New York Court Reporters Blog

Many court reporters graduating from court reporting schools are having a difficult time finding jobs. For many years, there was a great shortage of court reporters, and court reporting agencies would take new reporters and train them. Now there are few jobs and more experienced court reporters with not enought work.

So what is a new reporter to do to get started? I would do some research about the different court reporting agencies in your area. What type of work do they do? Each court reporting company is different with different types of clients. Once you have determined the court reporting firm you would like to work with, do some research about the firm itself, the people who work there, whatever you can. Call for an interview. Express how much you know about the firm and how important this job is to you. If that doesn’t work, and they are not hiring, volunteer to come in and do some clertical work just to be in the office.

If you are genuinely sincere in making court reporting a career, and offer your time just to be in an court reporting office, I am sure ultimately you will get a change at a job.

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.

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 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.

Certified Court Reporters, CSR, designates a court reporter who has passed the certified court reporter exam given by the state where they live. If you are a certified court reporter, it means you have passed a test which tests both your machine skills and English skills. Some states, such as California, have CSR laws which require a court reporter to have passed the CSR exam to take a deposition. Some states which require passing the CSR exam to work as a deposition reporter will still allow a court reporter to take meetings without passing the exam. Each state has its own certified court reporter requirements and usually the states do not recognize CSR certifications from other states. When a court reporter is interested in relocating to a different state, it is very important that the court reporter check that state’s CSR law. The number of times a year the test is given will vary from state to state as well as the qualifications required to take the exam. Court reporters who have passed the CSR exam have reached a certain level of expertise in their profession. Please visit our website tobyfeldman.com to learn more about court reporting and court reporters.

Most court reporting firms have clients who do a specific type of work. For example, some court reporting firms bid on government contracts so that their work may mostly be related to their contract work. Other court reporting firms have contracts with insurance carriers and their work will be related to the type of litigation that their carrier does. For example, some insurance companies represent the contruction industry, others medical doctors, and also dentists. Many court reporters choose the court reporting firm they work with based on the type of court reporting work a particular court reporting firm has. There are also court reporting firms who do work mostly for plaintiff firms and those court reporting firms which do work mostly for defendant firms. Some court reporting firms have some type of agreement with banks. For every type of industry, there are court reporting firms supplying services to the law firms who represent the companies in that industry. Please visit our website tobyfeldman.com to learn more about court reporting firms and their clients.

Court reporting agencies have evolved over the years to provide a variety of different services. Court reporting agencies 20 years ago did not have the technologies available today so the court reporting agencies of the past did not provide video depositions, video synchronization, scanned exhibits, and many other services tied into the new computer technologies. Court reporting agencies can also provide tape transcription services for law firms and the courts. Many courts over the past 10 years have installed recording devices. However, the courts in many areas do not employ staff to transcribe these tapes. In most cases, the tapes are not transcribed until somebody needs it and it is the attorney’s responsibility to order the transcription of the tapes. Sometimes even court reporters will transcribe tapes. Tape transcription can be done at home. Court reporting agencies can also arrange for interpreters or can direct an attorney to an interpreting service. Many court reporting agencies will serve subpoenas. Other court reporting agencies will recommend a company to serve subpoena. Court reporting agencies have a large number of services they can provide which go far beyond just court reporting. Please visit our website tobyfeldman.com to learn more about the variety of services beyond court reporting that court reporting agencies furnish.

There are court reporting firms located in every city in the United States. Court reporting firms often do a certain type of work, and the court reporters working in the court reporting firms become extremely well-versed in the type of court reporting work a particular court reporting firm has. For example, some court reporting firms take a lot of doctors’ depositions or medical depositions because they have a clientele that works in that area of the law or do work for insurance companies that are involved in that type of litigation. Other court reporting firms have government contracts which could be for grand jury work, government agencies such as the SEC or even the Senate committees use court reporters. A court reporter should inquire when they are seeking employment with a court reporting firm as to what type of work they do so they are able to work for a court reporting firm which has the type of work which interests them. Most court reporting firms have a variety of work but usually court reporting firms have a great percentage of a certain type of work. To get an idea of the types of depositions a court reporting firm has, please visit our website tobyfeldman.com which describes what type of work tobyfeldman.com does.