Even in the age of speech recognition technology, there is a shortage for court reporters

The job of a court reporter, to produce a verbatim record of what was said in a courtroom, is often overlooked. Yet it is a vital part of the justice system as it’s crucial to be able to check later what was really said. But these minutes don’t come without cost for the tax payers: the median salary for court reporter in New York City is $123,000.

The seemingly easy job of sitting, listening and typing, is actually quite hard to master. Many students who start studying in New York School of Court Reporting in White Plains, drop out, tells the the Director of Admission Larry Stieglitz. They just cannot learn how to type quickly and accurate enough. To graduate, which usually takes about two years, a court reporter student has to be able to type in 225 words per minute. To compare: an average person with ordinary keyboard is usually able to type about 40 words in a minute.

No wonder there might even be a shortage for court reporters.

A report, made by a consulting company Drucker Wordlwide five years ago, predicted that by 2018 there would be a shortage of 5,500 court reporters. The report, paid by the National Court Reporters Association, identified two main reason for this. First, the declining numbers of students enrolling to court reporter schools. Secondly, the average age of court reporters is quite high, around 51, and many of reporters are retiring soon. Larry Stieglitz believes the shortage is true. He tells he get calls from court reporter agencies once or twice every month asking for graduates they could hire. But the class sizes are small, often as small as 5 students. Eric Allen, the President of Association of Surrogates & Supreme Court Reporters, who represents all senior court reporters in the five boroughs of NYC, tells the same. If it was up to him, he would hire 30 more senior court reporters. “We are down in numbers. I would say, ten, eleven years ago we had about 400 reporter. Today we have around 330 reporters.” He estimates, that within next five years a further 30-35 court reporters will retire.

The estimated shortage of 5,500 reporters was nationwide. No one knows whether that exact number has realized or not, but many people admit that at least in New York the shortage is true.

Manager Michael DeVito from Office of Record Production, who is responsible for statewide hiring of court reporters, tells that they are looking to hire 20-30 court reporters immediately. There are job opportunities especially in New York City and in many northern counties of New York state. The starting salary for currently advertised jobs is $79,544 in NYC, including a $4,000 location pay.

According to Eric Allen and Michael DeVito, there have been court proceedings that have been delayed because of there was not enough court reporters available,

Digital recordings could save money

Retiring court reporters, not enough students enrolling, immediate need for reporter. No wonder their high salary. It’s clear that they have good bargaining power.

That is, at least for now. The digital revolution has not left courtrooms untouched. In some states, for example in Florida, Michigan and Utah, the digital recording systems are more and more common. Massachusetts just got rid of all court reporters this June. Also in NYC, in some lower level courts, records are made by digital recording systems.

The main claims for digital reporting systems are that it could be cheaper and more reliable. American Association of Electronic Reporters and Transcribers claims in their report that to replace one court reporter with a digital reporting system could yield to a $31,000 annual savings. The calculations include both the machinery and the average salary paid to the digital recording personnel, about $50,400 in a year, which is much less than fo a court reporter.

A digital system works like this: in a courtroom there are different microphones for different speakers. The job for a digital recording person is to control the equipment and keep a log about the happenings in a courtroom which later helps with the transcriptions of the recorded material.

The advocates for digital recording say that the method is more reliable than the traditional method. When you have it on tape, you can always go back and check what was really said.

The proponents of traditional stenography argue, that the above-mentioned only applies if you really have it on tape.

“If there is a very important answer to a critical question, and a chair squeaks or an ambulance goes outside with the sirens screeching, now what do you do?” asks Eric Allen.

Nationwide, there have been court cases that needed to be remade because of failing digital recording system.

On the other hand, if there’s a traditional court reporter in courtroom and somebody sneezes or mumbles, court reporter can ask the speaker to repeat themselves.

“That happens on a daily basis,” says Allen.

“I always stress to the students that your job is to get every word that’s been said in a courtroom. You can ask someone to repeat something. Judges and lawyers understand that. They might not always be happy about it but they understand it,” says Stieglitz.

Sometimes it can be really hard to hear what people say. In the Afternoon, when Laura Ludovico is reporting a motion in the courtroom both Ludovico and the judge Jennifer G. Schecter need repeatedly interfere.

“Could you slow down,” asks Ludovico.

“”The acoustics are not so great here. Please speak slower,” says the judge minutes later. In the 58 minutes motion hearings, the lawyer needs to be reminder eight times to speak slower and clearer.