Court Reporter Career Guide

Court reporters are highly trained professionals who work to produce transcripts of court trials, hearings, mediation meetings and conferences.

Their work is of the greatest importance because it allows judges and attorneys to have immediate access to transcripts. Court reporters also allow for the utmost precision during the legal process: they allow for lawyers to correct misstatements, catch unclear words or phrases to gain clarification, and allows all parties immediate access to previous answers and questions. The instant production of court transcript also allows the hearing impaired to be involved in the judicial process.

The main responsibility of court reports is to use stenography and shorthand to capture the words spoken by everyone during court proceedings. They then transform this into an official certified transcript by the nature of their training, certification and licensure. Court reporters can be self-employed, or they can work for an agency. Normally, agencies work with law firms, trade associations, meeting planners or local, state or federal government agencies.

A career as a court reporter can be emotionally taxing as you will witness lots of difficult and emotional court hearings. What is more, is that the hours worked by a court reported can be long as court dispositions can often take place early in the morning and can last for over five hours.

However, being a court reporter has many positives. Firstly, it is a very exciting career where you get to witness lots of different and interesting things, and it has lots of opportunities. Court reporters need to obtain a license through examination, that includes assessment of their typing speed and a written examination to demonstrate English, grammar, terminology and ethics. However, this qualification is easy to obtain in a relatively short space of time, meaning the career path to becoming a court reporter is fairly short and accessible.

Those who excel in a court reporter career are likely to be very quick at typing, have strong grammatical skills, can work to tight deadlines, are punctual, organized and have an interest in legal practices and systems. If this sounds like you, then a career as a court reporter may be for you!