Court reporters have many different career options available to them. That is one of the nicest thing about becoming a court reporter, the different type of court reporting positions available and the flexibility some of the different court reporting positions offer.
The most flexibility is a freelance court reporter who is not tied to one firm. Of course, there are down sides to each type of position but I am just going to touch on the flexibility of not working for one firm.
You can pick and choose where and when you want to work. The greater your skills and the more flexible a court reporter is about taking work, ie, the type of work and the location of work, the more you will probably be called by court reporting agencies looking to cover their work with outside court reporters.
These court reporters also are known as overflow reporters because they get work when a court reporting agency’s regular reporters are not available. When we look outside our staff reporters, we try also to match a reporter’s skills to the type of case. We do not send a reporter who wants a full day to a short day, nor somebody who wants a half day to a long all day job.
We also will try to match the skills of the court reporter with the type of case. Again, we try not to send our real time reporters to cases that are not appropriate for their high level of skills.
It is important for an overflow reporter to be honest about their skill level and the type of work they want to do and the agency to be honest about the type of deposition they are trying to cover.