Court Reporting is a Growing Employment Field
Would you like to work for a court reporter service? Have you recently completed the training and certification process? If not, you may be interested in knowing more about the field as well as some court reporter duties and responsibilities.
Before you begin searching for a court reporter training program, you may want to review the information and resources available from the following United States’ national court reporting associations:
- The National Court Reporters Association (NCRA)
- The National Verbatim Reporters Association (NVRA)
- The American Association of Electronic Reporters and Transcribers (AAERT)
In addition to providing information on the field, and member resources, these associations also have specific certification requirements.
You may be interested to know that there were 21,200 court reporters working in the United States as of 2012. Currently, however, there are over 50,000 court reporters, with over 70% of them working outside the courtroom.
It’s clear that this field has already experienced substantial growth since 2012. Employment opportunities are expected to continue increasing. There is 10% growth predicted between the years of 2012-to-2022.
Once you choose a court reporting program and begin your training, it will take an average of 33.3 months until completion. This includes the education portion as well as the certification process.
There are different types of certifications and certification programs. While each one of these may have similar basic requirements, there may also be some differences. It’s important to note that 95% accuracy is required for these basic and additional requirements. The are the standard words-per-minute categories:
- 225 testimony words
- 200 jury charge words
- 180 literary words
In order to develop your words-per-minute goals for the categories above, you will need to practice regularly. In general, students may need to spend up to 15 hours every week transcribing speech to prepare. While you may not need to practice that many hours, it’s important to make allowances for it in your schedule.
If you’re considering a career working with a court reporter service, you may also be interested in positions other than court stenographer. Court videographer, deposition videography, and other related positions may be of interest to you.
If your interests and skill sets lie in becoming a certified legal video specialist, then you will want to research the educational and certification requirements for that specific job.
Once you’ve completed your training and certification to become a court reporter, then you will want to focus on updating your resume to apply for positions at a court reporter service.
