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The buzz in the courtroom was suddenly silenced. Counsel looked at each other in amazement. The defendant’s attorney turned to the Judge, "May we approach the bench?"
"Come into chambers," the Judge replied. She then nodded at the court reporter, signaling her to accompany the group into chambers away from the jury’s earshot, away from the public’s earshot, and away from the earshot of the press.
As the proceedings continued in the Judge’s chambers, counsel advocated for their respective clients, the Judge presided over the application of the law to the proceedings at hand, and the COURT REPORTER tirelessly captured every spoken word, creating the legal record that ensured that justice would be done. That very record would be the verbatim reporting of what occurred in the trial -- at all stages of the trial, public or private. Any further proceedings, such as appeals, overruling judgments, or changes in the law books, would rely on that accurate record created by the most efficient and accurate method available -- a live court reporter.
BUT THAT’S NOT ALL!
Whether it’s in the courtroom, reporting pretrial depositions in attorneys' offices, steno-interpreting for the hearing impaired, performing rapid text entry, transcribing police officers' reports, doing medical transcription from your own home via modem, captioning videos, proofreading or scoping for court reporters, captioning shows for the press, reporting hearings and conventions, or closed-captioning for national or local television broadcasts, court reporting is a career that offers a variety of avenues to success for individuals obtaining stenotype and computer skills.
This is the Information Age! The more rapidly information can be entered, the more valuable your skills become.
Court Reporting is a wonderful career for men and women. New ideas where stenotype skills can be applied in today’s global world are opening up new careers, such as the closed-captioning you see on your television. That’s done by court reporters for all live shows. There is another new area beginning to boom -- reporting over the Internet. Just one application of Internet reporting is sending the written text of what’s occurring along with the teleconferenced video images and words.
The court reporter uses a stenotype machine to take down the spoken word. A diagram of the steno keyboard is available here. Words are formed by depressing the keys singly or in combination.
Cerritos College court reporting students have the opportunity to use their skills to work in our Work Experience Program. One example is that our students started taking minutes at Division Meetings on campus and are now in huge demand. As a consequence, paid positions have been developed on campus where court reporting students gain work experience because their services were found to be so valuable. We think it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
With a little imagination and skill, there’s no telling in what new areas court reporting will become a new profession in the near and distant future. Steno-interpreting is new and growing. Broadcast captioning is new and growing. Medical transcription done with the stenotype machine to computer is new and growing. Proofreading is booming as more court reporters and agencies hire proofreaders to ensure the quality of their work. These are a few examples of the opportunities that are just beginning to grow.
Cerritos College is a public community college where you can make your dreams come true. We can teach you the skills you need to achieve success in your life. All our teachers are highly qualified (check our faculty page!) We can teach you the skills you need to get into a new profession that can change your life. We have all the classes needed to certify you for the Certified Shorthand Reporters Test administered by the state to earn a license. You can earn your AA degree at the same time. We can also give you the skills and information you need to pursue any of the alternative careers that are growing in this field.
We -- all of us in the court reporting department, the teachers, the students, the staff -- all work together to help each other. Come join us. You are automatically a member of the club when you enroll in our program. We have biweekly meetings with refreshments and speakers. We build winning homecoming floats. We sponsor homecoming queen candidates and student legislators. One of the recent student body presidents of the entire campus was a court reporting student. We have great bake sales and club information days. We work together and we play together. Last year we had a beach picnic and a dessert social with our alumni. We always have banquets to send off our candidates to the CSR (Certified Shorthand Reporter Test).
No one will ever tell you it’s easy to accomplish anything that is truly of great value, but it sure helps when you can get the support you need. Join the club! We’re there for you!
--Vykki Ruvalcava