the case, the transcript keeps it, with (sic) if the misstatement could look like a transcription error (Chapter 5).