Career Success in Court Reporting
The legal industry offers variety and growth

Options in the career field include: Judicial Reporting, Broadcast Captioning, Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) Reporting and Realtime Reporting. The foundation for all these careers is capturing and converting the spoken word into information bases and readable formats.

The technology that reporters use is called realtime, which allows reporters to instantly convert their stenographic notes into readable English text. The text is then displayed on computer monitors or large projection screens. Realtime reporting is the only current method for actual voice-to-text translation.
Earning potential for the reporting professional is significant because there is high demand and the field includes opportunities for overtime compensation.

Average income for:

• JUDICIAL REPORTERS, who are commonly known as official or freelance reporters and work in court or in depositions, is $62,000.
  
• BROADCAST CAPTIONERS, who work for television stations or captioning companies, ranges from $35,000 to $75,000+, with opportunities for overtime depending on whether the captioner is on staff or works as an outside contractor.
  
• CART REPORTERS, who supply communication access services for deaf and hard-of-hearing people, is between $35,000 and $65,000.

There are approximately 50,000 to 60,000 judicial, broadcast captioning, CART and Internet information reporters in the United States.

The U.S. Department of Labor projects that reporting job opportunities will grow as fast as the average for all occupations through 2012.

About 27% of the judicial reporters in the U.S. actually work in court. Most of the rest are hires by attorneys to report depositions of potential trial witnesses.

Federal rules require captioning of hundreds of hours of live television programming each week, creating a surge in career opportunities for broadcast captioners.

To practice in the field, reporters earn either an associate's or bachelors's degree. In addition, they actively participate in continuing education programs and pass stringent certification test of skill and knowledge, nationally or locally.

Judicial Reporters are at the center of the most controversial cases—preserving history in war crime trials, the Scott Peterson trial, the Michael Jackson case, the Microsoft antitrust trial, and hundreds of other trials and hearing every day- providing transcripts not only to the judge and counsel but also to the international media in hard-copy format or by posting to the internet.

Broadcast Captioning: Because of their skill with stenotype machines and computers, specially trained realtime reporters are in huge demand to provide captioning for live television broadcast. This service is called realtime captioning and primarily benefits the 28 million Americans who are deaf or hard-of-hearing by allowing them to follow news broadcasts, sporting events and other tele-vision programming. This service is especially valuable in an emergency; for example, during tornado or hurricane warnings, or during the tragic events of September11th.

Cart Reporters: A version of the captioning process allows reporters to provide more personalized services for the deaf and hard-of-hearing people through Communications Access Realtime Translation (CART). Reporters work with hard-of-hearing students and people who are learning English as a second language, captioning high school and college classes as well as providing transcripts at the end of the sessions.

However, the classroom is only one environment where the skills of a CART reporter are put to use. CART reporters accompany deaf clients as needed—for example, to conventions, business meetings, doctor appointments, workshops, wherever communication access is needed—to provide an instant conversion of speech into text using the judicial reporter's stenotype machine linked to a laptop computer. And more and more, CART reporters are providing this critical service remotely, as an Internet or phone connection allows for immediate communication access regardless of location. Reporting agencies that specialize in this service cannot meet the demand.

Editorial provided by the Brown College of Court Reporting and Medical Transcription.