Court reporting is incredibly common, but largely unknown and/or unseen in the general public. In recent years, a shortage in court reporters has led to the field becoming more attractive to students who want a guaranteed job after graduation. If they can make the cut and become certified, they’re set up for great pay and good benefits, in a field that is hurting for young professionals.
Students must first become certified by one of America’s three court reporting agencies: The National Court Reporters Association (NCRA), and the National Verbatim Reporters Association (NVRA) or the American Association of Electronic Reporters and Transcribers (AAERT). To do this, they’ll spend about 15 hours a week learning to keep up with spoken word in order to hit the transcribing speed needed for certification. Their expertise is only one piece of why they are so important to the court system however.
In order for court reporting services to be successful, each reporter must be able to transcribe 225 testimony words, 200 jury charge words, and 180 literary words per minute with 95% accuracy. Because these requirements are so strict and high, there is an accurate transcript of every court case that goes through the system. This is all thanks to court reporting services!
Court reporters also spend time editing and filing different transcripts for both the public and private record. This maintains a network of organized and accurate information for any future cases or needs. In fact 70% of court reporters in the U.S. don’t even work within the court, but in other areas.
Lastly, court reporting allows an objections within a case or trial to be verified. Since the transcript is an accurate record of the proceedings, a judge can check to see whether or not a claim is accurate.
What do you think about court reporting? Did you know that it was so integral to the court system?