Careers in Court Reporting

The court reporting profession is receiving national recognition as a competitive and rewarding career opportunity. For those just learning about the field, take a look at the various ways you can employ this skillset: 

CART Captioner:
A version of the captioning process called Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART), also known as live-event captioning, allows court reporters to provide more personalized services for deaf and hard-of-hearing people. CART providers accompany deaf and hard-of-hearing clients as needed – for example, to college classes – to provide an instant conversion of speech into text using the stenotype machine linked to a laptop computer.

Freelance Reporter:
Freelance reporters are hired by attorneys, corporations, unions, associations, and other individuals and groups, who need accurate, complete, and secure records of pretrial depositions, arbitrations, board of director meetings, stockholders meetings, municipal, and convention business sessions.

Legislative Reporter:
Legislative court reporters transcribe proceedings in the United States Congress and in state legislatures around the country.

Official Court Reporter:
Official court reporters are front and center at controversial or famous cases – criminal trials, millionaire divorces, government corruption trials and lawsuits – ensuring that an accurate, complete, and secure record of the proceedings is produced.  Official court reporters may also provide realtime during a courtroom setting to allow participants to read on a display screen or computer monitor what is being said instantaneously.

Realtime Broadcast Captioner:
Broadcast captioners, also called stenocaptioners, use court reporting skills on the stenotype machine to provide captions of live television programs for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers through realtime technology that instantly produces readable English text. Captioners provide captions for local stations, national networks, and cable channels. They caption news, emergency broadcasts, sports events, and other programming.