Court reporting is an interesting field! From courtrooms to depositions to television broadcasts, court reporters, depositions reporters, and captioners make it happen! Court reporting is a way to launch a legal, challenging, and well-paid professional career. There are global job opportunities waiting for you.
There’s no doubt about it — court reporting provides a needed service in the legal community. But did you know that court reporting services also provide communication access for the deaf? Think about it… people with hearing loss can now gain access to the world through the unique skills of a court reporter. You could become an independent contractor receiving 1099 at the end of the tax year, work as a county clerk for a courtroom, or even start your own court reporting company. With court reporting, the chances of getting the job you’ve always wanted have never been this great.
Court reporting professionals are part of an interesting court trial that makes history — word for word. They report high profile trials and even presidential inauguration captions!
Facts About Court Reporting:
1. Court reporting professionals earn an average of $60,000 or more per year. (Includes broadcast captioner and deposition reporter.)
2. Captioning of television programs (done live) is done by a very special court reporter called a “broadcast captioner.” US Federal law mandates the provision of captions for 100s of hours of (live) TV programming each week, creating abundant career opportunities for individuals with these skills.
3. Many court reporting professionals use the text method to offer individualized services for the deaf or hard of hearing through Real Time Translation of Access Communications. CART reporters go with a deaf client as asked to a college class to instantly translate speech into the written word. The demand for this type of skill is so high that the court reporting companies that provide this type of service cannot meet the demand.
4. Only a small proportion (about 27%) of court reporting professionals in the United States actually work in courtrooms. Most are freelance court reporters (1099 contractors) who are used by lawyers to produce word-for-word transcripts of so-called depositions during the case-finding phase.
5. Court reporting employment opportunities are likely to grow as fast as the average for all occupations through 2012. (Source: US Department of Labor)
What Do Court Reporting Professionals Get?
Court reporting professionals had a median annual income of $42,920 as of May 2004. The middle 50 percent earned between $30,680 and $60,760. The lowest paying 10 percent earned less than $23,690, and the highest paying 10 percent earned more than $80,300. The median annual income in May 2004 was $41,070 for court reporting professionals working in local government.
Both compensation and compensation methods for court reporting professionals vary according to the type of court reporter’s job, individual court reporter’s professional experience, level of certification achieved, and country area. Official court reporters get a salary and a fee per page for transcripts. Many salaried court reporting professionals supplement their income by doing freelance work. Freelance court reporting professionals are paid per job and receive a per page fee for transcripts. CART providers are paid hourly. Stenocaptioners receive a salary and benefits if they work as employees of a text company; stenocaptioners who work as independent contractors are paid hourly.
How to Become a Court Reporting Professional
Let’s be honest about this: becoming a court reporting professional takes a serious level of commitment, effort, and money. It’s not easy but the rewards make it more than worth it!
Most students start in court reporting schools. Typically, these are private business colleges located in large metropolitan areas. Please see this link for a list of schools approved by the NCRA. Training courses and practicals take several years for most people.
Most of the painstaking work is in the development of transcription skills during hands-on dictation. You start slowly and then work your way up to speeds above 200 words per minute. Accuracy and endurance are required to record hours of fast talk with solid material.
You will also need to rent or purchase your equipment. Court reporting keyboard required during training. Most students rent or buy used manual machines (as opposed to computer writers) for their early schooling, but when entering the job market, professional quality equipment is a must. Today the equipment used by court reporting professionals is electronic court reporting machines, desktop PCs, printers, laptop PCs and software to run on computers that translate keystrokes into English on the screen.
Also, since most court reporting professionals are 1099 contractors, equipment and home office space are required, plus a fax machine, an additional phone line or two for faxes and business calls. Internet connection is a must to do research for hard to find words.
A new court reporting professional faces several years of diligent study and about five to ten thousand dollars worth of equipment.
Many states require a license. In states where court reporting professionals must be certified, you must pass a state certification exam. In other states where certification is not mandatory, the examination to meet the National Court Reporting Association may certify that the court reporting professional has attained the appropriate level of proficiency.