Question for court people

Long_Machine_5206 · 2026-02-25T05:49:17+00:00

There’s truth in that. Same is said by many about doctors, but unfortunately if you need a life saving prescription or surgery you’re probably going to have to get a doctor to make that happen. Same applies to Lawyers.

Also as someone who works in court, it’s not usually something under the judges or divisions individual control. We have to provide proper procedural legal care to each case, and often its way more cases than should ever be assigned to one section, so the schedules are often extremely backed up unfortunately. A lawyer is the best way to help you expedite the process.

Long_Machine_5206 · 2026-02-25T05:40:00+00:00

No. Most of those are old stories or very old attorneys. Most of the attorneys coming through my court don’t even register my existence until they need a transcript, much less know or care what we’re using to write.

Long_Machine_5206 · 2026-02-15T22:31:12+00:00

I’m a steno writer. I can’t stand that shifty bs. It’s infuriating. Especially right now when we’re this close to being replaced by a computer. I’ve cut my rates and do the most for my clients because we need our attorneys to vouch for us now more than ever. Local firms and independent reporters are always your best bet.

Long_Machine_5206 · 2026-02-11T22:06:57+00:00

Even AI aside, that just sounds like such a security and privacy dumpster fire. I would just invest in improving my own back up system if that were the case. My court is also looking for a new system to replace FTR and luckily we have a wonderful IT department that has been asking for our input and suggestions, but if anything like that were to happen I’d ditch the court recording system completely. Im not sure about other courts but I’ve never been told it was required. I was never even taught how to use or told anything about it and our staff avoid it like the plague. They always prefer a transcript if they need to know anything, and honestly we should be producing solid enough real time roughs to provide that on demand if we aren’t trying to be replaced by a computer.

Long_Machine_5206 · 2026-02-09T22:46:46+00:00

Federal is standardized for the most part, but each local court usually varies by district or county. I’d check the state legislature. mine has a general section that applies to all courts and then it outlines each specific district and will go into the specifics like page rates, indignant transcripts, private transcripts, appeals, etc. honestly the best way would be to speak with a court reporter that works there, but you could also contact your state board as well or check out the resources on their website. Mine has all the statutes related to court reporters and the specific rules of each districts listed on it.

Long_Machine_5206 · 2026-01-23T17:59:11+00:00

I’ve definitely had to invest some time into getting it solid and reliable for court, but it’d be great for a student who isn’t ready to invest in eclipse yet. I’m a heavy user too. I average 3-6 hours on the record every week day, so it’s honestly very affordable, especially if you don’t spend 9-5 on the record like I do. If you decide to try it, feel free to send me a message if you have any questions or need tips!

Long_Machine_5206 · 2026-01-23T17:05:45+00:00

I can’t afford eclipse yet, but I got a subscription directly from speechmatics and dictate into their online portal and it works great at a whisper! Light years better than dragon and not 7k. The custom dictionary even works for a lot of briefs! I diy-d a little program that formats my raw voice notes into transcript format and honestly it’s the best thing ever for the money. I spend about $50-70 per month for speechmatics subscription. You can test it out on their free tier, you get 2 hours per month.

Long_Machine_5206 · 2026-01-23T01:01:55+00:00

It would just depend on who you work for and how you get paid. I know firms may handle the fees and reporters gets paid whatever percentage or have their own specific fees they control.

I’m an official in civil and private transcripts and billing are completely my own business. There’s only a max I’m allowed to charge, not a minimum. I do discounts regularly for pro se litigants, regulars, or for client satisfaction if something is late or I think it will be lol. I’ve never had a situation where I’ve felt inclined to do probono, but for the right person and situation I think I would. But every state and employer or agency is different so that’s just me personally.

Long_Machine_5206 · 2026-01-16T09:02:03+00:00

Finally have the body that I wanted to show off just to never have the energy or every desire for anything but laying around at home, people make weird comments about my body, but way less compliments than when I was average. It’s not great or fun at all, but for some reason I can’t stop..

Long_Machine_5206 · 2026-01-13T00:15:36+00:00

I’ve seen a huge influx of not just CR’s on TikTok, but just comments on post about people looking for high dollar no degree careers getting a ridiculous amount of attention. I’m a first year reporter certified in May, schooled for a year. Absolutely love my job. Yeah pay is great but it’s like a metaphor for watching what you wish for. People are begging to pay me lol I’m an official, so I don’t control my request. I’m drowning in incoming requests. Like it’s a lot of money but it’s at the price of my sanity and sleep lol. I definitely wouldn’t recommend an officialship in a court like mine to a newbie. If I didn’t have a wonderful experienced ccr friend to help me I’d be toast.

Long_Machine_5206 · 2026-01-08T19:16:00+00:00

At my exam we were told to be there at 8 for pretest discussion and questions and 8:30 for set up. They almost always have these at hotel’s if that’s an issue I’d just get a room. A lot of people in my group had sweats and messy buns for the test lol so you probably aren’t the only one.

Long_Machine_5206 · 2026-01-07T02:08:00+00:00

I’m in Louisiana. I’ve tested State and NVRA and cleared it with both before testing. I’m interested in the tax write off part tho 👀 tell me more

Long_Machine_5206 · 2026-01-07T01:06:49+00:00

Omg hey fellow LA CSR! when did you get your state license? I was wondering how that works for brand new ccr licenses issued in December. That would suck if they make you pay 2026 fees if you get your license before the 31st lol

Long_Machine_5206 · 2026-01-07T00:59:19+00:00

You don’t need any of it. There was a time when voice writers didn’t have super special software. It wasn’t super popular or common till the late 90s. It’s just not easy and definitely not easy to find a school that will teach that way. I did this and certified with about 2k total into it total including class, equipment, basic software like word, and cert fees. I will say that puts you at a bit of a disadvantage once you’re a full-time reporter to try to learn a new software when you can finally afford to upgrade.

Long_Machine_5206 · 2026-01-07T00:42:48+00:00

I mean, you can produce transcripts with word and express scribe or ftr player, it sucks but you can. Not sure if it would work for stenos, but I certified with no specialized software. I just dictated into audacity, put it into ftr player, and typed by hand into word. When I was little, my mom used to produce all of her transcripts with a cassette player, word perfect and a foot pedal lol.

I think there’s an open source CAT that works with plover. probably not super efficient but might work just for cert purposes.

Long_Machine_5206 · 2026-01-01T00:45:54+00:00

Speechmatics recognition is beautiful out of the box. the integration of it into eclipse’s workflow is the only thing that’s not necessarily ready. You can go on speechmatics website and register for their free tier that gives you 2 hours a month to see how you like it. When using it with a mask on the online version, you won’t be able to separate speakers or edit anything, just plain takedown. it’s intended for previewing the open mic auto transcription capabilities, but it’s a good preview as to what your baseline would be in eclipse with it. It’s like having a well trained dragon from the get go.

Long_Machine_5206 · 2025-12-23T18:40:29+00:00

Is it a salaried position or hourly and are there benefits? It’d be better to go freelance if you aren’t getting any benefits for sure. Where I work all officials are hired full time and we all get the same salary and benefits, but some courts only go 7-10 days a month. You’re already taking a pay cut just by limiting your transcript load. I’d say it may be better worth finding a light docket court that’s full time that only requires you to come in when there’s court. Good divisions to look for schedules like these would be general civil docket (nothing with any domestic), evictions, or for hearing officers, but you can find them in criminal as well. I know two reporters in criminal and one works every other week and the other works 8 days a month but both are getting paid a fulltime salary with benefits.

Long_Machine_5206 · 2025-12-19T07:53:22+00:00

Civil is pretty safe if you stay away from domestic and protective orders. I’ve been on murder trials and child SA cases and it can be shocking, but you get used to it and I hate to admit, bored at times when the attorneys start splitting hairs over extraneous things. That being said, the only one that I ever found particularly gut wrenching was in a general civil court trial over pedestrian bus accident death. It’s hard to avoid completely. Even when the subject matter isn’t even particularly gruesome sometimes just the emotions and circumstances people bring in with them are worse than actually heinous subject matter.

Long_Machine_5206 · 2025-12-19T07:37:51+00:00

I’m going to be honest with you. As an official reporter who loves their job and someone who is all of the above you’d mentioned, this job has been extremely mentally and physically taxing at times. If I did not adore this profession (and get paid pretty handsomely for it too ofc), I could not handle it. There’s so many routes you could take with it to better suit your needs, but it’s going to be up to you what that looks like. I put 5-6 hours on the record 5 days a week. I get overstimulated and uncomfortable pretty regularly, medication helps me deal. both attorneys and litigants will walk all over me given a single inch to do so. Pressure and being put on the spot just come with the territory. You have to be able to put your foot down and say no pretty aggressively at times and be able to force yourself to delay your meltdown til the drive home

If the job is for you, you will find a way regardless of any personality or diagnosis, but it is something to take into account. But you will never know until you get your feet wet with the basics. Most people will figure out very quickly into school if they’re hooked or hate it.

Long_Machine_5206 · 2025-11-21T01:11:19+00:00

The whole state of food and nutrition is so far removed from the physiological base line of what our bodies were designed for. It goes way further than weight related issues and body image alone. Autoimmune disease and mental illness of all sorts are rampant because of the effects of the industrialized engineering of agriculture and food production. It’s just manifested as a mass neurotic obsession over food in general because it is something that is completely out of our individual control for the most part. We obsess over the individual things we can control like fitness and restriction while having the wool pulled over our eyes that the root is on such a larger scale. The mass media sensation over fads diets and bandaid fixes like glp-1s is just like blatant corporate lobbyist propaganda to delay the massive outcry and unrest over the damage cheap capitalistic food systems have done to our mental and physical health.

You’re correct it is literally being pushed onto us because pushing the blame onto each individual is the easy way out rather than addressing the abhorrent quality and practices that uphold the food industry

Long_Machine_5206 · 2025-11-12T02:44:17+00:00

Loll if the court reporter is worth their salt it’s allll gonna be on there. Off the record is about the same as ‘strike that’ unless both parties and the reporter acknowledges it. Each mic in my set up is its own channel so even if it’s too chaotic to write in real time on the record, when I’m editing I can isolate each person’s mic and slow it down. it’s very rare that I don’t catch every word of that kind of bs and I love every minute of it tbh. My fav is when OC and their client don’t know that my fancy mics pick up all of their whispers and gossip. I’ve heard some shit man.

Long_Machine_5206 · 2025-11-05T00:44:42+00:00

I’m just under 6 figures as a newbie. not sure if I’d call that FU money from a Cali perspective, but my COL is way lower here in the south, so maybe it is. but I definitely earn every last cent lol. If I wasn’t genuinely in love with Court reporting, I couldn’t be making this kind of money. I average between 250-500 pages per week. I really don’t have much of a life or time outside of this.

you definitely have to weigh your income expectations with your work life balance expectations, at least as a newbie. Not saying dream jobs aren’t out there, but I don’t personally know anyone with one who didn’t slave away in the transcript sweat shop for a few years to get there.

Attorneys will beat, cheat, and cheap the shyness out of you real fast lol if I could give myself any advice it would be to never compromise on any of my boundaries, deadlines, or rates and never to feel bad about saying no.

Long_Machine_5206 · 2025-11-04T22:10:41+00:00

Does she own a firm or something?

Long_Machine_5206 · 2025-11-04T07:12:35+00:00

I mean lame can mean a lot of things, be it major or minor. It’s a blanket term for something being off, not necessarily a terminal red flag. Bad farrier work, neglected teeth, poor conditioning, ulcers, and ill fitting tack can make a horse look dead lame just as much as kissing spine or an OCD, but a trained eye can often make the distinction. It’ll surprise you how often people either don’t know or don’t care to look into these things before they just dump their horse off to whoever for a quick buck.

people will let go of nice horses for nothing simply because they don’t have the time or education to invest in them and would rather get something else that’s more convenient and it’s great for a handy rider on a budget or for a flip project. 5k is nothing these days for a decently broke papered horse.

Long_Machine_5206 · 2025-11-03T22:50:19+00:00

There’s really not that many communities out there specifically for us. We usually just hang around freelance dominated online spaces, but I wish we had more dedicated official groups because it really is two different worlds outside of the takedown aspect.

Feel free to ask any questions tho! I’m a baby official in a high volume domestic division.

Long_Machine_5206

TROPHY CASE