Court reporting is an exciting profession that offers above-average income and financial security to both men and women with a choice in work environments and the opportunity to be a part of newsmaking events in law, government, medicine, business, and education. The following are some of the job opportunities available to those with machine shorthand expertise:
Official court reporters are employees of the court system. There is a fixed salary and benefits. In addition, these reporters earn a per-page fee for transcripts produced.
Freelance reporters work for court reporting firms as independent contractors. These reporters make up about 70% of employment in the court reporting field. Most work is in the deposition area (testimony of witnesses taken under oath outside the courtroom setting). However, these reporters also cover meetings, conferences, and conventions.
New technology in this field requires enhanced skills and knowledge, providing new career choices for the profession. A keystone of the new technology is CAT: Computer-Aided Transcription. Realtime reporters use a CAT system to provide instantaneous testimony on monitors within the courtroom, deposition, meeting, or classroom for the benefit of hearing-impaired judges, jurors, witnesses, attorneys, audience, or pupils. In addition, this technology assists judges and attorneys in reviewing the record. It allows students who have difficulty taking notes or in hearing the proceedings to participate in classroom discussions and obtain notes to review for examinations.
Court Reporting Careers
Captioning Careers Closed captionists use realtime technology to translate live TV broadcasts, providing on-screen print for hearing-impaired viewers.
Court Reporting using similar systems provides captions of live television programs for hard-of-hearing viewers. Court reporters work for specific television or cable stations, capturing news, emergency broadcasts, sports events, and other programs.
An offshoot of closed captioning has enabled court reporters to now work as captioned radio experts, using their technology to simulcast talk shows, news, and sports onto the Internet or an online service. "Listeners" with an Internet connection and the appropriate hardware can also receive the full audio of the programs. Court Reporters work with deaf or hard-of-hearing students, captioning high school and college classes and then providing a transcript at the end of the session. They also work with persons who are learning English as a second language.
Other persons with court reporter training work in medical clinics, taking down doctor-patient conversations. Still others work in law firms reporting case intake matters as they come into the office. Some persons with reporter training even work as executive secretaries or editors.
Medical/Legal Transcriptionist Medical or legal transcriptionists work with material that is not taken as it is spoken but rather dictated onto audio cassettes or dictation systems. The transcriber plays back the material and transcribes it into text for medical or legal reports. Persons with basic court reporter skills, a CAT system, and speed faster than typists can enter the material faster than non-steno transcribers.
Medical transcriptionists assist physicians and hospitals in preparing medical reports and records faster and more efficiently by means of computer-aided transcription and the steno-type machine.
Rapid Data Entry Hospitals, insurance companies and many other businesses have mounds of data that needs to be entered into their computer systems. Using the steno machine for word processing is significantly faster than normal typing. Input of text is much quickerB200 words per minute and faster. With additional grammar checking programs on the court reporter's Computer Aided Transcription system, editing time is reduced and jobs can be turned around even faster. Rapid text entry specialists are employed by organizations such as insurance companies and police departments that require a high volume of information to be entered into a computer data bank.
Cyber-Conferencing Court reporters are capturing sales meetings, press conferences, product introduction, and technical training seminars and instantly transmitting them to all parties involved via computers. As participants speak into telephones or microphones, a court reporter translates their words in realtime. The words appear on everyone's computers, accompanied by any relevant document or graphics. Unlike speech recognition systems that have high error rates and are unable to comprehend multiple speakers, court reporters write accurately at speeds in excess of 200 words per minute. In addition, through technology participants receive text via internet, an online service, or their own intranet. All of this is possible without any special hardware, even if utilizing a notebook computer with slow modem connections.
Scopists Scopists who work for court reporters can be seen as the equivalent of paralegals who work for attorneys. Generally, scopists are utilized by court reporters to edit and proofread transcripts while court reporters are working in court or taking a deposition. The scopist takes a rough copy of the proceeding -whether it is on disk, has been sent on e-mail, or is simultaneously displayed on a computer connected to the court reporter's machine-and reads the stenograph-to-English translation to check for any "mistranslates." These may include homonyms "here" instead of "hear" or other words such as proper names or technical terms that were not in the court reporter's computer dictionary. Scopists make any necessary edits, ensure the transcripts are in the requested formats, and send the transcripts back to the court reporter. In the case of simultaneous display, scopists make corrections or highlight any questions right there as the transcripts scroll by on the computer screen. Scoping is an ideal career for a person who needs or prefers to work at home. All the work is completed by computer software that can easily be transferred via online service.
