A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

Court reporting - time4change

Posted: Mar 03, 2011

As I have all of my eggs in one basket with medical transcription, I am looking into court reporting. I have been in this industry for 20 years and I have seen the constant decline of this industry. I am just curious if anyone has knowledge of court reporting and if it would be an easy transition. I will primarily be focused on worker's comp depositions. I don't foresee any problem with the doctor's deposition as I have the medical terminology down. Thanks for any info anyone has to offer.

Court reporting - Necie

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I have also been thinking about trying to go into court reporting. Would love to hear from someone who does this also.

Court Reporting - nina

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Have you completed schooling for Court Reporting yet?

Court Reporting - nina

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Have you completed Court Reporting school yet??

Court reporting - time4change

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No, I have not completed court reporting school yet. Just seeking information right now. Do you have any information you can give me?

Court Reporting - nina

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Okay, I didn't want to give you repeat information if you had already been studying it. I can tell you from experience that it takes a lot of work, long hours practicing on the machine and studying. The shortest amount of time for getting through school is 2 years, and that is with major discipline and studying every day, several hours a day. It usually takes 3 to 4 years to complete the course. I made it through 3-1/2 years and was working on my final speed of 225 wpm, but I had to drop out because of family/personal issues that was more important to take care of. I, unfortunately, did not go back to finish, but I have been thinking about it a lot recently. Let me know if you have any other questions, I'll try to give you the best information I can.

Court reporting - time4change

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I have a friend who is an attorney who is going to help me. Most of the court reporters that she use do not even use the steno machine now. She told me that they pretty much use a recording device (digital recorder or Ipod) to record the depositions and then transcribe the recorded deposition at home and e-mail to the attorneys. I am going to talk with the continuing ed advisor at my local community college about their court reporting program and see exactly what I need to do.

Court reporting - sm

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My sister has been a legal transcriptionist for many years. You are correct, they don't use many actual court reporters anymore. She has a video machine with sound that she transcribes from. They are truly verbatim, exactly word for word, with every um, oh, uh, etc. You have to distinguish between which person is talking.

Not sure how it is now, but she merely had to take a test years ago and pass that to do the job. Not sure how it is now, but probably like everything else, I am sure they want you to go to school.

It pays by the page and it is state mandated on the wages and my sister has not had a raise in 15 years. She does get extra for expedited reports. Not sure what she gets per page. I believe each state would be different.

I keep hearing failure stories after years of court reporting training - Expensive and difficult to reach required speed

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Just look into it carefully in your particular area before you get too excited about it. It's probably better in some areas than in others, but I don't think the job market for court reporters is all that great these days. From what I understand, they work as ICs when there is work available for them.

Another thing about court reporting training is that it's hugely expensive. Cost estimate $5,000 to $28,000 according to one site, but the people I know have paid much more and still failed to graduate.

You have to get to a certain wpm before you graduate. If you don't reach it one year, you pay the whole, complete amount again and try again. After maybe 3 years of paying $5,000-$10,000, I wouldn't be surprised if a high number still drop. I know that's what happened with the people I've talked to, but I don't know the actual numbers.

My sister enrolled in a court reporting course. - Not sure what happened...

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She either dropped out or didn't finish for some reason. Anyway, she is not a court reporter yet. Also I think most CRs are ICs, but there may be some agencies that pay benefits. Personally I think paralegal, legal secretary or something like that would be more interesting and less difficult to master.

I think you're right. - nm

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nm

court reporting - rondy

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Lengthy, expensive training. Some of the schools are questionable. Teachers at the school I attended (in a large city) taught theory but had not actually worked as court reporters. The only way that medical transcription helped was in the terminology classes. Otherwise, fast typing speed does not translate over to the steno machine. Their drop-out rate was phenomenal.

I attended court reporting school - no1joe

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back in the early 1990s, and, unless things have changed DRASTICALLY, be very, very careful.

First of all, the training is VERY expensive. All of the schools, around here at the time at least, were privately owned (court reporting was not offered at a community college, for example). They either were or were not state approved. At least the ones that were state approved were overseen by the state to meet a certain standard, and you could get financial aid and student loans where applicable (I attended a state-approved school which eventually lost that approval). The ones that were not would allow you to get private financing at astronomical costs. The mandatory courses offered did not have college transferable credits for continued education either.

Since the schools were privately owned, the recruitment process was VERY aggressive. False promises were made across the board regarding everything from completion time to starting salary, and all of their claims were unrealistic.

Again, unless things have changed drastically, full-time employment was next to impossible after completion of the course. Everyone starts as an IC, and you hire on with an agency or agencies and get thrown into a pool with other court reporters scrambling for work and take whatever work comes your way. If you needed a full-time set schedule due to family needs, it wouldn't have been a good choice. You had to be ready to grab the work when it was offered to you. This was a fact that they did not mention during the recruiting process.

The time it takes to complete the course was dependent upon passing a timed test. This could be reached at a minimum of 12 months (the minimum the school required) or a maximum of indefinitely. They would not consider you ready to intern untill you passed that timed test. The internship was also part of the curriculum that you paid for and was required for completion. The school I went to, as it turned out, was owned by a woman who also owned her own court reporting agency. She was having students pay her to work for her for free, profiting on both ends. Real slimy.

Another important fact they conveniently forgot to mention was the start-up costs. At the time, the newest technology coming out was the steno machine that produced the actual words (not the steno abbreviations) on a screen... basically like what you see on closed captioning... at a cost of a few thousand dollars. They never mentioned any of this, claiming that they provided you with equipment as part of the tuition. Yes, they provided you with an old-fashioned steno machine which, out in the work force, was considered outdated (It would be like promising MT students equipment and then handing them a typewriter). I know many graduates who completed the program, interned, and then couldn't find work because they couldn't afford this equipment. If you consider getting into this, do serious research on what equipment is required to start up and the cost of it.

Also, I think nowadays the court reports are also battling with good old VR, so check into that before you make a decision, too.

One of my very good friends attened the same school at the same time I did. She finished within the 12 months (wow!), interned, and then could never find work. She got a few calls here and there... then it kept getting slower and slower. She also couldn't afford the equipment. She was left with over $10,000 in student loans for 12 months of school (remember... this was back in the early 90s).

I never finished up. Once I was already enrolled, I suspected it was a scam, and it turned out I was right. Unfortunately for me the internet wasn't available back then to research before I jumped in. But it is now... so do your homework... please!!!

Good luck to you. I'm in the same boat as far as having to make a career change real soon.

1joe - that sounds exactly like the MT courses and end results! - just saying. no message

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x

CR school - LB

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I too did some deep investigating into court reporting....even calling a women locally that has done it for years. She uses the digital voice recorder and then transcribes at home. Not much of a demand for them unless you are in a really HUGE city. The average cost for CR school now is anywhere from $20000 to $32000. CRAZY! The graduation rate for CR school is only approximately 8%. Not sure those are really great odds...I'll stick with being an MT.

CR schools charge $20,000-$32,000? - Whoa! and few jobs?!

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That is steep.

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