Requirements for becoming a court reporter

Court room reporters listen and document all the proceedings in the court. They employ the equipments for reporting like a stenotype for accurately recording a huge quantity of words in a minute. 

The court reporters Ontario record each and everything which happens during the trials as well as public-meetings. Most of these professionals type phonetically in place of including each and every letter as well as marks of punctuation. Once typing of the transcripts has been done the computer programmes translate the codes of stenotype into real words. They are mainly responsible to scrutinise the transcripts without making any errors. 

Some of these professionals employ other equipments like Voice recognising software. With the help of a technique known as Voice-writing, these court room reporters may use the specialised equipments which help them in verbally dictating the proceedings of the court. For minimising the disturbance while the proceedings are being documented, the microphone is given a special mask which builds a barrier around the mouth of the reporter to restrict the noise. 

The professionals aspiring to offer court reporting services should be knowledgeable about:

• The practices, principles, techniques as well as methods of the shorthand-reporting of the court

• Legal as well as clerical record keeping procedures as well as practices

• Medical, legal as well as related terminology 

• Advanced punctuation, spelling, grammar as well as vocabulary skills

 Operate the stenographic equipment at a 200 wpm

 Read the records back-verbatim

 Independently Work

 Perform all the clerical jobs with a speed as well as accuracy

 Follow written as well as oral directions

 Work for longer durations

 Focus for longer durations

 Effectively communicate orally as well as in writing

 Develop and maintain the working relationship with supervisors, co workers, as well as the members of public

 Operate different equipments including computers, transcription equipments, audio equipments as well as printers

 Attend the proceedings of the courtroom

 Reading the transcripts while the proceedings and trials

 Preparing the transcripts as per the standard formats

 Reviewing and certifying the accuracy of the transcripts

 Filing the transcripts

 Reviewing the calendars of the court

 Providing administrative as well as management assistance

 Taking down notes during trials

 Performing clerical duties

 Coordinating the meetings as well as maintaining the calendar for judges