Why the Legal System Doesn’t Understand What’s Happening to Court Reporting

Posted bystenoimperiumPosted inAI and the Legal System, Court Reporting, Judicial Ethics Watch, Legal ServicesTags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The collapse of certified stenographic court reporting isn’t happening because the legal community doesn’t care. It’s happening because most attorneys, judges, and policymakers genuinely don’t understand how the record is made, who’s responsible for it, or what’s at stake when it fails. To them, the process appears seamless—until it isn’t.

The truth is simple: every error, omission, and delay in the transcript can alter justice itself. Yet the forces driving this crisis—outsourcing, AI marketing, and lack of awareness—remain largely invisible. Here’s why the legal world doesn’t realize what’s happening until it’s too late.

1. They Assume “Someone Else” Is Handling It

Attorneys, judges, and legislators all assume the court system has reporting handled — that certified stenographers are just “assigned” by the clerk’s office or the agency, like interpreters.
They don’t realize that:

Reporters are independent contractors, not salaried government employees.

There is a national shortage caused by school closures, pay stagnation, and agency consolidation.

Digital and ASR firms are actively replacing steno with cheaper, uncertified labor — often under misleading labels like “electronic reporter” or “AI transcript.”

To them, the process looks seamless — until the record is wrong, delayed, or unusable.

2. They’ve Been Sold the “Tech = Progress” Myth

Big box agencies and venture-backed startups have spent millions marketing digital recording and ASR as “modern,” “automated,” and “cost-effective.”
Those buzzwords land easily in budget meetings, especially for administrators and attorneys who:

Don’t understand the difference between an audio file and a certified transcript.

Have never seen the chaos of a bad realtime feed or a mistranscribed technical deposition.

Believe AI will “eventually” match human accuracy.

Meanwhile, no one is explaining that AI errors can literally change sworn testimony, or that uncertified digital logs are inadmissible in appellate courts in many states.

The problem isn’t just technology. It’s the quiet professionalism of reporters themselves — a virtue that’s also made the profession nearly invisible to those who depend on it most.

3. They Don’t See the Human Cost

Our invisibility hurts us. Reporters sit quietly at the corner of every courtroom and deposition — we’re trained to be neutral, unseen.
That professionalism, ironically, has made us easy to forget.
When you never tell your story, others write it for you — and agencies fill the silence with self-serving narratives like:

“Reporters are aging out.”
“No one wants to learn steno.”
“Digital is the only scalable solution.”

If lawyers and judges knew the sacrifices, skill, and certifications behind every transcript — they’d never let the profession collapse. But they rarely see our side.

Even when they do hear about the shortage, there’s still no consistent voice speaking to them in terms they trust or understand.

4. There’s No Central Advocacy Voice They Trust

The National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) has struggled to present a unified, public-facing message that resonates beyond our circle.
Compare that to:

Tech companies with PR departments and lobbying budgets.

Digital agencies that frame their mission as “access to justice” or “modernization.”

The public doesn’t know that stenographic reporters already embody those values. We just haven’t had a loud enough megaphone.

And so the silence continues — until something goes wrong and the consequences become personal.

5. Attorneys Don’t Realize They Need to Take a Stand — Until It’s Too Late

By the time lawyers realize how much they depend on us, they’re already staring at:

A botched record from a digital proceeding.

A denied appeal due to transcript issues.

A malpractice claim because key testimony was missing.

They would fight for us if they understood that protecting stenographers = protecting their cases. But we’ve never clearly connected those dots for them.

Judges and legislators aren’t immune to the same blind spot — but unlike attorneys, they have the power to shape policy. And the other side is already in their ear.

6. Judges and Legislators Respond to Organized, Visible Advocacy

Digital firms lobby in Sacramento, Washington, and state capitals constantly. They show up with talking points, PAC money, and white papers.
Reporters, on the other hand, are busy working 12-hour days — trying to meet page rates that haven’t risen in 20 years.

Until we show up as organized, informed, relentless advocates — not just as individuals defending our jobs — policymakers will keep hearing only one side.

💡 The Reality

They would support us — if they understood the connection between steno survival and justice integrity.
They don’t know that:

Without steno, the record itself is at risk.

Without the record, the rule of law collapses.

That’s the message the legal world needs — and it has to come from us, but spoken in their language.

The awareness gap is clear. What’s needed next is action — a structured, strategic plan to educate, engage, and unite the very people who depend on the certified record the most. The following roadmap lays out how to do exactly that.

The “We Need You” Strategic Advocacy Roadmap

Below is the We Need You Outreach Plan — a practical, organized strategy to awaken our natural allies and get them fighting for stenographers before it’s too late. Each phase can be executed independently or as part of a broader campaign under the Saving Steno banner.

⚖️ PHASE 1 — Identify and Prioritize Key Allies

Goal: Focus advocacy on those with the most influence and incentive to act.

Target Groups

GroupWhy They CareMessaging Focus
Trial Attorneys & LitigatorsRisk of appeal reversals and malpractice from inaccurate transcripts“Protect your record, protect your case.”
Judges & Court AdministratorsLoss of control, backlog risk, record integrity“Without a certified record, justice can’t be upheld.”
Bar Associations & Legal Ethics CommitteesDuty of competence and fairness to clients“AI transcripts jeopardize your ethical obligations.”
Legislators & Judicial CouncilsConstituent access to justice and workforce sustainability“Digital substitution is not modernization — it’s deregulation.”
Disability & Captioning AdvocatesCART and realtime services rely on steno skill“When stenographers disappear, accessibility disappears.”

📣 PHASE 2 — Craft the Core Message: “Protect the Record”

Goal: Simplify the message to one unassailable truth — without stenographers, there is no trusted record.

Message Pillars

Accuracy = Justice
AI and digital systems cannot swear in witnesses, ensure speaker identification, or produce a certified record admissible in appellate courts. Stenographers are the record.

Ethics = Competence
ABA Formal Opinions 498 and 512 require attorneys to ensure confidentiality and competence when using remote or AI tools. Using uncertified digital reporters or ASR violates this duty.

Access = Humanity
CART captioning, realtime feeds for deaf participants, and equitable proceedings rely on human skill — not software.

🧠 PHASE 3 — Educate the Legal Community

Goal: Flood the ecosystem with concise, fact-driven, human-voiced content that can’t be ignored.

Tactics

  • MCLE Presentations — “The Hidden Risks of AI and Digital Transcripts.”
  • Bar Association Newsletters — 300-word op-eds highlighting risks to appeals and confidentiality.
  • LinkedIn Pulse Articles — “If your transcript isn’t certified, your appeal isn’t safe.”
  • Panel Events & CLE Webinars — Partner with judges or law professors who validate the concern.

🧩 PHASE 4 — Reframe Public Perception

Goal: Replace “old-fashioned stenographer” with “guardian of the record.”

Campaign Ideas

  • #ProtectTheRecord — a social campaign showing how human steno ensures justice.
  • Short Video Series: What Happens When AI Gets It Wrong?, Real Stories from the Record, A Court Reporter Saved This Case.
  • Media Outreach: op-eds in Law360, Daily Journal, The Recorder, or Above the Law highlighting the public value of certified reporting.

🏛️ PHASE 5 — Legislative and Regulatory Engagement

Goal: Reassert stenography as the legal standard of record in statute and policy.

Actions

  • Submit testimony to the Court Reporters Board, Judicial Council, and legislative committees.
  • Partner with public defenders, DA offices, and civil-rights attorneys who’ve seen ASR failures firsthand.
  • Propose model bill language reinforcing certified stenographic records as the only admissible official record for testimony (citing CCP §269, §2025.330, and Title 16 §2474).

❤️ PHASE 6 — Build a Visible Coalition

Goal: Unite non-reporters who publicly stand with us.

How to Mobilize Allies

  • Create a “Friends of the Record” pledge for attorneys, judges, and law professors.
  • Publish logos and names on a SavingSteno.org landing page.
  • Offer shareable badges: 🛡️ Certified Record Ally | ⚖️ I Protect the Record

Result: a visible movement that makes lawyers proud to stand beside stenographers.

Protect the Record, Protect the Rule of Law

The collapse of stenography isn’t inevitable — it’s preventable. But only if those who rely on the record understand that without certified reporters, justice itself becomes vulnerable. Awareness is no longer enough; coordinated advocacy must begin now. Protecting stenographers means protecting the truth — and the truth is the very heart of justice.

StenoImperium
Court Reporting. Unfiltered. Unafraid.

Disclaimer

“This article includes analysis and commentary based on observed events, public records, and legal statutes.”

The content of this post is intended for informational and discussion purposes only. All opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are based on publicly available information, industry standards, and good-faith concerns about nonprofit governance and professional ethics. No part of this article is intended to defame, accuse, or misrepresent any individual or organization. Readers are encouraged to verify facts independently and to engage constructively in dialogue about leadership, transparency, and accountability in the court reporting profession.

  • The content on this blog represents the personal opinions, observations, and commentary of the author. It is intended for editorial and journalistic purposes and is protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
  • Nothing here constitutes legal advice. Readers are encouraged to review the facts and form independent conclusions.

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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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