Talk:Court reporter/Archives/2015

Court Reporting Career-A Fall Down the Rabbit Hole

This career demands the precise physical capture of absolutely every word spoken by every person testifying or speaking at a legal proceeding involving all fields of human endeavor, no matter the subject matter, no matter its complexity, no matter the setting, and requires that the reporter create a transcript which becomes the Official Record filed with the proper court read by attorneys, judges, jurors, witnesses, et cetera, et cetera. This profession requires extremely keen listening skills together with excellent mental and manual dexterity, along with a great command of the English language spoken with all accents, dialects and idiosyncrasies at all speeds. This profession requires extensive schooling along with a substantial financial investment in specialized equipment and software. Every state requires the passage of a State Exam in order to be licensed and practice as a Certified Court Reporter. This license must be renewed every year accompanied by a certain number of continuing education credits which also involves a substantial financial investment.

A great number of reporters work as government employees, commonly known as Official Reporters, in the various courts. A great number of reporters also work as freelance reporters hired by agencies specializing in civil proceedings conducted outside of courtrooms. In general, Official Reporters receive good salaries along with benefits. However, freelance reporters don't fare so well. They work as independent contractors with no benefits and receive 1099s at the end of each year. The agencies employing freelance reporters most often retain 40 to 50 percent of the income a reporter generates. So there's a "split" of 60/40, sometimes 50/50.

Official Reporters most often work in the same courthouse, same courtrooms, day after day. However, freelance reporters must travel to various locations. This travel sometimes requires 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, even 100 miles of travel each way. After the freelance reporter reaches their job location, they must then get to work taking down the legal proceeding. At the conclusion of the proceeding, they must then travel back. At some point later, depending on the agency's deadline due dates for transcripts, they must then produce the transcript of the proceedings. These deadlines due dates are crucial to a reporter's career. They must be met. So say a reporter travels for 3 hours and the proceeding lasts for 3 hours, depending on the subject matter and its complexity, that transcript may involve many, many hours of concentrated work to produce and be completed within a rather limited period of time.

Also, agencies compensate their reporters whatever they want. Page rates vary widely from agency to agency. Some pay travel costs. Most do not. You travel at your own expense. Some agencies offer a $.35 per mile reimbursement. Wow. How generous.

Official Reporters also receive per diem pay which averages around $150 per day. Freelance reporters receive meager appearance fees depending on how long your appearance is. Say you travel 50 miles each way and take a Workers' Comp case for 2 hours. You'll be lucky to receive $35 for your appearance, even though you've spent 2 hours traveling. A reporter must spend 8 hours at a proceeding in order to receive the max of $80. Wow. How fair.

Official Reporters' page rates have increased with inflation. However, freelance reporters' pay rates have remained pretty much frozen for around 15 years and in fact have declined. So a proceeding that involves travel and hours of work to produce results in working at a minimum wage rate, and often less. You're not even earning a living wage, even though you're working 50, 60, 70 hours a week. You may be lucky to reach the poverty level.

So why bother about freelance reporting? The answer is: DON'T.

Find a career that fairly compensates you for all the hard work and money you put into achieving your chosen skills and steer clear of freelance reporting.Everyonematters (talk) 02:06, 4 September 2015 (UTC)