Capture every word said in a courtroom at over 200 words a minute. Two years of school, no degree needed.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$72,420
Lower tenth
$42,130
Top tenth
$130,560
The national median is $72,420 a year, and the bottom tenth start near $42,130. The survey covers court reporters and live captioners together. The spread is wide because transcript sales and freelance work sit on top of any salary.
About $42,000 to $55,000
First year, often freelancing depositions before landing a court seat
New reporters usually take deposition work from agencies while they build speed and confidence. An official court position with a steady salary normally comes later.
Paid per page on top of salary
Courts set a page rate and anyone who wants a copy pays for it
This is why the top tenth clears $130,000. An official reporter earns a salary for being in the room and then sells the written transcript to the lawyers who need it. A long trial can be worth thousands of pages.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a public community college program where one runs near you, a student shorthand machine at around $1,500, and the certification exam. The high end is a private court reporting school plus a professional machine at $4,000 and up. What the numbers hide is the dropout rate: the speed requirement stops a large share of students partway through, so budget for extra terms. File the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), since accredited programs take federal grants and loans, and expect continuing education fees every three years once you are working.
Fill in the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). Most accredited court reporting schools take federal grants and loans, and a Pell Grant can cover a large share of a community college bill.
Official court reporter
Salaried by a county, state or federal court, plus page rates for transcripts.
Freelance deposition reporter
Paid per job by an agency. You choose your workload and you pay your own taxes and insurance.
Broadcast captioner
Live captions for television and streaming. Work from home, often on a contract.
Communication access realtime translation
Live text for deaf and hard of hearing people in classrooms, meetings and courts.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Speed is the whole thing. The classes are short, the practice is long.
High school diploma or GED (General Educational Development certificate)
Grade 12
No degree is required for this career. English, grammar and typing are the useful preparation.
Court reporting program
2 to 4 years
An associate degree or certificate. The College of Court Reporting runs 7 semesters, about 28 months full time. Most of it is machine shorthand theory and daily speed building.
Hit the graduation speed
The hard part
You must pass dictation tests at 180 words a minute on literary material, 200 on a jury charge and 225 on two-voice testimony, at 95% accuracy. Many students take longer than the catalog says because of this step.
Certification
Weeks
Most states either require a state certificate, licensure, or the Registered Professional Reporter credential from the National Court Reporters Association. Check your own state before you enroll.
Start working
After certification
Usually freelance depositions first, then an official court seat when one opens.
English and grammar
You are producing a legal document. Punctuation changes meaning.
Keyboarding
Not the same keys, but the habit of accuracy at speed transfers.
Music
Reporters often say rhythm training helps with sustained speed work.
Anatomy or health science
Medical testimony is full of terms you have to spell correctly the first time.
There is no single national license. Some states, including California and Texas, require a state certificate or license with their own exam. Others accept the Registered Professional Reporter credential from the National Court Reporters Association, which is a written knowledge test plus three skills tests at 180, 200 and 225 words a minute. A few states regulate nothing and leave it to the court. Find out which kind your state is before you pick a school, because that decides which exam you train for.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Certified Realtime Reporter
A five-minute live test at 200 words a minute. Realtime reporters feed text to screens as people speak and charge more for it.
Certified Realtime Captioner
For broadcast and live captioning work. A workshop, a written test and a live test at 180 words a minute.
Registered Merit Reporter and Registered Diplomate Reporter
Higher speed and accuracy credentials that mark you as one of the fastest in the field.
Certified Legal Video Specialist
Lets you handle the video record of a deposition as well as the transcript.
A strong medical and legal vocabulary
Expert witnesses do not slow down for you.
Business sense
Freelance reporters are running a small business: invoicing, taxes, equipment and insurance.
A quiet home office
Transcript editing takes hours and captioning is done from home.
Voice writing
An alternative method using a mask and speech recognition instead of a steno machine. Accepted in some states, not all.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Arrive early, set up the machine and load the case dictionary with names and terms you expect. Then write everything: lawyers, witnesses, the judge, objections, the moments where two people talk at once and you have to stop them. Breaks are for marking exhibits. Afternoons or evenings go to editing what you wrote into a clean transcript, checking spellings and proofreading. Deadlines are fixed, and a rush order for an overnight transcript pays more and costs you the evening.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
A steno machine has around two dozen keys and you press several at once, writing whole syllables or words in one stroke. That is how a reporter keeps up with speech that would take hundreds of keystrokes on a normal keyboard.
To graduate you have to take down two people arguing at 225 words a minute with 95% accuracy. Ordinary conversation runs around 150. It is closer to a sport than a school subject, and it takes daily practice for years.
The captions scrolling under a live news broadcast or a sports game are often written by a trained stenographer in a home office, not generated by software. That branch of the field pays well and never requires you to sit in a courtroom.
If a case is appealed, the appeal is argued off the written transcript. What the reporter typed is what the higher court reads. That is why a reporter can interrupt a judge to ask a witness to repeat themselves.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise.