WHAT EXACTLY IS A COURT REPORTER and WHAT ARE THE POSSIBILITIES FOR A COURT REPORTER?

Court reporters – also referred to as shorthand reporters – are responsible for keeping written, verbatim record of legal proceedings, whether in government, court, or private settings.  There are various types of court reporters and many options available to someone who has the talent and ability of a skilled court reporter.

  • Court (Official) Reporting: Involves taking records of court proceedings and administrative hearings. 
  • Court (Freelance) Reporting:   A freelance court reporter involves writing testimony or the spoken word verbatim primarily at depositions, arbitrations or hearings.
  • Closed (Broadcast) Captioning: Involves working for possibly talk shows, news, and sports for national broadcast companies, local television stations, or television/movie studios.  This is the feed that you see at the bottom of your TV screens if you elect to turn on your closed captioning function on your TV.  This feed is prepared ahead of time, before the program airs.
  • Realtime Closed Captioning: Involves providing realtime captioning for television broadcasts, sports events, weather disasters/emergencies, and other live television events.  This feed appears at the bottom of your TV screen almost instantaneously in sentence form as the speakers are speaking.  It is a “realtime” feed produced by the reporter who is sitting and watching the show or event live and writing what is being said. 
  • Communications Access Realtime Reporting (CART): Involves providing specialized services to deaf or hard-of-hearing people in live situations, such as college classrooms, lectures, speeches, stadiums, theaters, cultural presentations, religious services, civic events, and seminars.
  • Webcasting: Involves providing realtime reporting services for Internet-based or live events, such as corporate sales meetings, press conferences, product introductions, and training seminars.

To learn more about the Standard Requirements Among Court Reporters CLICK HERE