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Normally the commanding officer (CO) of the
naval legal service office (NLSO) directs the
employment of reporters.
R.C.M. 502(e), MCM, 1984, refers to the qualifi-
cations of reporters and provides, in part, that “The
qualifications of reporters may be prescribed by the
Secretary concerned. No person shall act as reporter
in any case in which that person is, or has been, in the
same case (1) the accuser, (2) a witness, (3) an inves-
tigating officer, (4) counsel for any party, or (5) a
member of the court-martial or of any earlier
court-martial of which the trial is a rehearing, new, or
other trial.”
OATHS
R.C.M. 807(b) provides that “The reporters shall
take an oath to perform their duties faithfully.” The
JAGMAN lists the required verbiage of the oath:
Oath for reporters: The trial counsel (TC) will
administer the following oath to every reporter of
a court-martial who has not been previously
sworn:
Do you (swear) (affirm) that you will faithfully
perform the duties of reporter to this court-martial
(so help you God)?”
The TC administers the oath to the reporter at the
court-martial. At the discretion of the CO of the
NLSO to which the reporter is assigned or employed,
reporters may execute a written oath to perform their
duties faithfully in all cases to which they are detailed
or employed before an officer qualified to administer
oaths.
When a reporter who has been sworn is used by,
reassigned to, or employed by a different GCM CA, a
copy of the oath is given to the CO of the NLSO of the
new CA. The CO of the NLSO authorizing the
administration of a written oath maintains a copy of
the oath so it may readily be determined that the
reporter has been previously sworn. When reporters
are not sworn in court because they have previously
been sworn, this fact is noted in the transcript or the
record of trial.
When calling the court-martial to order for the
first time in a case, the military judge makes sure the
name and rank of the detailed court reporter are
announced. After all personnel of the court have been
accounted for, the TC announces whether the reporter,
if one is present, has been previously sworn. If not
sworn, the reporter is then sworn. If a reporter is ever
replaced during the trial, this fact must be noted in the
record.
VERBATIM REPORTING
You, as the court reporter, are responsible for
recording all proceedings verbatim. Actually, the
term verbatim reporting may be misleading. There
will, of course, be instances where you will know
beforehand that a verbatim transcript of the
proceedings will not be required, as in an SPCM
where a punitive discharge is not authorized. Good
reporting techniques, however, dictate that you should
record all proceedings verbatim. There is always the
chance that the CA may desire a verbatim transcript
even though such a transcript would not otherwise be
required. Obviously, you cannot prepare a verbatim
transcript unless you have previously recorded the
proceedings word for word. Also, there are certain
portions of a summarized record that must be
transcribed verbatim.
GENERAL DUTIES OF THE COURT
REPORTER
The most important thing you should always keep
in mind when you are detailed as a reporter for any
military court or commission is that it is your job to
get it all down.
If a question is raised whether any particular
matter is included in the terms proceedings of and
testimony taken, the military judge determines the
question according to applicable law and regulations.
It is the duty of the reporter to include in the record
everything that is said or takes place in open sessions
and in hearings out of the presence of the court
members. The reporter does not omit any portion of
these proceedings from the record.
Before Trial
Before trial you may be directed to perform other
administrative duties that could include typing and
preparing the following documents:
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Article 32 investigations
Oral depositions
Investigating officer’s report
Advice of the SJA
Pretrial agreements
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