How to become a court reporter

The job, the school, the money, the machine, the license. What is known, with the source next to it, and what is argued about, with both sides.

The work

Two main settings. An official reporter is employed by a court and sits in the courtroom. A freelance reporter works through agencies and takes depositions in law offices. Both produce the transcript, the certified written record. The same skill also pays as realtime captioning and as CART for deaf and hard-of-hearing people, which many reporters move into later. Terms are in the glossary.

The money and the jobs

The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks court reporters and simultaneous captioners as one occupation. Its Occupational Outlook Handbook, checked on 2026-11-08, states:

• Median annual pay of $72,420 in May 2025 ($34.82 an hour).
• About 19,900 jobs in 2025.
• Employment projected to show little or no change from 2025 to 2035.
• Typical entry education: a postsecondary nondegree award. Training: short-term on the job.

Median means half earn more and half less; official reporters in large court systems and realtime-certified freelancers are the ones above it. Pay by state will get its own page in the careers section.

The shortage, honestly

The number everyone quotes comes from a 2013 to 2014 study NCRA commissioned from Ducker Worldwide, which projected a shortfall of about 5,500 reporters by 2018 as retirements outran new graduates. That study is now more than a decade old. Since then courts in several states have published statements about unfilled reporter positions and have turned to digital recording for some proceedings, while others argue the shortage is overstated. The BLS projection of flat employment counts positions, not the retirements that have to be replaced to keep them filled. Read the sources below and weigh it yourself; what is not in dispute is that courts still certify stenographic reporters, pay them, and in many places cannot hire enough of them.

School and how long it takes

Court reporting programs run at community colleges, proprietary schools and online. The sequence is the same everywhere: theory first (learning the keyboard and a named theory, a matter of months), then speed building (daily timed dictation at rising speeds) until you pass the exam speeds, usually 225 words per minute on testimony. Programs list two to three years; real finishing time depends on daily practice, and the first year is where most students who quit, quit. Our schools directory is in progress.

Theory, briefly

Steno is phonetic and chorded: you press several keys at once and one press writes a syllable, a word or a whole phrase. The keys sit in a fixed order, and every stroke is read in that order.

The machine moment

A professional steno writer costs several thousand dollars, and a student does not need one on day one. Schools lend or lease student machines, and a phone or tablet steno keyboard covers theory practice. Most students commit to a writer a few months in, once they know they are staying. We call that the machine moment, and the machines page (in progress) compares the options.

Certification and licensing

Two different things. A certification (NCRA's RPR is the usual first one) comes from a professional association by exam. A license comes from a state, and some states require one, some do not, and many accept the RPR in place of their own test. See certifications for the exam speeds and licensing by state for your state's rule.

A plain checklist

1. Check your state's licensing page so you know the exam you are aiming at.
2. Pick a program and a theory. Ask the school its completion rate and how students practice between classes.
3. Practice daily from the first week; speed comes from hours, not talent.
4. Buy the writer when you know you are staying.
5. Sit the RPR (or your state's exam) leg by leg as you reach each speed.

Disclosure: Inenvi, Inc., which publishes this site, makes the StenoDeck phone steno keyboard. It is one way to practice theory before the machine moment; it is not required for anything on this page.