Being A Court Reporter

If you’re organized and enjoy learning about various aspects of the law, then consider a career in court reporting Scottsdale AZ schools offer. This is a job where you have to pay attention to detail, and you have to be able to understand what those in the room are saying. You are responsible for taking down the statements and questions from the judge, attorneys and those who are on trial. It’s an important job because attorneys could have questions about what was said in a trial, or they could have a question about a sentence that was given by the judge.

There are a few software programs that are now being used to make it easy to record what is said in the court room as each word has to be recorded verbatim. You can sometimes use a recording device and go back at a later time to type everything that was said. There are times when the judge might ask that you read back something that was said. This is when you have to be able to quickly look through the statements to find the time during the trial that the judge is talking about while making sure you have all of the comments recorded from everyone involved during that specific case.

Some attorneys will request the assistance of a court reporter to transcribe cases and to make copies of court records that will be filed for clients. While in the court room, you will use a stenograph machine. It has 22 special keys, each one sending information to the machine before a lengthy document is printed. You will use this document to make an official transcription of the day in court. There are about 70 schools that offer training in court reporting. It takes about two years to become a court reporter. Much of the training is done on the job as you won’t really get a feel for the work until it’s done in the setting. A high skill level in grammar and the English language is required. It’s also beneficial if you take a course in Spanish or another foreign language as there are workers and those who are on trial who don’t speak English.