Amid national shortage, local school trains tomorrow’s court reporters

This week marks National Court Reporters Week. Flickr photo by Richard Proulx

By Ryan Schwach

Though the courtroom is often filled with theatrics, sometimes theatrics lead to the courtroom.

That was the case for Stephanie Beauchamp, an actor who was cast to play a courtroom stenographer on television several years ago.

“They sat me down at this table with this strange machine,” Beauchamp recently told the Eagle. “I did a Google search real quick to figure out how to deal with it. And that's kind of how I learned about stenography.”

Beauchamp is now enrolled at Plaza College, working to enter a field suffering from a major decline in its ranks despite its essential function in the justice system.

Plaza College, the only remaining school for court reporting and caption left in the New York City area, is currently celebrating National Court Reporters week, holding events for its students about a career that has become increasingly more desirable in New York City’s courts.

“Court reporting has been around for a long time, but unfortunately, not that many people know about it,” said Karen Santucci, the director of the program at Plaza College. “It's a very lucrative field, there's so many opportunities.”

This week, from Feb 4. to Feb 11., Plaza College is hosting a series of tours, programs, and workshops for its 140 students to get a better idea of the career they will soon go into as soon as they finish their classes and pass a test, which gauges students’ ability to write 225 words per minute.

“We want to give them a solid education, and then they go out and find the opportunities for them are endless,” said Santucci.

Court reporters are a key facet of the court system – the “guardians of the record,” must certify the all important transcription of the court’s proceedings, which become the record of the case.

In recent years, desire toward the role has dwindled.

“Not that many people go into it, and a lot of the older reporters are retiring,” said Santucci.

It’s estimated that nationally, there is a shortage of over 5,000 court reporters.

With fewer training schools and high rates of retirement, the COVID-19 pandemic also contributed to the decline in numbers, with courts either closing temporarily or going online.

“We used to get a lot of students who would go to jury duty,” said Santucci. “When people sit in jury duty, they're fascinated by the court reporter. So we would get a lot of students that way. So with COVID, that kind of pushed that down because nobody was going into the courts.”

In some places, new technologies have also replaced the need for stenographers, but not entirely, because the accuracy of a real person is still required.

“The most important thing is for them to know this stenography is not obsolete,” said Joshua Edwards, an alum of the Plaza College program.

“When you have something as important as court transcripts and appeals or in the world of captioning where somebody is deaf or hard of hearing and they're relying on your translation so that they can have access…it really requires a higher level of accuracy,” he added.

Edwards, who now has his own company, Steno Captions LLC, which provided captions for deaf and hearing impaired individuals, came to New York to pursue Broadway dreams before becoming a stenographer after a friend suggested it.

“She said, ‘Why don't you go to school to be a court reporter?’ And I said, ‘What's that?’ She said, ‘These people that work with this weird machine and you're really good with computers, I bet you would do well and you probably make a lot of money’ and the rest is history,” he said.

After graduating from the Plaza program, Edwards spent time in the court system, including federal courts and with the National Football League, where he did the court reporting for the notorious New England Patriots “Deflategate” scandal.

However, the world of court reporting wasn’t enough for Edwards, who went into captioning, another career path for stenographers.

“I call it like playing video games but with words,” Edwards said. “It's a great kind of unknown career for people.”

Beauchamp, who is currently attending Plaza, is looking to enter a field with increased need.

“I'm in a good situation right now because the field is desperate for reporters,” she said, “We're in a good situation where we can pretty much pick and choose what we want to do.”

Stephanie Beuachamp, who discovered stenography as being cast as a court reporter on TV, is currently enrolled at Plaza College. Photo via Plaza College

This particular court reporter’s week has added importance because of that shortage the entire industry is facing. Some courts have begun easing their experience requirements to get court reporters in the door more quickly.

“​​I was contacted by the two federal courts, Eastern District and Southern District, inviting my students to come in for an open house because they need reporters so badly," said Santucci.

The whole goal of the week is to try to draw more attention to the field and help fill gaps in the workforce.

“I think it's surprising to me that more people aren't doing it, that people just don't really know about it as a profession,” said Beauchamp, “I think that needs to change. I think it's a wonderful opportunity to really have a fulfilling and interesting career,” she said.

Court reporters don’t make the arguments in a courtroom or pass down decisions, but regardless, the trail can’t start without them.

“We do have a skill that not that many people have, so it bonds us together,” said Santucci. “It's a tight knit community.”

“This is a field where you come in, it's not like the other people are like, ‘Oh, you're going to take my job’ they're like, ‘Oh, no, please help me because I have so much work, I can't get it done,’” she added. “It's beautiful, it really is a beautiful community.”

Santucci hopes that programs and events like this week can help draw people to the profession.

National Court Reporters week is also being celebrated by New York’s court system.

“This being National Court Reporter’s week, we are focusing on our highly skilled corps of court reporters across the State – who play a critical role within the New York State courts and justice system – for their hard work and commitment,” Lucian Chalfan, a spokesperson for the Office of Court Administration, said in a statement.

“We are constantly looking to hire court reporters as there is a national shortage along with the fact that many training schools have closed,” he added. “Any graduate you know who is interested in a fulfilling career in the courts may be hired as a provisional employee, working in the Criminal, Civil and Family Court with the potential of moving up to Supreme Court.”