Court reporters and stenographers are a staple of the legal profession. While they’re usually just extras in the courtroom drama filling lazy afternoons on TNT, in the real world, stenographers are essential contributors to a functioning justice system and they take their skills to arbitrations or depositions as well. They may not all be able to transcribe this quickly, but they take days worth of the nonsense we spout and turn it into a transcript and that’s an epic achievement.
But the occupation is, sadly, thinning out. Court reporters used to be trained at an impressive clip, graduating from schools focused on keeping the legal profession flush with support talent. It’s still not a bad way to earn a paycheck — it’s a specialized skill set that commands solid compensation — but it just isn’t exciting the youth as much as it did in bygone days.
And that’s led to a shortage that will transform into a crisis soon with a retiring population of experienced reporters and very few new graduates replacing them. For a while, court reporters have worried that technology — specifically voice-recognition software — would replace them. It turned out to be the wrong fear.
First of all, court reporters are still going to be necessary in some form or another regardless of the technological advancements on the horizon. There are basically three methods of taking a record: Stenography, a Steno Mask, and High-fidelity audio capture coupled with voice recognition.
What’s a “Steno Mask” you may be asking?
Via YouTube
It looks weird, but it produces solid results:
MR. WILSON: At what time did you return home on the evening of the 28th?
WITNESS: Around, um, uh, 10:30.
MR. WILSON: PM?
WITNESS: Oh, yes, at night.
MR. WILS—- Oh, you think darkness is your ally. But you merely adopted the dark; I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t see the light until I was already an accredited stenographic professional, by then it was nothing to me but BLINDING!
COURT: Excuse me, Court Reporter… what were you just mumbling?
But all of these methods, still require a human being. The stenographic transcript for obvious reasons. The mask needs someone to look ridiculous for our benefit. And even audio capture requires an officer to make annotations, correct spellings, deal with proper nouns, and enter exhibits.
Last week at the Legalweek 20 show, I sat down with the folks from Veritext Legal Solutions to discuss the world of reporting and learned that they see the profession as changing but still critically important. But everyone needs to be aware of the tools that will drive this profession going forward. “The key is awareness and adoption,” CTO Tony Donofrio told me.
It’s not like court reporting isn’t a technology driven occupation now. Just because it’s over 100 years old doesn’t mean it’s not tech. While the profession is currently declining in numbers, it’s not as though alrternative technologies are responsible. Videographers have been around for years and haven’t killed off the profession generally. There still needs to be a trained individual acting as an officiant to capture and facilitate the proceedings.
Streaming internet may be killing broadcast television, but it’s not killing television production. The actors, writers, and producers just moved to Netflix. The future aspiring court officers need to understand that the limited part of the job that included understanding quirky typing will be replaced by managing a complex system of microphones and digital capture. The rest of the job stays the same.
Most importantly, Veritext stressed that people need to understand that human court reporters are important. AI and text processing can’t fully replace the human touch today even if that were all there was to the job of court reporting. As human court reporters retire, we need more people entering the profession with an open mind and willing to learn the new tools replacing the stenographic typewriter.
An open mind… and maybe a willingness to wear a muzzle. Now that’s something technology can happily replace.
Earlier: The Fastest Court Reporter In The World
Court Reporter Causes Chaos By Repeatedly Writing ‘I Hate My Job’ On Trial Transcripts
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.