While the recession is hitting jobseekers hard and sending many to the unemployment lines, the court reporting profession is in dire need of new reporters. The National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) reports a nationwide shortage of workers. Many assume that electronic recording equipment would replace the human court reporter. The fact is, technology has increased the demand, and the field is alive and well.

“We have nearly 100 percent job placement of our graduates, and students are receiving multiple job offers even before they graduate,” said Marlene Cohen, employment specialist at Orleans Technical Institute, which offers the only court reporting training program in the tri-state region certified by the NCRA.

Court Reporting Career Outlook
The U.S. Department of Labor projects that jobs in this field will grow 25 percent through 2016—faster than the average—and says that “job openings continue to outnumber jobseekers.” Full-time salaries are solidly above the U.S. median, according to the NCRA. Forbes.com included court reporting among its report of “Surprising Six-Figure Jobs,” noting a national median salary of $62,000 annually, “though it tops $100,000 in many cities.”

Many new court reporters are attracted to the job security and the money, but Cohen notes that the majority of Orleans graduates especially enjoy the flexibility and independence of working as freelancers. Attorneys hire freelance court reporters to create a record of pretrial depositions. Freelance reporters are also hired to create verbatim, computer-based transcripts of proceedings beyond the walls of the courtroom, from business meetings, roundtable discussions and stockholder sessions to public hearings, arbitrations and webcasts. Freelancers can determine their own availability; they’re paid per job and receive a per-page fee for transcripts.

Going Realtime
Court reporters’ unique, high tech skills can also be seen increasingly at conventions, special events, even churches, that feature “realtime” captioning, where a speakers’ words are instantly displayed on a large projection screen and then available in print format.

“Realtime technology is evolving into areas that I never dreamed of,” said Terry Tumolillo, a court reporting graduate of Orleans who founded VoicePrint Inc. in Mt. Laurel. Her company offers technology called CART, which stands for Communication Access Realtime Translation.

“CART services are invaluable to the corporate world, but also on a more personal level,” she said. “A court reporter can be paid very well to accompany a student who is hard-of-hearing and provide an instant conversion of the teacher’s lecture, notes and class discussions into text that is readable on the student’s laptop.”

“With this technology, a person who doesn’t use sign language or has a limited ability to read lips can sit alongside a court reporter who provides instant word-for-word, speech-to-text,” she said. “Having this live, in-person technology allows a student to participate more fully in the classroom.”

How the Technology Works
The captions and transcripts don’t magically appear on their own. The technology requires a trained court reporter who uses a specialized machine called a stenotype to enter information phonetically—at a much faster pace than letter by letter on a standard computer keyboard—and the information is instantaneously converted through computer software into readable English text. The process works relatively the same whether a court reporter is working physically in a courtroom, transcribing a meeting or college lecture live, or creating a transcript of a previously recorded interview or speech from the comforts of home.

Court Reporting Training
The next court reporting class starts in September at Orleans Technical Institute, which has a campus just minutes from South Jersey in Northeast Philadelphia. The school offers an Associate in Specialized Business degree in court reporting with a comprehensive internship and job search assistance.

Visit www.orleanstech.edu or call 215-728-4426 for more information.