The court reporter shortage isn’t news to anyone in this industry. We’ve been living it, documenting it, and advocating around it for years. Proceedings are delayed. Judges and litigants alike are frustrated.
What is new is this: Texas lawmakers are officially studying it. And they want to hear from industry members.
What’s Happening
The Texas Legislature commissioned the Public Policy Research Institute at Texas A&M University to conduct an independent study on the stenographic court reporter shortage and other methods available to help fill the gap, including digital court reporting and voice writing.
One of the first steps the PPRI research team has taken is to distribute a survey to stakeholders across the Texas legal system and the broader court reporting industry. The findings will go directly to Texas lawmakers as they evaluate policy around court record capture.
This is not an industry poll. This is not an advocacy survey. This is legislatively mandated research, and the results will shape what policymakers see when they sit down to make decisions about the future of court record capture in Texas — and potentially beyond.
Why This Matters Beyond Texas
Texas is one of the largest legal systems in the country. What happens in Texas doesn’t stay in Texas.
When a state legislature of this size commissions independent research on other methods of capture and the findings demonstrate that digital and voice reporters are qualified, capable, and already filling the gap elsewhere — that data becomes a resource for advocates, lawmakers, and court administrators in every state grappling with the same shortage.
We have seen this dynamic play out before. Legislative research in one state creates a template — and a precedent — that travels. The Texas study has the potential to be a meaningful data point in the national conversation about method-neutral court reporting policy.
That’s why participation in this survey isn’t just a Texas issue. It’s an industry issue.
Who Should Take the Survey
The survey is designed for anyone with experience in or adjacent to legal record capture. That includes:
- Digital court reporters and voice writers
- Court administrators and judges who have worked with digital reporters
- Legal professionals — attorneys, paralegals, and firm administrators — who have retained digital or voice reporters
- Court reporting agency owners and managers who deploy digital reporters
- Educators and trainers in digital and voice reporting programs
- Anyone who has observed, evaluated, or relied on digital court reporting in a professional capacity
If your work touches the legal record and you have direct experience with digital or voice reporting, the researchers want to hear from you. The survey link can be shared broadly, and participation is not limited to Texas residents.
What to Expect
The survey is administered through Qualtrics, an established academic research platform. It is brief, straightforward, and designed to capture real-world experience and perspective on court record capture, including the stenographer shortage, its impacts, and the role of digital and voice writing methods in addressing it.
Your responses are collected by independent researchers at Texas A&M.
Answer honestly. Answer thoroughly. You may encounter some language or answer choices that don’t fully reflect how digital reporting is typically utilized or described. Please feel free to answer as best you can and use any open-ended sections to share your perspective more fully.
The value of this data depends on authentic, firsthand responses from people who actually do this work.
Take the Survey Now
The survey is live. The window is open. The more voices in the data, the more complete the picture Texas lawmakers will have when they sit down to evaluate policy.
If you support method-neutral court reporting — if you believe digital and voice reporters are a legitimate, qualified, and necessary part of the solution to the shortage — this is the moment to say so on the record.
Take the survey here: https://tamu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_71D87WI0cpQ59D8
And please share this post and the survey link with your colleagues, your networks, and anyone you know with experience in court record capture. Forward it to your professional associations. Drop it in your group chats. Share it on LinkedIn. The survey link can be distributed broadly, and every additional response strengthens the data.
This is a critical moment. Let’s make sure our community shows up for it.
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