Best Online Court Reporting Schools
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There are dozens of accredited, online court reporting schools. Find the right court reporting college for you & start working toward your degree today!

There are several highly respectable online court reporting schools available to you if this is a career path you're interested in. They will provide you with the necessary training and skills you need to become a full-fledged court reporter. Court reporting schools will also provide you with the certifications you need--or at least tell you how to get them--before you can join the professional real world ranks.

But before you run out and pay your tuition, you should probably take a moment to think over this field of work and decide if a court reporting degree is really what you want.

You need to see what kind of training is involved, what kinds of jobs are available, and what you'll need in your possession to do the job. A new career isn't something you just jump into headfirst. You need to do your homework first if you want to be a success in court reporting colleges.

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Becoming a court reporter isn't exactly easy--in fact, it's a fairly arduous program of training--but it won't take you a decade to complete, like some of the other careers open in the criminal justice world.

To become a novice voice writer, it will take you less than a year of training. And even to become a skilled real-time reporter, it will only take two years on average.

Most vocational and training schools will take you three to four years to complete, but many of them have you working in the field long before graduation.

While there are certainly some classroom-specific lessons to be learned, court reporting is primarily on-the-job training. You gain experience by doing the work.

Schools like the Academy of Court Reporting and the Court Reporting Institute of Houston know this, and that's why they work so extensively with externships and job placement.

Court reporting isn't an incredibly easy task, but as long as you have the necessary determination, focus, and will, you can find success in the profession.

Court Reporter Job

The court reporter's job is to transcribe--in real-time--the conversations being held in a court of law. The words exchanged between the defense, the prosecution, the judge, the witnesses, and anyone else who speaks in an official capacity are a matter of record and need to be preserved. And it's the court reporter's duty to preserve them.

But there's more to the job than all that. You will also have the opportunity to type pre-trial depositions, transcribe proceedings in real time for the hearing impaired, or provide text for live streaming websites. There are more jobs for the court reporter than you might have thought.

There are also more jobs for the court reporter than there are court reporters to do them. This is a wide open job market that has plenty of security.

The training can be fairly rigorous, but it won't take nearly as long as it does for other positions within the world of criminal justice.

And when you get through your education (and you can do that by attending a campus or online court reporting school) and out into the real world of court reporting, the rewards are plenty. The average income of a court reporter ranges from $35,000 to $70,000 per year.

Academy of Court Reporting

Unlike other single-focus court reporting schools like the Court Reporting Institute of Houston, the Academy has many different programs available for a variety of careers in the criminal justice field.

Along with court reporting, the Academy offers instruction in security and investigation, legal office support, and medical office assistance.

With such a wide variety of programs available at such a small school, you might think that they're spreading themselves too thin. On the contrary, the Academy of Court Reporting is one of the nation's highest regarded schools of its kind. The faculty and administration at the Academy isn't just focused on teaching you the tricks of the reporting trade--they're also interested in your future. At the Academy, you will have the opportunity to participate in externships, allowing you the chance to see what the real world of the court reporting profession is like.

While there are plenty of online court reporting schools, the Academy of Corut Reporting is one of the best campus schools for you to obtain a court reporting degree.

Court Reporting Supplies

There are a lot of different pieces of equipment you'll require when working as a court reporter--or even as a reporter in general. Many of these supplies will be provided by your employer, but if you're working as a freelance reporter, you may find yourself having to pick most of them up yourself.

And when it comes to supplies that are meant to protect your health, no matter who you work for, you need to make sure that you have them in stock.

The three main categories of court reporting supplies are:

Basic - The most basic element of your court reporter supplies is the steno writer, which is what you do most of your work on. Other essential gear includes stenographer pads, headphones, media storage devices, and CAT software.

Ergonomic - Some of the most important equipment you'll own, these pads, cushions, wraps, and gloves will help you take care of your back, wrists, fingers, shoulders, and neck.

Miscellaneous - There are other court reporting supplies which may not be as necessary as the others, but still worth checking out: portable laptop stand, portable speakers, omni-directional microphones, etc.

Court Reporting Institute of Houston

For over thirty years, the Court Reporting Institute has been one of the country's best and biggest schools of its kind. As far as online court reporter schools go, it's also one of the most highly recognized and accredited institutions in the country.

The Houston branch of the CRI opened in 2002, bringing in not just students from around the southern Texas region, but all over the world.

One of the reasons that the Court Reporting Institute of Houston is so highly thought of is that they dedicate one hundred percent of their time and focus to students of stenography and reporting. If you don't attend an online court reporting school, the Court Reporting Institute of Houston is a fantastic option.

Most schools of this kind offer various other programs, aside from court reporting, to draw in more students (and, therefore, more revenue). The Court Reporting Institute of Houston, on the other hand, only offers a single program: