Anyone here a court reporter/closed captioner?

[Miffy]

Hi fellow DISers,

I'm looking for information on learning court reporting and/or closed captioning, so my first instinct was to come to the DIS. I seem to find out about everything here!

Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Sadie22]

The transcription folder on wahm.com may have some information on this topic.

 

[kt_mom]

My aunt is a court reporter in our town. She has been for years. She's always complained because its not guaranteed income. Although she said it was great when my cousin was little because she did a lot of her work from home. She could also choose to take jobs or not take jobs.

There is only one group of court reporters in our area that cover the city and surrounding counties. They are sort of a tight knit little group too and an outsider would have a hard time if not impossible getting any jobs without joining their group as they have a long standing relationship with all the local courts and attorneys.

 

[KathyM2]

Hi there,

I'm not a court reporter YET...but have been studying it part time for the past two years at CCVS...Here's a link:

http://www.verbatimstudies.com

I'd be happy to answer any questions you have about the learning process...I don't know that much about what it's like to actually do this as a profession. Although I do have some friends who have finished school and are now working at the job so if you want answers to anything specific I can run it by them.

I went to the NCRA conference in Chicago in August 2010 and it was very interesting and I met lots of great people in the business.

I'd be happy to chat with you via email if you like at mcpherson_kathy@hotmail.com

 

[01spirit750]

My wife is a court reporter.

Here in our area there are two types of carreers for court reporters.

The schooling and testing can be very difficult. My wifes friend spent 4 years in school and took the state test (required in California) 5 times and could not pass.

1. Freelance- doing depositions and hearings. You are a contractor without any benefits. Flexible but the work is not consistent and unpredictable. You work for an agency and the people with seniority get sent out for the best paying jobs. New hires will get sent out for a 30 minute deposition and might have to drive for 45 minutes each way to get there. You are only paid for the actual reporting and transcription, not the driving.

2. Court room reporter. Working for the court system. Regular 9-5 job with benefits. You start out as a pro-tem (part time) and you go where ever they are short handed or when someone is sick or on vacation. Once a full time opening comes up, you try out for a specific judge, typically you will work for him for a week or two and after he has tried all the other available reporters he will pick one.

My wife started out doing Freelance and then went to the courts. My wife has worked for the same judge for 16 years.

 

[charissemp]

Just one word of caution.....technology may be getting to a point that court reporting isn't a sustainable career. I know there is an ongoing study in our state, and it has been brought up court reporters may not be needed at all in this state in the very near future.
So, I'm just not sure it's a career that will take you as far as you need to go.

 

[Miffy]

Thanks to everyone for your responses. I, too, am concerned that transcription typing of any kind may be a job of the past. The threat of accurate voice-recognition technology has been out there for many years.