| Court reporting is an exciting field! From the court room | | | | government. |
| to the deposition suite to broadcast television, court | | | | Both compensation and compensation methods for |
| reporters, deposition reporters, and captioners make it | | | | court reporting professionals vary with the type of |
| happen! Court reporting is the way to launch a | | | | court reporting job, the experience of the individual |
| professional career that's crucial to the legal field, | | | | court reporting professional, the level of certification |
| challenging, and well-paid. There are literally global job | | | | achieved, and the region of the country. Official court |
| opportunities awaiting you. | | | | reporters earn a salary and a per-page fee for |
| No doubt about it -- court reporting provides a needed | | | | transcripts. Many salaried court reporting professionals |
| service in the legal community. But did you know that | | | | supplement their income by doing freelance work. |
| court reporting services also provide communications | | | | Freelance court reporting professionals are paid per |
| access for the hearing impaired? Think about it... people | | | | job and receive a per-page fee for transcripts. CART |
| with hearing loss can now gain access to the world | | | | providers are paid by the hour. Stenocaptioners |
| via the unique skills of a court reporter. You can be an | | | | receive a salary and benefits if they work as |
| independent contractor receiving a 1099 at the end of | | | | employees of a captioning company; stenocaptioners |
| the tax year, work as a county employee for a court | | | | working as independent contractors are paid by the |
| room, or even start your own court reporting firm. With | | | | hour. |
| court reporting, the possibilities for having the job | | | | How To Become A Court Reporting Professional |
| you've always wanted have never been more | | | | Let's be candid about this: becoming a court reporting |
| numerous. | | | | professional requires a serious level of commitment, |
| Court reporting professionals are part of exciting court | | | | effort and money. It's not easy but the rewards make |
| trials as well as make history -- word for word. They | | | | it more than worthwhile! |
| report high-profile trials and even caption presidential | | | | Most students start at a court reporting school. |
| inaugurations! | | | | Typically, these are private business colleges located in |
| Facts About Court Reporting: | | | | large metropolitan areas. Please see this link to view a |
| 1. Court reporting professionals earn an average of | | | | list of approved schools by the NCRA. The course of |
| $60,000 or more per year. (Including broadcast | | | | training and practice takes most people several years. |
| captioners and deposition reporters.) | | | | Most of the painstaking work is in the development of |
| 2. Captioning of television programs (done live) is done | | | | the skill of transcription during live dictation. You begin |
| by highly specialized court reporters called "broadcast | | | | slowly and then ramp up to speeds of above 200 |
| captioners." U.S. Federal law mandates captioning of | | | | words per minute. Accuracy and endurance are |
| literally 100s of hours of TV programming (live) each | | | | required to take down hours of rapid speech with |
| week, creating copious career opportunities for | | | | dense material. |
| individuals with these skills. | | | | You will also need to either rent or purchase your |
| 3. Many court reporting professionals use a method of | | | | equipment. A court reporting keyboard is needed |
| captioning to offer individualized services for the deaf | | | | during the training. Most students rent or buy a used |
| or hard-of-hearing via Communication Access | | | | manual machine (as opposed to a computer writer) for |
| Realtime Translation. CART reporters go with deaf | | | | their initial schooling, but upon entering the job market, |
| clients as required to college classes to instantly | | | | professional quality equipment is a must. Now days the |
| translate speech into written words. The demand is so | | | | equipment utilized by court reporting professionals is an |
| high for this type of skill that court reporting companies | | | | electronic court reporting machine, a desktop PC, a |
| that provide this type of service cannot keep up with | | | | printer, a laptop PC and the software to run on the |
| the demand. | | | | computers which translates the keystrokes into English |
| 4. Only a minority (about 27%) of the court reporting | | | | on the screen. |
| professionals in the United States actually work in | | | | Also, since most court reporting professionals are 1099 |
| court rooms. The vast majority are freelance court | | | | contractors, home office equipment and space is |
| reporters (1099 contractors) who are used by | | | | required, plus a fax machine, extra telephone line or |
| attorneys to produce word-for-word transcripts called | | | | two for fax and business calls. An internet connection |
| depositions during the discovery phase of cases. | | | | is a must for doing research for those hard-to-find |
| 5. Court reporting job opportunities will most likely grow | | | | words. |
| as fast as the average for all occupations through | | | | A new court reporting professional faces several |
| 2012. (Source: The U.S. Department of Labor) | | | | years of diligent study as well as approximately five to |
| What Do Court Reporting Professionals Earn? | | | | ten thousand dollars worth of equipment. |
| Court reporting professionals had median annual | | | | Many states require a license. In states where court |
| earnings of $42,920 in May 2004. The middle 50 | | | | reporting professionals have to be certified, you have |
| percent earned between $30,680 and $60,760. The | | | | to pass the state certification exam. Other states |
| lowest paid 10 percent earned less than $23,690, and | | | | where certification is not a must, the exams to satisfy |
| the highest paid 10 percent earned more than $80,300. | | | | the National Court Reporting Association can certify a |
| Median annual earnings in May 2004 were $41,070 for | | | | court reporting professional has achieved a proper |
| court reporting professionals working in local | | | | level of proficiency. |