Digital reporting offers solution to stenographer shortage to ensure equal access to justice for all litigants

April 16, 2024 – A new grassroots advocacy group, the Coalition to Capture the Record, today launched its nationwide effort to expand access to digital court reporting services.

In recent years, a significant shortage of stenographers has threatened to disrupt a key function of the legal system’s operations and create delays in litigation schedules. Expanding the reporting system to include the use of digital reporting offers an immediate solution to this critical shortage that will alleviate the gaps and ensure equal access to justice.

A court reporter is responsible for creating a full verbatim record of all testimony presented in a trial court, hearing, deposition or other legal proceeding. Reporters swear in witnesses, capture the verbatim testimony, handle exhibits, manage the proceedings to ensure that the record is effectively captured and certify that the record has been captured accurately.

Traditionally, courts and litigants have used stenographers to transcribe proceedings. These specially trained professionals use a stenotype keyboard to write shorthand, but the growing labor shortage is outpacing demand for verbatim records of proceedings.

Digital reporting involves using skilled professionals and state-of-the-art recording systems and software to capture an accurate, verbatim record of the legal proceedings. By expanding the methods of capture to the court reporter pool, it allows for a more diverse group of highly trained professionals to capture the record. Like stenographers, digital reporters are skilled professionals who undergo extensive training and certification to master the professional techniques needed to ensure a verbatim record.

Through collaboration with traditional stenographers, this initiative will not only address the immediate challenges posed by the stenographer shortage but also contribute to long-term accessibility in the justice system.

“Our coalition recognizes court reporters play a critical role in the justice system, yet a growing shortage of stenographers cannot keep pace with the increasing demand for creating verbatim records of legal proceedings,” said Paul Gaynor, spokesman for the Coalition to Capture the Record. “We believe that expanding the use of digital reporting offers an immediate solution to the shortage to ensure equal access to justice.”

With today’s launch, the Coalition to Capture the Record intends to create awareness of the gaps in the court reporting system and highlight the positive expansion of digital reporting services to alleviate these challenges for litigants.

To learn more about Coalition to Capture the Record and get involved, visit www.capturetherecord.com.

About the Coalition to Capture the Record
The Coalition to Capture the Record advocates for expanding access to digital reporting services—supplementing, not replacing, traditional stenography methods—and ushering in a new era of accessibility and collaboration in the justice system with a diversified pool of highly trained court reporting professionals to create the verbatim record.