Off the Record? Despite High Demand
and High Pay, Court Reporters in Short Supply

By Scott Brede and Stacey Laskin
The Connecticut Law Tribune
New York Lawyer
July 23, 2007

Ambitious court reporters in Connecticut, says John C. Brandon of Brandon Smith Reporting Service, can expect to make six-figure earnings within three years of being certified.

"The demand has never been higher for our services," he proclaimed.

But despite an earning power many lawyers would envy, the number of certified court reporters has hardly kept pace with the explosion of litigation and the need for professional stenographers that has come with it.

In 1996, almost 1,000 students graduated from more than 100 certification programs across the country, but this year, 62 certified programs will certify fewer than 350 ready-to-work court reporters, said Marshall Jorpeland, director of communications for the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA), based in Vienna, Va.

Of the 62 certified schools, 18 are community colleges offering court-reporting programs and the rest are legal arts, technical, private or court-reporting schools. Also, 12 uncertified "participating programs," in addition to the 62 certified programs, have access to NCRA materials and enroll students in the United States, but are not subject to independent review by the NCRA.

In Connecticut, Briarwood College in Southington is soon to be the only school still offering instruction for those who want to go into the business, said the program’s coordinator, Cheryl Poehls.

A decade ago, there were two court-reporting programs being offered in the state—one at Morse School of Business in Hartford, now the New England Technical Institute, and one at Stone Academy in Hamden. Poehls taught at the Morse School of Business and said it stopped offering the program due to declining enrollment. Stone Academy, she said, is in the process of eliminating its court reporting program and is no longer accepting new students in that area of training.

Now at Briarwood, Poehls said she has 14 students between her day and evening programs, which is 18 months long. The school launched the program in March 2005. "There’s a definite shortage of court reporters in Connecticut," said Poehls. "For everyone who retires, there’s not enough people to replace them."

Brandon, whose agency has been in business since 1982 and operates out of offices in Hartford, New Haven and Stamford, said the need for more court reporters is particularly acute in Fairfield County.

Administrators of court-reporting schools and long-term workers in the field say the drop in students is the result of tough certification requirements and a declining lack of awareness about the profession.

The strenuous court-reporting training programs—which can take between two and four years to complete—teach the use of a steno machine, a type of computer that allows users to enter information phonetically at a much faster pace than the conventional "Qwerty" keypad. The programs also teach real-time transcription. They are offered as certificates or associate degrees at community colleges across the country, Jorpeland said.

Poehls said, despite the high earning potential and the relatively low tuition — Briarwood’s program costs $18,900 — it takes commitment to learn how to type 225 words a minute and "some people aren’t up to it." Once on the job, taking depositions has becoming increasingly high-pressure, and warring lawyers and litigants only add to the stress, she said.

Some express concern that the decline in the number of court reporters could affect the integrity of judicial proceedings across the nation. They said they are exploring options to attract new students to court-reporting schools or to rely more on electronic equipment.

"It’s bad for the system," said Judy Lehman, the acting director of Sparks College, located in Shelbyville, Ill. "In courtrooms where I’ve worked, there were times when we had more judges than court reporters. Judges would have to wait on recorders. I’d see judges waiting for me to get done, peeking through the door, because they didn’t want to proceed without a reporter."

In Connecticut, James Maher, director of administration for the Superior Court’s operations division, said the system is keeping up with the demand for transcripts of court proceedings. But he acknowledged that the lack of certified court reporters has driven the courts to hire more staff to operate digital recording machines. The state courts currently employ roughly four times as many of them as it does traditional court reporters, he said.

Bill Wagner, treasurer of The American Association of Electronic Reporters and Transcribers (AAERT), said electronic reporters, who operate recording equipment and do not use a steno machine, can be trained in as little as three months by an independent agency or a court. Training more electronic reporters would help fix the shortage, he said.

Steve Leben, the president of the American Judges Association and a judge on the Kansas Court of Appeals, is not so sure of that. His court, he said, has lost several court reporters to broadcast work during the past few years. He scoffed at the idea of replacing court reporters with electronic recording equipment.

"Having a human being for the court reporter is extremely valuable," Leben said. While there are electronic devices available to record testimony, they cannot alert court officials when a witness is inaudible or note movements and gestures, the way a live court reporter can, he said.

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