Clean Verbatim

Updated: 7/7/25

As part of our ongoing effort to deliver clear, professional, and accurate transcripts, we are implementing a clean verbatim style for all speakers except for the Witness. The Witness’s speech will continue to be captured using full verbatim, but all other roles—including attorneys, digital reporters, and investigators—should be transcribed using clean verbatim rules within Depositions, Examinations Under Oath, and Sworn Statements.

This shift helps streamline readability and clarity while preserving the legal integrity of the record.

What Clean Verbatim Means

Clean verbatim is a style of transcription that removes nonessential speech patterns to create a more concise and professional transcript. Below are the key elements to watch for and remove:

1. False Starts

Phrases or sentences that are quickly abandoned or corrected.

Original: “You said you were driving- - were you driving with the sunroof open?”
Cleaned: “Were you driving with the sunroof open?”

2. Filler Words

Words that serve no meaningful function and only create clutter in the transcript.

Remove words like:

Um
Uh
Like
You know
So (when used as a filler)

3. Non-Meaningful Repetitions

Words or phrases repeated out of habit or nervousness that don’t contribute to the content.

Original: “Can-- Can-- Can you clarify what you meant in your last response?”
Cleaned: “Can you clarify what you meant in your last response?”

4. Stutters

Partial words or repeated sounds that occur due to speech disfluency.

Original: “D-- D-- D-- Did you check the Incident Report before this Deposition?”
Cleaned: “Did you check the Incident Report before this Deposition?”

5. Introductory Lead-Ins

Words or short phrases at the start of a sentence that serve no real function.

Common examples include:

Well

All right

Okay

Original: “Okay. All right, what color was the car?”

Cleaned: “What color was the car?”

6. Slang

Slang and informal speech should be corrected to standard English for all non-Witness speakers (attorneys, digital reporters, investigators). This keeps transcripts professional and clear.

Examples (Non-witness speech):

Spoken	Cleaned
“He didn’t wanna talk about it.”	“He didn't want to talk about it.”
“She kinda hesitated before answering.”	“She kind of hesitated before answering.”
“We're gonna need that document on the record.”	“We're going to need that document on the record.”
“You’re ’bout to be working where?”	“You're about to be working where?”

NOTE: Slang should only be preserved in Witness blocks, where full verbatim still applies.

NOTE: [sic] should still be used within all speaker blocks.

NOTE: If a false start or introductory lead-in is overlapped with another speaker and would normally be removed under clean verbatim, you do not need to include it just to mark crosstalk.

In clean verbatim, we’re only preserving substantive speech from non-witness speakers. So if the overlapping portion is a filler, false start, or nonessential lead-in that would already be removed, you should clean it out as usual and not mark <crosstalk> for it.

If what's overlapping is non-substantive and would be removed under clean verbatim rules → remove it, don't mark <crosstalk>.
We only use <crosstalk> when substantive speech is actually overlapped and affected.

Witness Blocks Stay Full Verbatim

For legal accuracy and record fidelity, all Witness speaker blocks must still be transcribed in full verbatim. This ensures every utterance and nuance is preserved.

Exceptions

Do not apply clean verbatim rules to the following types of events:

BWC (Body-Worn Camera)
Interviews
Phone Calls

These should continue to follow the full verbatim transcription style regardless of speaker.