| The following information was provided by a Court Reporter currently practicing in Ontario. The job description is very similar in Alberta, but details of job openings and future job prospects may differ, as you'll see. |
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"A Court Reporter is a person who takes down everything that is said during court proceedings. This used to involve learning written 'shorthand' called stenography, but more recently has used a machine called a 'stenograph' Unfortunately, times have changed dramatically in the court reporting field. They are no longer giving courses (in Ontario) for
"mask" reporters, and only one institution is giving courses in stenography. In Ontario, they are gradually changing all the courts
over, as a cost saving measure, to audio and CD systems, which will not have a "live" reporter taking down the evidence. There really are no more schools for court reporters here. So it is very rapidly becoming a dead issue. But in some other provinces, there are still schools for court reporters, which consists of one year in school and approximately one year of on-the-job training, doing such courts as Provincial Offences (Traffic Tickets and such) and Small Claims Court. After you have gained your speed, (approximately 250 words per minute!), you will be allowed to go into the higher courts, Provincial and General ( as they are called in Ontario). In these courts, you will report trials anywhere from impaired driving to murder. Some of it is very interesting, but most of it is mundane and very boring. My salary, for the actual court work, varies from year to year, as I am a contract employee with no benefits. But the government here hasn't hired a staff reporter in over ten years. Last year and this year, in court, I made approximately $24,000.00, with another $20,000.00 to $35,000.00 in transcripts. Unfortunately, being a court reporter means giving up a lot of time at home to prepare transcripts. I average somewhere in the range of 15 hours a week extra, at home, preparing a transcript. If you are doing a very important trial, such as murder, you could spend as much as seven hours a day in court and another four to five hours a night typing, and seven to eight hours each day on the weekend. But definitely, if you can get the job, (they're very few and far between), it is very self rewarding, as you are the one that everyone relies upon. If you do a good job, the feeling of self-worth is tremendous! If anyone is interested in working a stenograph, which is a computer generated stenotype, the only situations they are being hired for now are for "real time" situations, such as live coverage of a sports game on CNN, or very important meetings in big corporations where they need instant feedback on what they have said. (You will see the typed version for hearing impaired at the bottom of the T.V.). The pay is in the range of $50- to $60,000 a year, for working four or five hours a day. Very big money involved here ... but you have to go to school for two years, and take another two years of practice to gain speed. The computer system you need to use to transcribe the information (you have to buy it) is approximately $20,000.00 for the whole system, but well worth it if you want to go into that field. There are also private firms that specialize in 'discoveries' that hire reporters. Discoveries are pre-trial hearings in which all the parties get together outside of court and ask questions of the parties involved, so the issues will be much clearer in court for civil matters. Not my cup of tea, but there are a lot of firms opening up now because they think the government is going to flop in this new court system and they will have to hire outside reporters to come in and report the trials! But that's Ontario." |