Blog Category: Arbitration

When my son was in 4th grade, I had the opportunity on Career Day to present to his class a snapshot of court reporting. I gave a slide presentation on the careers of official reporters, freelance reporters and closed captioners.

The slideshow explained the different aspects of court reporting and how important we are to the legal process. I also showed a YouTube video produced by Lisa DiMonte and Dawn Hart that explained that court reporting was just like playing the piano — when you stroke the keys on the steno machine, they represent different letters; whereas on the piano, they represent different notes.

I then handed out a steno keyboard chart to the entire class and explained to them exactly how we write words. The students then formed their own words on their own “court reporting machine.”

I brought in my very first steno machine and showed them how stenography had evolved from a manual machine, which was paper driven, to a new-generation paperless machine that is connected to a laptop. I then began to write realtime for the class. I couldn’t believe the excitement from the kids! They thought it was so cool! As the teacher started speaking to the class, I followed along in realtime.

The students were amazed! During the week that followed, parents of the kids approached me at different times and told me that their children loved learning about court reporting — how fascinating it was to them! This was an incredibly rewarding experience for me and, of course, my son was so proud of his Mom.

Dawn Hart tells Planet Depos that she went to court reporting school “by accident” thanks to her guidance counselor telling her that she was wasting time at “play college,” and that she should enroll in their court reporting program. Court reporting school was definitely not “play college.” In fact, things were so rocky that Dawn came very close to dropping out of the program entirely. Had it not been for the reinforcement of her professor and the coaching by her first employer, she isn’t sure whether she would have made it.

Dawn has earned the RPR, CRR, RMR, and CSR credentials. She has a dream team that assists her in producing her work so that she can take jobs every day, meet new people, keep learning, and do the work that she so passionately loves. When she began her career, it meant reporting to the office every day at 8 a.m., going out on assignments, and not returning home until late every evening.

She was the first person at her firm to acquire a laptop, the first to provide realtime, and she is now acclimating to “Auto-Briefs.” Her mantra is, “attack technology,” and that is how she’s been able to remain at the top of her profession.

She loves learning, and thus enjoys attending the continuing education seminars offered by the National Court Reporters Association. She suggests that every reporter read Outfluence by Al Betz, as it gave her an entirely new perspective on her career. She is a teeny-tiny powerhouse, and has brought a tremendous amount of insight and innovation to the reporting industry in Baltimore.

Court Reporter Jan Hamilton shares with Planet Depos what she loves most about reporting, her most memorable witness, and a bittersweet assignment. “It’s the people with whom I’ve had the honor and privilege to work, the newness and spontaneity of every day, and the endless opportunities to learn.”

Counsel nearly coming to fisticuffs is something Jan’s seen quite a few times in her 36 years as a reporter, but in what she describes as the first time she ever saw anything like it, counsel actually lunged at one another from across the conference room table.  That event left “The Puppy Case” forever ingrained in her memory.

Jan has met world-renowned experts ranging from computer developers who hold multiple patents, neurosurgeons who are pioneers in their field, and scientists who have invented vaccines. The brilliance of the minds of these experts never ceases to fascinate her. She thrills at each opportunity, and remembers one who was not only brilliant, but sweet. He was a doctor/scientist, who at the conclusion of his testimony mentioned he needed to catch a flight to Boston, where he was scheduled to speak. Jan gladly drove him to the airport, and to show his appreciation, he handed her an antique piece of silver, followed by a handwritten thank you note sent all the way from Israel.

Jan loves the challenge of keeping up with every speaker and the fact that she never knows what’ll be next. A bittersweet experience that Jan recounts stems from her handing a dying witness her card, telling him, “I don’t look much like a farm hand, but I know how to use a pitch fork, I’m not afraid of dirt, and I’d be happy to lend a hand with your horses.” The gentleman passed away shortly after Jan began helping on the farm, and Jan is grateful that she today remains dear friends with his fiancée.

As Jan tells Planet Depos, “No other profession provides the highs, the lows, the adrenaline-pumping moments and learning opportunities that court reporting does. Anyone who thrives on challenge and never knowing what’s around the next bend would love court reporting.”

Jan Hamilton, a 36-year court reporter with Planet Depos, shares her discovery of the court reporting profession, and her love of the life it has brought her.

Jan graduated from high school in 1974 and, like her four elder siblings, went straight to college.  After just two semesters, however, Jan felt that she just wasn’t being challenged and wasn’t enjoying what she was studying.  So, she sought out the advice of her high school guidance counselor, who recommended, in light of her 100-word-per-minute typing speed and 8 years of piano lessons, that Jan read through the materials on hand that related to the court reporting profession, a career about which Jan knew nothing.

What Jan discovered was that prospective court reporting students should have both an excellent grasp of the English language, as well as good hand-eye coordination.  Not only did Jan have both skill sets, but because she’s always loved everything related to words and reading, she learned how to read upside down (a feat her father asked that she demonstrate regularly for house guests).   Jan’s parents would often say that “she swallowed a dictionary” because she knew the English language so well.

With Jan’s combined love of the English language, her nimble fingers, and her fascination with the idea that she might one day be able to write 225 words per minute on a little black box that had but a few keys on it, Jan left her bucolic, idyllic world of Wellington, Ohio, and moved to the “Big City” (Pittsburgh, PA) to attend court reporting school.  Astonishingly, Jan graduated from that program within 18 months, a full six months early, landed her first freelance court reporting position and hasn’t looked back since.

Jan believes that court reporting has been the perfect profession for her, and she hopes that in sharing her story, that others with both a love of the English language and good hand-eye coordination will also consider a career in court reporting.

Before I developed bilateral radial tunnel syndrome, which involves compression or entrapment of the radial nerve in the forearm, I worked for 25 years as a court reporter. A lot of people have asked me if I had an opportunity to do it all over again, would I still have been a court reporter? My response is always an emphatic “Yes,” and here’s why.

The first part of that 25-year journey began in New Orleans as I learned the ins and outs of oil & gas and maritime reporting. Because I loved the jobs involving climbing, throwing, and jumping, I had the opportunity to take testimony deep down in the heart of gravel pits, on oil rigs, pushboats, tugboats, and pogey boats. I remember . . .

• an oil rig assignment that ended with our having to be rescued because our boat hit something and began taking on water
• having to evacuate more than once from oil rigs because the blowout preventer was stressed
• climbing rope and vertical ladders with one hand while carrying my steno machine in the other
• tossing my steno machine to deckhands, and then leaping onto docks, rigs and boats.

I didn’t need to take vacations, because my job was so thrilling. In ’86, for personal reasons, I moved to Washington, D.C., where the reporting world was in every way different. Everyone spoke 25 words per minute faster, transcript turnaround time was a week (instead of 30 days), there was more work than reporting firms could handle, and there wasn’t oil & gas or maritime work.

In 1990, I became an Official Reporter in Prince George’s County, where I had the opportunity to report both civil and criminal cases. Criminal court was an awakening, as I learned about that part of life that people don’t talk about.

Eventually I returned to freelance reporting, where I became a realtime meeting, convention and classroom reporter for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. Without exception, after each and every meeting and convention that I reported, I would get hugs from the attendees. That was amazing! Ten years later, as it became clear that I could no longer report, my heart hurt more than my arms knowing that I could no longer give the gift of realtime to the community with whom I had bonded.

There is no other career in the world that could have given me the adventure, experiential education and life experience that I had in my 25 years as a reporter, and that is why I’d do it all over again.

The National Court Reporters Association has designated February 6-13, 2013, as Court Reporter Appreciation Week. In our October 8, 2012, blog post, “Appreciating a Court Reporter’s Skill Sets,” we explained how court reporters use their steno machines to create a language, and how that stenographic language is then translated by computer software. What most people don’t realize is how much time is involved in the transcription process beyond the conference or courtroom.

On average, court reporters spend one to two hours of transcription, proofreading, printing, binding and billing time for every hour they spend reporting or “writing” the proceedings. That’s because the reporter’s software can translate only those words that have been previously programmed into his or her personally customized “dictionary.”

For most assignments, court reporters are not provided with comprehensive word lists in advance of proceedings, which may – slightly or significantly — increase the time it takes to transcribe the testimony. Since court reporters spend most of the day reporting, they generally spend their evenings and weekends transcribing. Ken Howell, (pictured at right), an official court reporter in Lawrence County, South Dakota, worked around the clock for nearly five months, reporting and transcribing a 4,325-page transcript.

Many court reporters hire “scopists” and/or proofreaders to complete the transcription, allowing the reporter to cover other assignments. In addition to paying the fees associated with scoping and proofreading, court reporters also assume other cost-of-doing business expenses, such as the purchase and maintenance of the steno machine, software with periodic updates, a personal computer and/or laptop, not to mention a printer, toner, and transcript binders.

Since the advent of reel-to-reel tape recording, court reporters have been listening to naysayers advise them that they’d better retrain for another occupation, as technology will be replacing them.  Although that may be the case in some courtrooms, court reporters are in such high demand worldwide that they can literally pick and choose where they’d like to live, the type of work they’d like to do, as well as how busy they want to be.  And that’s because court reporters don’t work just in the legal setting anymore – they perform closed captioning, as well as communication access realtime translation, or CART, for deaf and hard-of-hearing students in the classroom, for judges, jurors, and counsel in litigation, at conventions, as well as in the workplace. Court reporters also provide CART/captioning for live theatre performances.

There is such a tremendous need for realtime reporters that on June 31, 2008, Congress passed the Higher Education Opportunity Act, which included the Training for Real-Time Writers Act, providing for funding for realtime reporting programs.  The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association estimates that there are over 28 million people in America who are hard of hearing, and that number rises daily as American veterans return from military service.

It is because of improvements to technology that court reporters now have so many opportunities, and for those attorneys and judges whose court reporters provide instant translation in depositions and in the courtroom, they will tell you that no audio system could ever do the job of their reporter.