“For years, real-time reporting had been a luxury, only available primarily to large firms with Fortune 500 clients. Readback’s vision was different. Active Reporting puts powerful, real-time tools into the hands of every litigator.”
For more than half a century, the Catuogno name meant top-tier stenographic court reporting across New England. The story began in 1966, when the Catuogno family entered the industry in Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1978, Raymond F. Catuogno, Sr. opened a one-room office that grew into a multi-location agency serving Boston, Worcester, Chelmsford, and Providence.
By 2016, Catuogno Court Reporting had celebrated 50 years in business. The work was impeccable, the relationships deep. But depositions themselves? They looked almost exactly the same as they had for decades. Steno machines, invented in the 19th century, still dominated. Litigators waited 10–15 days for transcripts, paid high per-page fees, and navigated scheduling bottlenecks.
An Outsider’s Eye on an Industry Stuck in the Past
In 2017, InfraWare, Inc., a technology company with a background in transforming medical documentation, acquired Catuogno Court Reporting. The new owner, CEO Nick Mahurin, didn’t come from the insular court reporting world. He came with an outsider’s eye and no sacred cows. From that perspective, the problems in litigation transcript production were glaring.
Court reporting, he pointed out, had been left out of the information technology revolution. Everywhere else, technology made things faster, cheaper, and more accessible. But in legal proceedings, costs were climbing and turnaround times were stuck in the past. A shortage of stenographers made matters worse, and the profession’s physical demands were forcing many out early.
Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud
Most companies would have tried to modernize quietly. Mahurin didn’t.
At the 2021 MaxLawCon conference, he took the stage, declared “a war on the steno machine,” and publicly laid out the case for change. He called out the root causes: 19th-century technology limiting 21st-century justice. Active Reporting combined human expertise with modern speech recognition and machine learning to fundamentally change how transcripts were produced and used. It delivered:
- Rough transcripts within an hour
- Certified transcripts the next day
- Live, scrollable text during proceedings
- Clear, transparent pricing without per-page shock
Democratizing Real-Time Power
For years, real-time reporting had been a luxury, only available primarily to large firms with Fortune 500 clients. Readback’s vision was different.
Active Reporting puts powerful, real-time tools into the hands of every litigator.
Attorneys could scroll back during a deposition, catch inconsistencies instantly, collaborate with co-counsel in real time, and adjust strategy on the fly, without waiting days or weeks for a transcript. Depositions became more dynamic, more strategic, and more useful in the moment they mattered most.
The Perfect Proving Ground
When the pandemic forced the legal industry onto Zoom, Readback’s approach proved prescient.
With digital audio already at the center of remote depositions, Readback’s platform seamlessly combined human oversight with machine intelligence, accelerating turnaround times and expanding access without sacrificing accuracy. What had once seemed radical suddenly felt inevitable.
From Legacy to Leadership
In 2021, Catuogno Court Reporting officially became Readback. The launch video famously featured a steno machine being smashed. This was not as a rejection of history, but as a symbol of breaking free from its limitations.
By 2022, Readback took the national stage at the Clio Cloud Conference, showing litigators across the country that the future of deposition reporting had already arrived.
Today, Readback stands at a rare intersection:
a steward of more than 50 years of reporting excellence and the first true mover in Active Reporting.
Others may follow, but Readback was first to say the old way was broken, first to offer the solution, and first to make it accessible to every lawyer, every time.
Timeline of Milestones
- 1966: The Catuogno family enters court reporting in Springfield, MA.
- 1978: Raymond F. Catuogno, Sr. founded Catuogno Court Reporting.
- 2016: CCR celebrates 50 years in court reporting.
- 2017: InfraWare acquires CCR & StenTel; vision shifts toward technology-driven services.
- 2021: CCR becomes Readback, calls out the steno machine’s limitations at Maxlaw .
- 2022: National debut at Clio Cloud Conference.