Court Reporters Use Commas or Dashes Instead of Literary Parentheses
Parentheses
Rulebase Summary
Beyond reporter notations and enumerated items, other rules for parentheses exist in literary style — but court documents seldom use them. In most of these instances, the court reporter would use commas or dashes instead. Save parentheses for the reporter's own interpolations into the transcript.
Examples
A. My opinion (and I know you didn't ask for it) is that you're making a mistake.
A. My opinion, and I know you didn't ask for it, is that you're making a mistake.
Court reporters use commas, not parentheses, for asides.
A. I was at the 609-221-6565 number all day.
A. I was at the (609) 221-6565 number all day.
Parentheses around the area code in a phone number.
Transcript Notes
Telephone numbers are an exception: when an area code is given with the local numbers, use parentheses around the area code for easy reference. If only the area code is mentioned alone, do not use the parentheses.
Style Guide References (1)
Morson's