court reporting services

October 13, 2013 By Dawn Houghton

Court Reporting as a Career

Many court reporters working today will tell you that court reporting has been a very good field for them throughout the course of their career. If you’re thinking about becoming a court reporter, you may have questions about whether court reporting is a good career to pursue. We think it is, and want to tell you some of the reasons we think court reporting is a great profession.

Job Description

If you’ve ever seen a stenographer in court or on movies and television shows, you may have wondered what they really do. A court reporter is the person who sits in the courtroom or in a deposition who takes down every spoken word during the proceedings. They prepare official transcripts for use by attorneys, judges and litigants. These transcripts are used as the official record of the events that took place during the deposition, hearing or trial. Court reporters are responsible for certifying that the content of the transcript is accurate and true to the best of their ability.

Education

To become a court reporter, one must go through a college program that teaches the skill of steno writing at a very high level of speed and accuracy. It can take two to five years to reach the level of skill that is required to receive certification to work as a court reporter. Reporters have to demonstrate that they can write at a speed of 225 words per minute with 97 percent accuracy.

Required Skills

Court reporters need excellent communication, organizational and time management skills. Reporters need the ability to work in a high-pressure environment. They know how to work under a deadline. The documents prepared are the only official account of the court proceedings and are vital to the credibility of the judicial system. Court reporters take this responsibility very seriously.

Making the Record

Court reporters use a computer and stenotype machine to take down the spoken words they hear. The stenotype machine allows the reporter to use a form of shorthand by using sounds of words to record data. The computer uses software called computer-aided transcription to translate the information into English.

Technology Advancements

Over the years, technology has changed the way in which reporters do their job. Court reporters are using more advanced technology to provide instant transcription in rough draft form on computer screens while the proceeding is in session. This is called realtime translation. This technology is also used to allow the deaf and hard-of-hearing community access to what is happening in a live classroom, meeting or theater. This skill is also used to caption live television shows, such as newscasts. Court reporting technology now often involves videoconferencing, live internet streams and specialized print programs for transcript formatting, just to name a few.

Lifestyle

So is court reporting a good profession? To help answer this question, we want to give you some of the benefits of being a court reporter. Court reporters who love their job will list some or all of these benefits.

Scheduling flexibility
Salary
Rewarding work
Crucial role in the legal industry
Variety of jobs available

Scheduling Flexibility

Most court reporters work from home offices when producing legal transcripts. The reporting firm assigns the reporter on a deposition assignment. The deposition may last from one hour to eight hours. Once finished, the court reporter returns to his or her home office to create the verbatim transcript. The portions of the job performed at home create a flexibility of schedule that many reporters enjoy.

Salary

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics quotes the median income of a court reporter in the United States in 2010 as $47,700. Salary.com quotes the median figure as $52,000. These are median figures. Some reporters make more and some make less. The salary can be dependent on the geographic area you live in, the type of court reporting you do, and the amount of hours you want to work each week. As a freelance reporter, if you want to make more, you can make yourself available for more depositions and work more hours. If you want to work part time, you will bring home less income but will be able to make a good income for the part-time hours you work.

Rewarding Work

Court reporters are at the center of the activity in a courtroom and in discovery depositions. They hear witnesses testify about all sorts of topics. They listen to interesting court cases. Every day brings different subject matter to work on. For instance, one day you could hear the details of a personal injury case where a witness was injured in a car accident. The next day you may be involved in a criminal case with witnesses testifying about a robbery they witnessed. This type of variety is what many court reporters enjoy.

Throughout a long career, a court reporter has many ways to continue to be challenged and grow as a professional. In the beginning, the challenge is to pursue training and education in order to prepare for initial certification. Here are just a few challenges that can help a reporter learn and grow:

Pursuing higher skill certification
Learning realtime reporting
Becoming a broadcast captioner
Exploring CART work with the deaf and hard-of-hearing community
Continuing education
Participating in state and national associations

A court reporter can mold his or her career in many different directions. Having access to continuing challenges helps a reporter to develop as a professional, as well as grow his or her career.

Crucial Role in the Legal Industry

A court reporter is responsible for keeping the official record. As an officer of the court, a court reporter acts as a representative of the court even in a deposition setting outside of the courtroom. He or she is also the person charged with swearing witnesses and administering the oath.

Court reporters are shown much respect from the legal community, be it attorneys, paralegals, legal assistants or judges. Court reporters earn this respect by taking very seriously the responsibilities imparted to them. Many reporters enjoy this earned respect and find it a pleasant environment to work in.

Diverse Professional Paths

We talk about court reporting as one profession. Within this one profession, there are many capacities in which a court reporter can work. Some of these areas are:

Official court reporter
Freelance court reporter
State bureau court reporter
Mediation and arbitration reporter
Realtime reporter
CART provider for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community
Live television broadcast captioners

If you’re thinking of a career in court reporting, the best action to take is to talk to a court reporter and see what they have to say about the profession. It is even a good idea to talk to more than one reporter so that you gain a balanced view of what the work is really like.

If you found this article interesting, you might also like “The Top 10 Skills of the Best Legal Assistants.”

August 1, 2013 By Dawn Houghton

The Court Reporting Profession is Alive and Well

For years, people have been warning court reporters and students that the future of court reporting is doomed. But contrary to the warnings, the industry has not collapsed. It is alive and well, even thriving due to advancements that have strengthened the profession.

Over 30 years ago, when I became a court reporter, I heard the warnings, “Court reporters will be replaced by electronic recording….you won’t have a job once video replaces you…voice recognition is going to kill court reporting.”

Over the years, I have seen these arguments and many more fall by the wayside. One by one, they were proven wrong as our skills grew stronger, our technology blossomed, and new career paths opened up that widened our profession. A career in court reporting is as stable today as it was years ago when I first began reporting.

Projections

The United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor and Statistics publishes the Occupational Outlook Handbook. This handbook is a source for career information about many different professions. The profiles feature hundreds of occupations and describe the occupations, the work environment, how to enter the field, and more. Each profile also includes employment projections for the 2010–2020 decade. The Occupational Outlook Handbook lists court reporting and gives facts about the industry that are beneficial to anyone who is thinking of entering the field. These facts are also reassuring to court reporters who are still hearing warnings of job shrinkage.

There are currently 22,000 court reporters estimated to be employed in the United States. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics projects this number to grow by 14% from 2010 to 2020. This is hardly an indication of a shrinking job market. In fact, the field is expected to grow at an average pace when compared to other occupations.

New Technology

The technology of court reporting has evolved over the years, and continues to advance as computers and the internet advance in sophistication. For years, the only technology used was a stenotype machine and a typewriter.

In the early ’80s, computer-aided transcription became the norm. Court reporters were able to teach computers how to read steno notes and help turn those notes into transcripts. Over the years, the computer-aided technology has developed into realtime reporting, allowing our steno notes to be instantaneously translated at a high rate of accuracy.

Video began to be incorporated to allow for video depositions accompanied by traditional transcription. With the evolution of the Internet, we now have the capability to transmit video, audio and realtime transcription to remote locations. The realtime nature of this new technology means parties can effectively participate in proceedings that are taking place in different geographical locations without leaving their own office.

These new technologies allow court reporters to not only stay relevant to legal proceedings, but also offer wider and more convenient services to clients

New Skills

With the new technology of computer-aided transcription in real time, court reporters began to evolve the traditional shorthand theory into a new system of writing that allowed for more accurate realtime transcription. Over the last 20 years, many reporters have retrained themselves in a new way of writing. This higher level of realtime accuracy allows reporters to project realtime translation and also deliver a highly accurate rough draft immediately upon the conclusion of the proceedings. The realtime translation is helpful to the attorneys while they are asking their questions of the witness. The rough draft being supplied is popular for attorneys preparing for an upcoming trial who want the convenience of having the written testimony in front of them immediately after the proceedings have concluded.

Another skill that has developed in the last couple decades is legal video. The profession, as a whole, has pioneered legal video and streaming video so that they may deliver these services to clients who can take advantage of the technology and use it to their best benefit. The National Court Reporters Association offers certification for videographers who are interested in providing a high level of professional legal video to clients. This standardization allows the court reporting industry to continue to provide highly professional video for legal use.

The ability to commandeer these new technologies and use them to offer a wider variety of services has allowed court reporters to continue to stay relevant over the years.

New Career Paths

Once reporters adapted their writing to provide highly accurate realtime translation, reporters began offering their services to the deaf community and people who are severely hard of hearing. These realtime skills are now employed to provide broadcast captioning of live television shows, such as news broadcasts. Television captions are typically created before a show airs. In the case of live television shows, there is no opportunity to create captions before the show airs. Working with television stations, court reporters began using their skills to translate the spoken word in realtime and send it out with live television shows.

Realtime also became the method to provide Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) to individuals in schools, the work place and live theater. With the CART provider writing what is being spoken, the person receiving assistance can then read the captions from a computer screen and is able to participate in live discussions that would typically be extremely difficult without the live captions being provided.

These new fields of broadcast captioning and Communication Access Realtime Translation has broadened a court reporter’s choices of fields to work in and expanded the number of jobs available in the profession.

A Profession That is Strong and Growing

This equation of new technologies, new skills and new career paths adds up to a profession that is alive and thriving. When people tell me court reporting is dying, I know they are wrong because of the developments I have watched and participated in over the years. The truth is the field of court reporting is stronger now than ever.

July 25, 2013 By Dawn Houghton

What Does a Court Reporting Production Manager Do?

In a large court reporting firm with several court reporters, there are many transcripts each week that need to be printed and prepared for delivery. Often larger court reporting firms have a production manager who is responsible for these tasks. For O’Brien and Bails, that person is Carmaria Beeke.

As production manager, Carmaria’s job is central to the operations of O’Brien and Bails. With Carmaria’s careful attention to detail, our clients receive their transcripts on time and come to rely on excellent service. Carmaria will tell you each transcript has many variables and details that need proper attention.

Duties of a Production Manager

In our main office in Kalamazoo, each week there are transcripts submitted from many court reporters that need to be e-mailed, printed, properly packaged and sent. Each reporter fills out a worksheet shortly after taking a deposition. The worksheet specifies instructions for Carmaria when she is processing the transcript, such as which attorney has ordered the original transcript and which attorneys receive copies. Another important detail is how many exhibits need to be attached to a transcript. There are many details such as these for every single transcript that leaves our office.

Once the order worksheets have been collected, the reporter transcribes the proceedings and sends the digital transcript to Carmaria, who then e-mails, prints, binds, invoices and seals each transcript preparing for delivery. Transcripts are typically delivered within 10 calendar days of the taking of the deposition. This means Carmaria is always mindful of the deadline on each transcript she processes.

Technical Ability and People Skills

When she is not producing transcripts, Carmaria helps with other tasks such as setting up the technology to conduct streaming video depositions. These are depositions that are being conducted with parties who are in separate locations. Streaming video allows all parties to be present in real time and participate in the deposition using streaming video from the comfort of their office and eliminating travel, especially for out of state depositions.

Not only does Carmaria set up online depositions, she also works with clients to ensure they are able to access the technology. Working with clients and technology requires a mixture of technical ability and people skills. Streaming video technology is new to many attorneys and legal staff, and there is a learning curve to using it. Carmaria helps each client understand the process and how they will participate.

As a production manager, Carmaria is familiar with many types of litigation software used by clients, and is able to produce transcripts in formats that are compatible with the software an attorney is using. Again, a mixture of technical skills and people skills comes into play. Carmaria helps each client receive the proper file format they need in order to incorporate the transcript files into their particular litigation software.

Master of Production

Before working as production manager, Carmaria came to the field with little experience and knowledge of the court reporting industry. But after working with O’Brien and Bails for almost two years, she has learned how the industry works and all the combinations of services clients may need when scheduling depositions and ordering transcripts. She is now a master of the process and continues to tweak and perfect the production of transcripts to make it better and more efficient.

When asked what she likes most about her job, Carmaria says, “Working with all our clients and court reporters and building those relationships.” She knows the importance of good client relationships and enjoys the process of getting to know each person she comes in contact with in the course of doing her job.

Everyday Challenges

Of course, there are also challenges to being a production manager. Carmaria knows that meeting deadlines is of utmost importance. She says most challenging are the situations when she is sending a transcript that is needed the very next day in a different location from the attorney who ordered it. She works with legal staff to discern where the transcript needs to be and what time it needs to be there. She may be able to rely on FedEx or UPS to deliver the transcript. She may need to find a court reporting office in the destination city who can print the file and deliver it to the courthouse. Carmaria continues to troubleshoot until she knows she has a way to get the transcript into the hands of the attorneys who need them.

Going the Extra Mile

Carmaria takes real ownership of her production manager position. Recently she was working to get a transcript ready to take to the UPS drop box before the daily pickup time at 6:00 p.m. Says Carmaria, “When I was leaving our office, I couldn’t decide which UPS box to go to. I knew it had to be there by 6:00 p.m. for pickup and I was almost sure I would not make it. I was on the GPS on my phone trying to figure out which was the closest location when I saw our regular UPS driver on the street.”

Carmaria decided to flag down the UPS driver to hand him her package. But first she had to reach the driver on the busy one-way streets of Kalamazoo. With the UPS driver in sight, she decided to pull into a parking spot in front of the truck. After she pulled in, she noticed the driver was already back in his truck and was pulling back out into traffic. She saw that he went down the street and around the corner. She decided to follow him once again. As soon as he was in sight again, she was stuck at a red light. Once the light turned green, she drove up and around the truck once again, parked her vehicle, jumped out and ran to the driver. He gladly accepted the package. Her hard work paid off. She got the package to the driver and the transcript was delivered the next day on time. “We always have candy in our office and Al usually takes a handful when he drops off packages at our office. I asked him what kind of candy was his favorite and bought him a big bag of Snickers bars to give him the next time he stopped in our office.”

Characteristics of a Successful Production Manager

When asked what traits are needed to be a successful production manager, Carmaria says, “You have to be organized, pay attention to details, multi-task, and be able to work in varying levels of intensity.”

Carmaria will tell you she has very specific processes she uses in order to make sure every detail is handled. “You have to be flexible,” says Carmaria. “I might get a call and suddenly have to drop everything I am doing, and pick back up later to finish.”

In a large court reporting firm like O’Brien and Bails, there are many behind-the-scenes tasks that need to be taken care of each and every day. We are able to give our customers excellent service because we have great people. Carmaria takes care of production and makes sure everything is running on time. It’s a big job, and she makes it look easy.

Dawn Houghton, the owner of O’Brien & Bails, knows she is very lucky to have Carmaria Beeke on her team.