That problem has not escaped attention by the courts, but in general it has been treated as a de minimus issue relevant only to demeanor evidence, which higher courts are traditionally reluctant to review. This paper suggests that such an assumption needs reexamination. Citing the literature and three empirical studies, a case is made that contextual features not only survive the transcription process (and do so variably, depending on the court reporter's theory of verbatimness), but that they are regularly relied on by judicial readers and are potentially important to the appellate process. (Publisher abstract)