New York Court Reporters Blog

Court Reporters have many different types of associations they can join to keep up-to-date on the court reporting profession. Depending on what type of court reporting a court reporter chooses to do, that would determine what type of court reporting association would best meet their needs and meet other court reporters working in similiar-type situations and have similiar interests and concerns in performing their duties as a court reporter. There are also different regional court reporting associations. On a national level, there is the National Court Reporters Association which is the organization who represents the interests of machine-writing court reporters, working in both the court and freelance system. The word machine-writing has become very important because with the advance of technology there are other methods of recording the spoken word besides taking it down on the stenographic machine. You can only be a member of the National Court Reporters Association if you are a court reporter who uses a stenographic machine to record testimony. The National Court Reporters Association has one convention yearly, usually the first week in August, and there are close to 3,000 people from all over the world that attend. All the major vendors to the court reporting profession will exhibit their latest products and even some court reporting firms will have booths to introduce themselves and meet court reporters. There are also many classes given and tests given for court reporters who are interested in reaching certain level of proficiency in their profession. The National Court Reporters Association sets nationwide standards of proficiency and gives tests to measure levels of achievement in court reporting which are measured in two areas, one written and one speed. Every court reporter should support the National Court Reporters Association in its work to support and protect the interests of the court reporting industry. Please visit our website tobyfeldman.com to learn more about the court reporting profession and being a court reporter.

Court reporters have many different opportunities to pursue a career in court reporting. To become a court reporter, you don’t need any particular type of formal education. Many court reporters have limited education. However, the most successful court reporters all share an interest and great understanding of the English language. Court reporters have very good vocabularies and court reporters have an interest and understanding of grammer. It would not be a good idea to think about becoming a professional court reporter without a good understanding of the English language. Court reporters can go to court reporting school full time during the day. It would take approximately two years of court reporting school, which is 12 months a year with very little vacation time, to achieve the writing speeds necessary to become a court reporter. Night school is is usually a couple of hours a night for a couple of days a week. It could take as long as four years. How long it takes somebody to finish court reporting school and reach speeds necessary to work as a court reporter is largely a function of how much time one practices. Some people are fortunate enough to have a greater ability on the machine than others but everybody needs to put in hours of practice in order to reach speeds necessary to be able to work as a court reporter.

New York court reporters have many opportunities to pursue a variety of different New York court reporter careers. New York court reporters are able to pick an area to work in, New York City, Nassau County, Westchester County, and find local court reporting agencies who would be able to give them local court reporting assignments. Besides local court reporting firms that New York court reporters can get assignments from, there are also many courts in New York which employ court reporters on a temporary and permanent basis. There are court reporting positions in courts located in New York City, Nassau County, Suffolk County and Westchester County. There are court reporting positions available for New York court reporters on the city, state and federal levels. There are also court reporter positions available for various city, state and federal agencies. If a court reporter in New York is interested in obtaining information about New York court reporter job opportunities, the court reporter should contact the local courthouse they would be interested in working in and ask for the head court reporter. The head court reporter would be able to give them all the information they would need about court reporter positions. For more information on New York court reporter opportunities, please visit our webpage, tobyfeldman.com/index_newyork.htm.

Video depositions are depositions which are videotaped by a videographer. Video depositions are used during a trial as evidence instead of having to bring in the witness for the trial. With digital technology, it is possible to take clips of video depositions and even a still shot of the witness, and the video deposition is also incorporated into trial presentation programs. Video depositions are time stamped and the videographer will state at the beginning of the video deposition when the deposition starts. There is also a technology called video synchronization whereby the actually written words with the line and page numbers are put into the video deposition itself. The video deposition can be gotten in various formats. The video deposition used to be only available on VHS tapes. Now an attorney can get a video deposition on MPEGS or DVDs. Please visit our website tobyfeldman.com and our web page tobyfeldman.com/index_videodeposition to learn more about video depositions and court reporters

Court Reporters have the opportunity to work on many different types of depositions. The simplest type of deposition would be those that are called slip and falls. These normally involved an accident and involve an individual suing somebody for injuries incurred during a slip and fall type of accident. Normally, the defendant, person/company, being sued has insurance for this type of lawsuit. The entity being sued is defended by an insurance company lawyer. These cases are usually not very complicated, do not require sophisticated court reporter skills, such as realtime. Another type of deposition which is defended by insurance company lawyers would be classified as medical malpractice. This is a lawsuit where an individual or group of individuals is suing a medical professional/hospital for what the plaintiff is claiming is malpractice which resulted in injuries. Many court reporters like doing malpractice work and these court reporters normally have a very large vocabulary involving medical and drug terms. Court reporters who like medical malpractice will seek out court reporting firms who have insurance companies for clients who defend this type of lawsuit. When a court reporter is investigating which court reporting agency to work for, it is very important that the court reporter inquire of the court reporting firm what their client base consists of and what type of clients the court reporting agency has. Then the court reporter will have a better understanding of the type of court reporting work they will be working on.

Court reporters in New York have many different types of opportunities in court reporting firms. Court reporters in New York will find that there are court reporting agencies in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Nassau County, Westchester County and Suffolk County. Many of these court reporting agencies do different types of work because of the type of clients the court reporting agency has. When a court reporter is looking for work in New York, they should call several different court reporting agencies and inquire what type of depositions or hearings they do. It is difficult for a new court reporter to realize that there is a big difference in the type of work different court reporting companies do. A court reporter coming to New York has the opportunity to pursue many different types of court reporting careers. Some court reporters prefer a less stressful type of work with perhaps the opportunity to take half day cases instead of long all day cases. Some court reporters who have perfected their skills and do realtime reporting should look for a court reporting agency that has clients that do this type of work. Not every court reporting agency has clients who have work that require realtime reporting skills. It is important that a court reporter be realistic of their skill level so that they do not end up on a deposition which they have to struggle with. This is what makes court reporting very stressful, to be out of your league as far as skills are concerned. There is a need for court reporters with all types of skills. Our court reporting agency certainly would not want a staff of highly trained LiveNote reporters since we would not have enough of this highly specialized type of work to go around. We want a balanced staff, court reporters who want shorter and easier, less stressful work, and reporters who want to do a 300 page daily LiveNote. It is very important for a court reporter to work with a firm that understands what their skills are and matches the cases they give the court reporter with their skills.

Court Reporters have many opportunities to travel within the states where they live, adjacent states and any place where a deposition might be taken. Court Reporters also have the opportunity to travel to Europe, Asia, in fact, any place in the world. Court reporters are part of our legal system. However, court reporters in other countries just work in the courts and their duties and skills are very different than the court reporters in the United States. Depositions taken by court reporters are part of the American legal system. Therefore, when a deposition needs to be taken of somebody in a foreign country, most of the times there are not court reporters who are able to take the deposition locally. The lawyers usually prefer to take a court reporter who they are familiar working with to take the deposition. In this case, all the traveling expenses of the court reporter is paid for. In many instances, if a special delivery isn’t requested, court reporters are able to take some time to visit the country they are working in. Many court reporters who enjoy traveling will contact different court reporting agencies, send them a resume, and inform them that they are available to travel. A court reporter can be living in California and take a case in London for a court reporting firm in New York City who has a client who needs a court reporter in London. Not all court reporting firms have clients who utilize court reporters in foreign countries. A court reporter who is interested in traveling should inquire if the court reporting agency they are considering working for has clients who travel and bring their own court reporters on out-of-state-depositions.

Toby Feldman Inc is a court reporter firm located in New York City. We are known as a freelance firm specializing in corporate litigation. That means that our New York and nationwide court reporters court report on cases mainly dealing with two corporations litigating against each other as opposed to court reporter agencies which do other types of litigation such as maritime, negligence and government. Those would be the three largest groups in the freelance court reporter firms. Our court reporters also report meetings, arbitrations and hearings. Our clients are both small and large law firms, corporations, banks, and government agencies. Many court reporting agencies also do contract work with insurance companies. We do not do any type of contracting work. There is also a division in the court reporting industry between firms who work under contracts and those that don’t. There are also court reporter firms who do contracts with large corporations. These are usually the same court reporting companies that do contracts with insurance companies. There are also court reporter companies that bid on government contracts. Most students graduating from court reporting school are not aware of the many different types of work available in the court reporting industy.

New York court reporters have seen major changes in the way they prepare transcripts in the last 30 years. New York court reporters 30 years ago prepared transcripts on typewriters, using carbon paper. Court reporters had two ways of reproducing their paper notes. Some court reporters in New York dictated their notes in a stenorette machine which produced tapes which then went to a typist to type the court reporter’s tapes. The court reporter then proofread the transcript and corrections were made on the typewriter using whiteout or correction paper. Court reporters whose paper notes were of a high quality were able to employ note readers, a person who would type directly from the court reporter’s notes. New York court reporters usually had their favorite note reader who over a period of time become very used to the way a particular court reporter wrote. New York court reporters were more fortunate than court reporters in other parts of the country because there were court reporting schools in New York City and many court reporting students in New York City did not finish the court reporting course but became note readers for court reporters instead. When a large transcript had to be produced in a short period of time, the court reporter’s notes would be broken up between two or more typists. Court reporters in New York City were fortunate to have a large pool of typists available to them to produce quick turnaround in their work product.

There are many different court reporter firms in New York ranging in size from very small, operated from one’s home, with a small client base, to the very large nationwide firms which have come into existence through many acquisitions over the last 10 years. All the different-sized firms generally have one thing in common, they tend to gravitate towards a certain type of court reporting. These different types of court reporting are a function of the court reporting agency’s clients. Firm owners tend to go for a certain type of work, whether it be medical, government contracts, insurance companies, large Wall Street firms, maritime, patent & trademark, securities, etc. Court reporting companies also differ greatly in what they require from their reporters as well as the pay scales. Generally speaking, the more difficult the work, the more experienced the reporter needed, and, therefore, the higher the rate. There is also a great difference in pay scales in different areas, driven by cost-of-living factors. New York court reporters tend to be among the highest paid in the country. Of course, New York City is also one of the most expensive places to live in. New York court reporters have an extremely large choice of what type of work they want. There are always excellent opportunities for court reporters with all levels of skills. Our depositions tend to be on the more difficult side and, therefore, we look for a certain set of skills. We are always available to help new reporters and many of our staff reporters started with our court reporting firm right out of school. We work closely with our new reporters and give very in-depth hands-on training. We have also spoken at the schools to court reporting students. In conclusion, there are always positions available nationwide for competent court reporters. No matter where you start or where you end up, you will always have many excellent job opportunities.