In courtrooms across New York, court reporters are required to write down every word uttered during arraignments, hearings and trials.

But a shortage of the workers who transcribe legal proceedings could hamper the daily functioning of the state court system, which is already facing a backlog that still hasn’t fully rebounded from the COVID-19 pandemic. Technology proponents say digital recording software and artificial intelligence could plug the holes left behind by the shortage, but some longtime court reporters warn those tools could backfire.

There are more than 220 vacancies for state court reporters — about a fifth of the budgeted positions — according to data from the Office of Court Administration. The number of unfilled jobs could be even higher, because some court reporters work for district attorney’s offices and freelance agencies that aren’t included in the state’s numbers.

Court reporters play an essential role in the legal system. They create a written record of proceedings, which may later be reviewed by jurors deciding whether to convict a defendant, attorneys filing appeals, journalists covering newsworthy trials and U.S. Supreme Court justices weighing whether someone’s constitutional rights have been violated. Hearings and trials literally can’t go on without them.

The shortage — which has also affected legal systems outside New York — poses a threat to the day-to-day operations of both civil and criminal courts. Court officials and local educators have boasted of the profession’s benefits and eased the hiring barriers in hopes that more people will go through training and apply for open jobs. A lack of court reporters means those who are working are spread thin, slowing down the system, said Karen Santucci, court reporting program director at Plaza College in Queens.

“We have such a great need,” she said in an interview.

Plaza College is the only school in New York City with a court reporter training program approved by the National Court Reporters Association — and one of only about 20 nationwide. Santucci said the trend toward four-year college degrees has pushed away many potential candidates, because court reporting programs typically award associate’s degrees. She said longtime reporters are also retiring at a higher rate than new ones are joining the profession.

Last December, New York launched a trainee program that makes it easier for new court reporters to launch their careers. Santucci said the trainees receive some coaching on the job, instead of having to pass a test. After a year, they can become fully fledged court reporters and receive a pay boost. The goal is to bring more people into the profession and fill vacancies more quickly.

The state has hired just 13 court reporter trainees so far, Office of Court Administration data show. Santucci said it’s difficult to recruit, because so few people even know about the profession.

“Unless people go to court and they’re sitting on a trial, they’ll see the court reporter,” she said. “Otherwise they don’t even know the job exists.”

‘I want to do her job’

Katherine O’Hara said her recent career switch to court reporting was sparked by a visit to court after she received a ticket in her 20s.

“When I went to see the judge, I saw the stenographer sitting there and I said, ‘I want to do her job,’ because it looked like so much fun,” she said.

O’Hara didn’t apply right away. She said she spent years working in another profession before she decided to get her court reporting degree so she could have more consistent work hours while raising her kids. The pay and benefits were also enticing, she said.

The starting salary for state court reporter trainees is nearly $78,000 and increases to about $87,000 once they complete their year of practice, with cost of living bumps for those living in the New York City metro area and the lower Hudson Valley, according to the Office of Court Administration. Over time, court reporters can earn more than six figures. They also charge extra for orders of transcripts, which attorneys, journalists or others seeking a record of a court case may want to buy. Those who work in the state system receive a pension.

O’Hara said it took time to train her fingers to move fast enough for the job. Court reporters are required to write at a speed of 225 words per minute to graduate. She remembered practicing on her stenography machine late into the night, after putting her kids to sleep. For about a year, O’Hara said, she was stuck at 120 words per minute.

The average typing speed is about 40 words per minute, according to the American Society of Administrative Professionals. Many court reporters “stroke” in shorthand on a stenography machine, hitting multiple keys at the same time, like playing chords on a piano.

“I would just stay up and try to pass the plateau,” she said.

O’Hara graduated in 2022 and now works in the Queens County Family Court, preserving the record for adoptions, custody orders and juvenile delinquency cases.

Future uncertain with the advent of technology

As technology for audio recording and digital transcription advances, some court reporters have voiced skepticism about whether their profession could be aided — or even replaced — by technology. Some courts across the country have started to use technology to supplement the work of human court reporters, including Florida, South Carolina and Kentucky.

Kristin Anderson, president of the National Court Reporters Association, said court reporting requires a human touch.

She said digital gadgets can’t put people at ease when they’re anxious to testify, like she does, or make sure that all the exhibits for a trial are labeled correctly. Anderson also said that computers can struggle to decipher people who speak quietly or have an accent. Court reporters are trained to ask people to repeat themselves if they can’t hear or understand what someone is saying, she said.

“When you don’t have that person, if you’re just running a software, and you’re not aware, that can really jeopardize the record,” she said.

Courts that rely on digital recordings of proceedings have also occasionally lost testimony to technological malfunctions, like when equipment failed to capture the audio of a 2010 hearing for a murder case in Jefferson County, Kentucky. The hearing had to be held a second time, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported.

The National Court Reporters Association published a 22-page white paper last fall outlining the potential ethical and legal issues that could emerge from the use of artificial intelligence in legal proceedings, including digital voice-to-text transcription. While court reporters should not shy from technological advancement, the paper argued, artificial intelligence is imperfect and requires guardrails.

Brandon Greenblatt, CEO of the court reporting company Remote Legal, said he expects people will always be needed to harness whatever technological tools are available at any given time. But he said digital reporting and artificial intelligence can help court reporters to work more quickly and prevent travel costs for those who can work from home. He sees technology as key to addressing the shortage of court reporters.

“Something’s got to give,” Greenblatt said. “I think there’s going to be definitely a need to embrace technology.”