Whether they work in court or as freelance reporters, Court Reporters capture the words spoken by everyone during legal, medical, conference, and meeting proceedings and, if requested by one or more of the parties, prepare verbatim transcripts.

A survey of members of the National Court Reporters Association in 1999 indicated the average income for respondents was $61,830. Reporters’ earnings, however, depend on location, level of training, level of certification achieved, and areas of specialization, among other factors. In court reporting, earning potential often is limited only by the amount of time a reporter is willing to devote to the profession. Official Court Reporters usually earn a salary and a per-page fee for preparing transcripts. Freelance Reporters receive a per-page fee for transcripts.

The program provides students with the instruction and then the practice to develop skills and academic competencies required to become a Court Reporter.

Court Reporters who use voice-recognition software in their jobs are often called Voice Reporters. Voice Reporters are trained to dictate or repeat the proceedings in a low tone of voice into a speech silencer -- a small mask that fits into the palm of the hand. Voice Writers repeat every word the attorneys, judges, witnesses, deponents, and other parties speak. They identify the speakers, mark exhibits, explain activities taking place, and punctuate in RealTime writing. The Voice Writer’s dictation is transmitted to a computer or recording device which generates a transcript of the proceedings.

Students learn to use a state-of-the-art technology voice-recognition system, which prepares court reporting transcripts into the accepted format. Students build dictionaries and speech files from a speech engine, Dragon Naturally Speaking, which works along with court reporting software to format the transcripts. The reporter speaks into what we term a Speech Silencer (repeating behind the speakers what they say) which makes a voice record of the reporter’s voice. The Speech Silencer allows the reporter not to be heard in the room. The dictated materials appear on the screen and the reporter edits the copy.

RealTime writing is the technology in which students are trained. Spoken words are instantly translated into text through the dictionary. Words then appear on the laptop computer or computer workstation. This advanced technology allows the judge, attorneys, and the witness/deponent access to the written word as it is being spoken.

As you read this, RealTime reporting for Voice Reporters is now a reality. Voice Reporters can take dictation on their laptops. The spoken words appear on the computer screen. At the end of a given proceeding, the Voice Reporter can give everyone present a disk containing the rough draft. When time permits, you can proof the computer’s recognition version of what you dictated and then print it. This speech recognition, RealTime capability enhances the Voice Reporter’s transcribing ability. No more keyboarding! No more word processing input! The ease of learning provided with this training program and the ease of transcription with RealTime capabilities may render other methods of reporter takedown obsolete.

When you use voice-recognition software for court reporting you use the language skills which you currently possess. To learn how to use a stenotype machine (a phonetic shorthand), you must virtually learn a completely new language.

ABSOLUTELY. The amount of money you earn depends on many variables such as your production skills, your clients, and their paying habits. How much you earn depends on you, not the method of takedown.

The Voice Writing system of reporting, developed in the 1940’s, has been used extensively throughout military courts. Expanded to civilian courts, both state and federal, and all reporting activities, it is widely used in freelance practices across the United States and Canada. The number of voice writers dramatically increases every year.

Court Reporters who use RealTime Recognition Software do not type their documents. So excellent typing skills are not necessary. Knowledge of the keyboard and 35-45 words-per-minute (wpm) typing skills are essential for production of documents.

Court reporting is not a nine-to-five job. Court Reporters must be self-motivated and self-disciplined as you are your own work supervisor. Good verbal skills -- including good spelling, grammar, and punctuation habits -- are more important than fast typing.

Students need to pass a 5-minute test of 200 literary, 225 jury charge, and 250 testimony with transcription of a minimum of 88% accuracy. Students are encouraged to pass the certification requirements of the National Verbatim Reporters Association (NVRA). Currently, some states have no court reporting licensing requirements (i.e) Massachusetts. While other states require a reporter to pass a licensing exam. The school teaches to the national standards and some states will accept passing the National Test for licensing. The National Institute of realtime Reporting (NIRR) expresses no opnion nor makes any representation or warranties as to any local, state of Federal licensing that maybe required for a student/graduate to enter the profession of the students/gratuates field of study. It is the sole responsibility of each student/graduate to research any local, state or federal licensing requirements applicable to the students/graduates professional goals.

The National Verbatim Reporters Association (NVRA) is dedicated to supporting the voice writing field and their members through offering proficiency certification. The certifications include the CVR (Certified Verbatim Reporter), the CM (Certificate of Merit), and the RVR (RealTime Verbatim Reporter). Applicants receive certification by testing at various speeds and transcribing at a high level of accuracy. Voice Writers, like machine writers, attend workshops, seminars, and/or college courses to earn continuing education credits in order to maintain certification which assures that NVRA members stay at the forefront of the ever-changing, technologically-driven, court reporting profession.

Some reporters like working in court; others prefer taking depositions or conference and meeting reporting. Reporters are a vital part of the legal, conference, and meeting process; they enjoy varied work situations on a daily basis.

The school purchases a mask, computer, and software for students. Students will receive a laptop computer loaded with speech recognition and court reporting software because students will use this equipment daily to perform class work and practice work at home.

Many reporters have their own court reporting firms. Remember that Freelance Reporters are independent contractors. Some reporters are salaried, but most work independently giving firms a percentage of their pay for getting them jobs.

For young men and women high school graduates, for married or single parents, for individuals looking for a career change or a mid-life challenge, this may be the career for which you have been searching. The National Institute of Realtime Reporting is licensed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Education, and is on the same footing as any other school offering certificates and degrees in Massachusetts. Its major focus, however, is on realtime reporting skills and procedures.

There are two types of court reporters: The Official Court Reporter and the Freelance Court Reporter.

The Official Court Reporter works in the state and/or federal courthouse, taking down civil/criminal trials, motions, hearings, pleas, etc. These Court Reporters are employees of the state or the government who receive salaries and benefits and usually report to the same place of business every day. They normally start at eight or nine o’clock in the morning and finish by four or five in the afternoon (times, of course, may fluctuate according to assignments).

The Freelance Court Reporter is an independent contractor. Freelance Court Reporters are self-employed. They travel to different locations virtually every day to take depositions, arbitrations, municipal hearings, board meetings, etc.

Earning capacity for Court Reporters is unlimited once they become established in the field. The average yearly salary for a Court reporter working full time is approximately $62,000 (1999 NCRA survey) -- with the ability to earn even more. Depending on skill level, freelance Court Reporters in their first year have the potential to earn approximately $50,000 and with five years’ experience, approximately $70,000 to $90,000 (Susan Gioffre, President, Certified Court Reporters Association, NJ). Salaries increase with experience and time commitment to the job. Remember, Freelance Court Reporters are self-employed. They can work as many or as few hours as they wish. And they can choose where they want to work.

In addition to writing down the spoken word, Court Reporters have other job responsibilities, including swearing in witnesses. If they don’t understand or don’t hear something, they say, "Excuse me. Would you repeat that?" Or, "Would you spell that?" They do whatever they have to do to make sure they have an accurate record of the testimony given. They use medical, legal, scientific, engineering, physics and patent dictionaries, and databases to verify spellings and terminology. They also interact with other court reporters to verify technical terms. At the end of their transcript, they sign a certificate attesting that the product they submit is true and accurate testimony.

Leading court reporting educators say prospective students should be intelligent, disciplined, motivated, computer-literate, and possess above-average language skills. A court reporting career requires technical training. Court reporting students also need to be able to meet deadlines, work well under pressure, and concentrate for long periods of time.

Students in court reporting education should expect to do college-level work. The level of intellect needed to complete a court reporting program is equal to that needed to earn a college degree. In fact, court reporting students learn a variety of subjects that are part of many different post-secondary schools, including civil and criminal law, grammar, language, legal terminology, anatomy, medical terminology, computer technology, and keyboarding.

Crucial to court reporting students is the mastery of the Voice Recognition Court Reporting software. Once students master the theory behind this program, they spend a majority of their time concentrating on speed and accuracy. In order to graduate, students typically need to report at speeds of 200-225 words per minute.

A. Comparisons
Both methods record proceedings in a legal environment. Learning the Voice Writing program takes less time than learning the machine writing program because machine writers need time to build speed on a machine. Voice writers, on the other hand, develop and hone their listening and dictating skills to capture the record. Academic classes in both programs enable students to learn the other phases of reporting: English grammar skills, typing, speedbuilding, legal terminology, law and litigation, courtroom procedures, medical terminology and anatomy, and transcript and specialty preparation. Both methods require students to produce saleable transcripts.

In states that test Voice Writers and Stenographers under identical conditions, results show that Voice Writers pass the tests at twice the rate of Stenographic Reporters. Training to become a Voice Writer not only takes much less time, but the successful completion of training is much more certain, assuming the reporter possesses the requisite educational background to begin with.

The higher passing rates experienced by Voice Writers in and of itself does not constitute proof that Voice Writers produce more accurate transcripts, but one might reasonably conclude that it is easier for them to do so. And isn’t accuracy what transcripts are all about?

B. Technology
Proponents of stenography machines often point to their technology in an attempt to establish stenography’s superiority over voice writing. The technology of stenography is CAT systems. CAT technology is over 20 years old. Even after 20 years, there are not enough stenographers to produce RealTime to meet the demand for captioning and RealTime transcript production. Why? Because the stenography machine method is simply too difficult for most aspiring Court Reporters to master. Hence, the current shortage.

The technology of Voice Writers is speech recognition. Speech recognition, a comparatively new technology, has experienced constant state-of-the-art improvements. Each day more and more Voice Writers deploy Voice RealTime systems. Speech recognition represents the present and future technology of court reporting.