Parrot Glossary
Updated: 07/24/24
A
Admissible: a term used to describe evidence that may be considered by a jury or judge in civil and criminal cases.
Affidavit: a written or printed statement made under oath.
Affirmed: in the practice of the court of appeals, it means that the court of appeals has concluded that the lower court decision is correct and will stand as rendered by the lower court.
Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR): the technology that the Machine Learning team uses to help create the rough drafts of each transcript.
Artificial errors: errors (substitutions, deletions, additions) automatically inserted into reviews to help us monitor review quality.
Arbitration: a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), is a way to resolve disputes outside the courts. Will be decided by one or more persons (the 'arbitrators', 'arbiters' or 'arbitral tribunal)
B
Bates stamping/numbers: a unique identifier attached to individual documents and pages to make each document and page easily identifiable and retrievable. Used when participants are dealing with exhibits or evidence.
C
Certificate of Non-Appearance (CNA): states that the deponent failed to appear at the deposition site at the scheduled date and time
Certificate of Oath: type of attestation by which an individual signifies that he or she is bound in conscience to perform a particular act truthfully and faithfully; a solemn declaration of truth or obligation
Certificate of True Testimony (CoTT): certifies that this testimony is accurate and was taken before a Digital Reporter, a commissioned notary public
Citation: a citation (or cite) in legal terminology is a reference to a specific legal source, such as a constitution, a statute, a reported case, a treatise, or a law review article. A standard citation includes first the volume number, then the title of the source, (usually abbreviated) and lastly, a page or section number.
Claim: any request or demand for payment under the terms of the insurance policy
Claimant: individual or entity presenting a claim
Claim Examiner: a person responsible for investigating and settling a claim
Client Tasks: about 15 minute long recordings that a Parrot client has ordered a transcript for, claimable to work on by our transcription team
Contextual Errors: mistakes that are caused by lack of full information (i.e. spellings of names, places, entities). These may not be obvious because of recordings being split between transcribers. E.g. The name "Jessika" is spelled out by a speaker in Subtask 1. The transcriber working on Subtask 3 transcribes her name as "Jessica."
Court reporter (CR): a stenographer who witnesses and makes a verbatim record and transcription of legal proceedings during a trial, deposition or hearing.
Counsel: legal advice; a term also used to refer to the lawyers in a case.
Cross-examiner: a person who asks detailed questions of someone, especially a witness in a trial, in order to discover if they have been telling the truth.
D
de novo: Latin, meaning "anew." A trial de novo is a completely new trial. Appellate review de novo implies no deference to the trial judge's ruling.
Defendant: an individual (or business) against whom a lawsuit is filed. In a civil case, the person or organization against whom the plaintiff brings suit; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
Deponent: a person who has been subpoenaed and testifies under oath during a deposition, trial or hearing. The deponent answers questions posed by an attorney, and his or her responses are recorded by the court reporter. In the event of a deposition, the deponent is typically given an opportunity to read the written record of his or her statement after the deposition transcript has been published, amend or correct it as needed, and sign his or her name to certify its truth.
Deposition (depo): the recorded sworn oral testimony of a party or witness before trial. Depositions are used to explore the strengths and weaknesses of the opposing party's case
Digital Reporters (DR): qualified and highly trained individuals who use professional, state-of-the-art recording equipment to capture testimony during proceedings
E
en banc: French, meaning "on the bench." All judges of an appellate court sitting together to hear a case, as opposed to the routine disposition by panels of three judges. In the Ninth Circuit, an en banc panel consists of 11 randomly selected judges.
Errata Sheet: list of corrections made by the party that chooses to read a certified transcript after receiving it.
Exhibit: a document, object, photo, etc., used as evidence in a deposition, hearing or trial. During a deposition, the court reporter marks each exhibit with a number, then indexes and describes them in the record.
ex parte: a proceeding brought before a court by one party only, without notice to or challenge by the other side.
Examinations (marking of examinations): the function in the app whereby a reviewer marks where direct and cross examinations begin and end.
Examination Under Oath (EUO): a formal proceeding during which an insured, under oath and in the presence of a court reporter or digital reporter, is questioned by a representative of the insurance company (usually a lawyer) to obtain the necessary information to evaluate and process an insured's claim.
F
Flags: a feedback mechanism used in training files, whereby reviewers "flag" errors and comment on them for transcribers.
G
H
habeas corpus: Latin, meaning "you have the body." A writ of habeas corpus generally is a judicial order forcing law enforcement authorities to produce a prisoner they are holding, and to justify the prisoner's continued confinement. Federal judges receive petitions for a writ of habeas corpus from state prison inmates who say their state prosecutions violated federally protected rights in some way.
I
Indemnification: the act of providing compensation for a loss with the intent to restore an individual or entity to the approximate financial position prior to the loss
J
Jurisprudence: the study of law and the structure of the legal system
K
L
Legal Council: refers to the services provided by a person who studies or practices law. Used interchangeably with attorney or lawyer
Legal Memo: the most formal, polished, and comprehensive written document for reporting the results of your legal research. It summarizes and analyzes the relevant law and applies it to a particular fact situation. In practice, the memorandum can be a crucial document to a case or file
Liability Examiner: the liability examiner handles the investigation of the accident. These examiners' responsibilities can include collision payments, property damage payments, and bodily injury settlements. In some states, these examiners may also handle the medical portion of your claim
Litigation: the process of engaging in a legal proceeding, such as a lawsuit.
M
Magistrate: a judicial officer of a district court who conducts initial proceedings in criminal cases, decides criminal misdemeanor cases, conducts many pretrial civil and criminal matters on behalf of district judges, and decides civil cases with the consent of the parties.
Moot: not subject to a court ruling because the controversy has not actually arisen, or has ended.
N
Non-party witness: Witnesses who are not directly involved in the case.
Notary: a person authorized to perform certain legal formalities, especially to draw up or certify contracts, deeds, and other documents for use in other jurisdictions
Notice: a document shared with a deponent and the participating counsels notifying them of a deposition to occur. This document is used to identify participants of the event as well as the venue
O
Opposing Counsel: Opposing counsel are the two different sides to the case's legal representation collectively. That is, the plaintiff's legal counsel and the defendant's legal counsel would be referred to as opposing counsel because they are on the opposite sides of the case
P
Party Witness: witnesses involved in the incident
per curiam: Latin, meaning "for the court." In appellate courts, often refers to an unsigned opinion
Pinpoint Playback: the function whereby a user can click the play button next to a speech segment, or a word, in the transcript and the synced audio will play from there
Plaintiff: a person or business that files a formal complaint with the court
prima facie: Latin expression meaning on its first encounter or at first sight. The literal translation would be "at first face" or "at first appearance"
pro se: representing oneself. Serving as one's own lawyer
Q
R
Reviewer: senior transcribers
Rough Draft: delivered immediately or shortly after the deposition, hearing or other legal proceeding. It is not considered a complete or legally-binding record of a deposition and may potentially have the occasional typo
S
Service Level Agreement (SLA): a document that outlines a commitment between a service provider and a client, including details of the service, the standards the provider must adhere to, and the metrics to measure the performance
Speaker roles: a function in the Parrot editor whereby transcribers assign each speaker a role (e.g. witness, interviewer) for purposes of generating an index in the PDF transcript
Stenographer: also known as a court reporter, this is a person who is trained to type as people talk using a stenograph machine, or less often hand written notes. Stenographers work in the legal field but also close caption movies and TV shows
Stipulation (“stip”): a formal legal agreement made between opposing parties of a case prior to a pending hearing, deposition or trial. In depositions, stipulations are spoken into the record is often by one attorney and acknowledged and agreed to verbally on the record by an attorney for the opposing side
sua sponte: Latin, meaning "of its own will." Often refers to a court taking an action in a case without being asked to do so by either side
Subpoena: a legal order requiring a person to appear and give testimony. There is typically a penalty associated with noncompliance
Surge Tasks: tasks with a fast turnaround time that are prioritized and need to be completed asap
Swear in: make someone give formal promise
T
Testimony: oral or written statements or declarations of a witness under oath that can be used as evidence in a trial. Testimony is often obtained by taking a deposition
Tort: a civil, not criminal, wrong. A negligent or intentional injury against a person or property, with the exception of breach of contract
Transcriber/Transcription (Tx): the act of turning audio or audiovisual recordings of spoken words into written documents
Turnaround time (TAT): clients can select 24h, 3-day, or 7-day turnaround times for transcripts
U
Unclaim(-ed): transcription tasks with a lapsed deadline are automatically unclaimed from RTs and go back into the queue for others to claim. Transcribers also have the option to unclaim tasks manually, should there be a valid reason
V
voir dire: jury selection process of questioning prospective jurors, to ascertain their qualifications and determine any basis for challenge
W
Witness: a person who sees an event, typically a crime or accident, take place
Word Error Rate (WER): a metric used to measure transcription quality. Calculated by counting substitutions, additions, and deletions made in a transcript from
Writ: written court order directing a person to take, or refrain from taking, a certain act