What career forecasts a need for 5500 jobs to fill over the next 5 years?

Court reporting. Studies show that the demand for court reporters will significantly outweigh the supply over the next 5 years by 5500 jobs. Court reporting and captioning is a top professional career that does not require a four-year college degree. Bottom line, court reporters spend less time in school and are very quickly on their way to earning a salary that is competitive with four-year degree professions.

People who train for a career as a court reporter have a few career options:

• Freelance reporter – Be your own boss and work for attorneys, corporations, and unions providing verbatim transcript of depositions, arbitrations, zoning hearings and so much more.

• Official reporter – Work for a county, state or federal court house and provide verbatim transcripts of civil and criminal trials as well as other court proceedings.

• Broadcast captioner or Cart provider – use your skills to provide instant translations for hard of hearing individuals for things such as TV programing or students in classrooms.
  

What it takes to be a good court reporter:

• Good with language – court reporters must have a strong vocabulary and good ear for dialectics and accents.

• Creative – capturing the spoken word requires the ability to think on your feet and adapt to situations. Many court reporters played a musical instrument when they were young, the memory and finger dexterity skills translates well to court reporting skills.

• Self-motivated – court reporters often work on their own and must be focused and self-directed.

For more information about this exciting career, visit crTakeNote.com.

For information on the A to Z Program, a free class that teaches steno theory and provides the opportunity to not only meet working court reporters but also investigate whether this is the career for you, contact Robin Smith at rsmith@glfmllc.com.

Court Reporter vs Digital Recorder

Are you a legal assistant scheduling a deposition and considering using a digital recording service rather than a stenographer? You may be wondering what’s the difference? The end result is the same, a verbatim written transcript. Or is it? Both a court reporter and a digital recorder are human beings operating a machine. The court reporter uses a steno machine and a digital recorder is operated by an operator. It’s a natural assumption that the digital recorder machine would do a better and more efficient job than a court reporter writing to a steno machine. One simply has to look at all the machines that make our lives simpler and easier.  Washing your clothes in a washing machine beats pounding them against a rock any day. This assumption, however, doesn’t hold true when it comes to preparing a verbatim transcript.

Here’s three differences between a court reporter and a digital recorder:

1.  A court reporter thinks and hears – in the moment. If something doesn’t make sense, a word isn’t heard or something is mumbled, the court reporter is right there and can ask for clarification. A digital recorder just records the proceedings and if something doesn’t make sense or isn’t heard because of ambient noise such as papers rustling or doors opening and closing – sorry for your luck.
2. A court reporter’s process is efficient. Using computer-aided transcription, the spoken word is instantly translated as the proceedings are occurring into a document that just needs to be edited, not typed word for word. If a transcript is requested from a digital recording, the document needs to be typed from scratch.
3. A court reporter is always “on”. A digital recorder may or may not work or may or not be turned on, and no one knows until it’s too late.
   
   
   The next time you are trying to decide between using a court reporter or digital recorder, consider these three important differences.