In what seems to be a regular theme in the court reporting industry, the Chicago Tribune reported that the Iowa Judicial Council is proposing to make a cut to certified court reporters. The Iowa court system has as many as 190 full time certified court reporters on staff and a $15 million budget cut may eliminate some of those jobs.
As we all know, digital recordings cannot replace the skills of a trained court reporter and doing so may prove to be more costly as new trials or hearings may be likely due to inaccuracies in the recordings.
Feel free to leave us a comment and tell us about any negative experiences you have had with digital recordings.
4 Comments
The notion that replacing court reporters with recording devices seems to indicate ignorance on the part of those suggesting such a move. The recording devices will produce a tape that will then need a court reporter to transcribe the tape. Tapes are notoriusly poor quaility and lead to many inaudible portions of conversations. Court reporters are trained to handle these scenarios in the most cost efficient and accurate mannner available. Electronic recordings would be a step backwards in many ways and would not provide cost cutting.
Tom,
Thanks for your comment! We could not agree with you more.
Hello… My wife is a Court Reporter for the State Of Iowa, she has loved her job and it has provided our family well with benifets as health insurance and such…. We have 4 wonderful children and I also work but we very much depend on her income… She went to school to become certified to do this job! Where else can she go? What else can she do!!! Closed captioning? Nope! To be a “REAL TIME” captioner it will cost about another $7000. To get started… And that doesn’t guarentee anyone a job… Sorry for my venting… As I am just concerned for my family cause we can’t live on my income alone… Thank you for all of your support!!! God bless
Hi Aaron, the good news is that your wife is a certified court reporter. So, from our experience there are many freelance court reporting jobs out there. Of course each market/city are different but there are still plenty of opportunities available. Thanks for taking the time to voice your concerns and best of luck to you and your family.