A Stark Lesson in Supply and Demand: The State of Court Reporting in 2025

Posted bystenoimperiumPosted inCourt ReportingTags:, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The principles of supply and demand are playing out in real time in the court reporting industry, and the implications are more significant than ever.

In 2014, the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) commissioned a study by market analyst Ducker Worldwide, which projected that demand for court reporters would exceed supply by 2018, leading to a nationwide shortage. The report estimated that 5,500 new court reporter positions would open as older professionals retired. At the time, 70% of the nation’s 32,000 court reporters were over the age of 45, raising concerns about the profession’s future.

Following the 2014 Ducker study, three distinct responses emerged:

  1. Efforts to enhance efficiency and mitigate the shortage.
  2. Initiatives aimed at increasing the number of court reporters.
  3. Attempts to diminish demand through digital recording and unlicensed transcription services, often at the expense of stenographers and fair compensation.

To boost efficiency, two major SaaS (Software as a Service) platforms, Stenovate and CoverCrow, were launched in 2018. Stenovate streamlines collaboration between court reporters, scopists, and proofreaders, increasing productivity. CoverCrow connects court reporters with agencies, allowing them to accept jobs more efficiently through advanced job alert filters. In 2021, CoverCrow integrated with ProCat, enabling court reporters to receive job alerts directly in their CAT software. Around the same time, NCRA introduced ProLink, and Stenograph launched Apex, both aimed at improving job accessibility for stenographers.

Organizations like Project Steno and NCRA’s AtoZ program have spearheaded recruitment and training efforts to increase the number of court reporters. Industry partners, including agencies, vendors, and individual stenographers, have supported these initiatives through significant donations. Court reporting schools ramped up recruitment, and notable figures such as Mark Kislingbury expanded training programs. Social media became a powerful tool, with stenographers sharing their career journeys across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Twitter. The profession even gained mainstream recognition when Whitney Kumar became the official stenographer for the TV show Judy Justice.

However, the industry has faced challenges from those seeking to bypass traditional stenographic methods. Court reporting is a $3 billion industry, attracting opportunists looking to cut costs at the expense of quality and legality. A loophole in California law allowed notaries to serve as deposition officers, leading to a surge of videographers obtaining notary certifications and assuming court reporter roles. Some agencies instructed videographers to simply record proceedings rather than provide stenographic transcripts, eventually going so far as to have them self-identify as “court reporters.” This practice evolved further, with agencies employing separate personnel to press the record button, concealing the dual roles of videographers.

The situation became even more troubling when agencies began advising law firms to alter notice language, stipulating that depositions could be recorded digitally and later transcribed—directly violating laws in 23 states requiring stenographic transcription. Such practices challenge due process protections under the 5th and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. Some California judges have refused to admit uncertified transcripts in legal proceedings, but with only a small percentage of cases going to trial, agencies continue to take their chances. If legal negligence claims arise from these shortcuts, the consequences could be severe.

Now, more than a decade after the Ducker study, the true number of active court reporters in the U.S. remains unclear. Organizations like the now-defunct STTI, which advocated for digital reporting, claimed a staggering shortage of 33,000 reporters—an unverified and grossly exaggerated figure. However, court reporting schools have seen increased enrollment, partly driven by career shifts prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many professionals seeking stable, well-paying jobs have turned to stenography, challenging the narrative of an insurmountable shortage.

The industry needs updated data. The NCRA should commission a new study to assess the actual state of court reporting today. The outdated 2014 Ducker study, which inaccurately projected a severe shortage by 2018, continues to be misused by those looking to push alternative solutions that undermine stenographers. It’s time for the NCRA to provide clarity and hope for the profession.

Emily Dickinson once wrote, “Hope is the thing with feathers / That perches in the soul.” As we navigate the challenges ahead, the court reporting profession must rely on its resilience and adaptability. With strong advocacy, innovation, and a renewed commitment to accuracy and professionalism, stenographers can secure their rightful place in the legal system for years to come.

Published by stenoimperium

We exist to facilitate the fortifying of the Stenography profession and ensure its survival for the next hundred years! As court reporters, we've handed the relationship role with our customers, or attorneys, over to the agencies and their sales reps.  This has done a lot of damage to our industry.  It has taken away our ability to have those relationships, the ability to be humanized and valued.  We've become a replaceable commodity. Merely saying we are the “Gold Standard” tells them that we’re the best, but there are alternatives.  Who we are though, is much, much more powerful than that!  We are the Responsible Charge.  “Responsible Charge” means responsibility for the direction, control, supervision, and possession of stenographic & transcription work, as the case may be, to assure that the work product has been critically examined and evaluated for compliance with appropriate professional standards by a licensee in the profession, and by sealing and signing the documents, the professional stenographer accepts responsibility for the stenographic or transcription work, respectively, represented by the documents and that applicable stenographic and professional standards have been met.  This designation exists in other professions, such as engineering, land surveying, public water works, landscape architects, land surveyors, fire preventionists, geologists, architects, and more.  In the case of professional engineers, the engineering association adopted a Responsible Charge position statement that says, “A professional engineer is only considered to be in responsible charge of an engineering work if the professional engineer makes independent professional decisions regarding the engineering work without requiring instruction or approval from another authority and maintains control over those decisions by the professional engineer’s physical presence at the location where the engineering work is performed or by electronic communication with the individual executing the engineering work.” If we were to adopt a Responsible Charge position statement for our industry, we could start with a draft that looks something like this: "A professional court reporter, or stenographer, is only considered to be in responsible charge of court reporting work if the professional court reporter makes independent professional decisions regarding the court reporting work without requiring instruction or approval from another authority and maintains control over those decisions by the professional court reporter’s physical presence at the location where the court reporting work is performed or by electronic communication with the individual executing the court reporting work.” Shared purpose The cornerstone of a strategic narrative is a shared purpose. This shared purpose is the outcome that you and your customer are working toward together. It’s more than a value proposition of what you deliver to them. Or a mission of what you do for the world. It’s the journey that you are on with them. By having a shared purpose, the relationship shifts from consumer to co-creator. In court reporting, our mission is “to bring justice to every litigant in the U.S.”  That purpose is shared by all involved in the litigation process – judges, attorneys, everyone.  Who we are is the Responsible Charge.  How we do that is by Protecting the Record.

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