Expect the Unexpected

Yesterday I was scheduled for more internship hours with a court reporter I frequently shadow. I thought it would be quick two hour depo with nothing particularly out of the ordinary. Perhaps that was my first mistake of the day. After all, even after the brief time I have spent interning, I’ve already discovered that you just really never know what you are going to walk into. I guess for a brief nanosecond (or maybe longer) that little tidbit of knowledge somehow escaped my head. So 7 1/2 hours later I realized two things: 1.) I wasn’t making my 2:30 appointment and 2.) Don’t forget to plug your computer in.

One at a time, please!

I sat in on a depo yesterday that, to be honest, drove me a little bit bonkers. The deponent refused to answer questions verbally, but rather repeatedly tried to respond with nods and grunts instead. The attorneys were constantly asking her, "Was that a yes?" or "Was that a no?". She must have been gently reminded a million times to please wait until the question was completely asked before answering, or to speak clearly using actual words when she responded. This was a court reporter's nightmare. In addition, one of the attorneys was really soft spoken and so listening for his objections proved a little challenging, especially since it was just one more thing to worry about in the mix of all these constant interjections. All in all, it was a classic case of too many people speaking at once or cutting each other off mid-sentence. By the end, everyone's little nuances were starting to drive me completely nutty. The court reporter did interject only once out of necessity, and handled the entire experience in stride (probably thanks to her 30 plus years of experience.) I myself wanted to interject and yell, "Hey lady, try speaking with some actual words!!!! And everyone, please, just one at a time!" Of course, I refrained. Instead, I sat quietly taking down, as best I could, everything that was being spoken, and quietly thanking God that for this very day it wasn't me who was responsible for creating the official record.

Chronicles of a Court Reporting Intern - Part 3

Up to this point, my internship hours have been primarily split between shadowing with a local freelance firm doing depositions, and shadowing at the federal courthouse. After spending time in both environments, I've discovered I really love the courthouse. You might remember my earlier post where I mentioned perhaps a job as an official would be my least likely choice. Obviously, I was surprised to discover that I actually really love the court environment. The variety of things you see and hear are fascinating, and I really enjoy experiencing the judicial process at work, especially from start to finish. Although I have sat in on a variety of hearings, it has been trials that really seem to fascinate me.

My most memorable experience at the courthouse happened on a day I was originally supposed to shadow my mentor. She unexpectedly became ill and, as a result, she made last minute made arrangements for me to shadow a different reporter. Several trials were scheduled to start that day, and as a result, the security line was quite lengthy due to a heavy influx of potential jurors. Consequently, I didn’t make it in time to go with my arranged replacement reporter. When I finally arrived at the CR offices, the team of reporters was nice enough to help me find another trial to sit in on. It just so happened to be a copyright case with eight attorneys that had also ordered realtime services. So I hurried off, following a very well-known reporter in the court reporting field, to sit in on the jury selection and opening statements. For the sake of privacy, I will merely dub this reporter, the Queen of Realtime, a title which is most fitting.

As you can imagine, it was a real challenge for me to keep all eight attorneys straight. Plus, adding voir dire on top of this made the very start of this day a little more “fun” than I had anticipated. I spent the first half of the day entirely confused by which attorney was which and I quickly realized I needed to practice my speaker identifications a bit more aggressively. The material of the case was also extremely thick and tedious, and the pace quick and rapid. I was having to stroke out a lot of words merely because of the nature of the material. My hands and arms were tired, but somehow the resident Queen of Realtime was busy making it look so easy and effortless.

Since I was sitting next to the law clerk who also had a computer screen with a realtime feed, I was able to glance over occasionally and see just how perfectly she was writing. I found my own screen full of red untranslates and mistrokes. How was she so darn good at this? I felt like my arms were about to fall off and my mind was starting to become numb from having to think so hard. I immediately remembered the valued advice from a reporter I had met about six months prior. He had advised me to invest in monthly massages. All of the sudden I was starting to see why he would say that. Again, I found myself wishing I had been practicing my speaker designations a little more ardently.

The day proved extremely challenging and exhausting, but I truly enjoyed the experience. Later, my mentor contacted me and asked if I had been scared off by the challenging day. We both enjoyed a good laugh over what I had been thrown into. (I have found that reporters are often quite careful to select hearings and depos that will not be too terribly overwhelming or difficult for a student.) Ironically, I never felt intimidated or scared at all. Maybe I was foolishly naive not to realize how extremely difficult it was, but I loved the challenge and, as always, I loved seeing the legal process first hand. To add icing to my court reporting cake, the intense seven hour courtroom workout proved very helpful. The following day was test marathon, and I surprisingly (or perhaps maybe not so surprisingly) passed both my 200 Q&A speed tests.

Chronicles of a Court Reporting Intern - Part 2

I’m a little bummed I have yet to shadow any CART providers. Although it has not yet worked out, I have had the opportunity of talking and spending time with several reporters who do provide CART services. I’ve decided I will just consider this as more of an instructional type of interning. Yes, perhaps this is a slight bend in the rules, but the wealth of knowledge that they have shared with me has been invaluable and extremely insightful, so I say it's okay.

For my non-court reporting friends, CART is simply an assistive technology which allows more effective communication for individuals with a hearing impairment. For instance, say an individual has a hearing impairment and is enrolled in college. Thanks to the Americans with Disabilities Act, they have the right to request assistance, thus, enter a CART provider. A CART provider would attend class with the student, and using the same “court reporting” skills, provide realtime services. In essence, they would translate every spoken word as it is being said, and their translation would be fed to a computer screen for the student. This is just one example of CART. There are obviously, other areas where CART services can be provided beyond the educational setting.

I've always loved the idea of doing something that really helps other. As someone who provides these services, you are really making a difference. It seems that it would be a very rewarding and satisfying job. I am very hopeful that at some point I will be able to sit in, and shadow a CART provider, as I'm sure this would give me an even better perspective. I am very fascinated by this area and have great deal of interest in it.

Chronicles of a Court Reporting Intern - Part 1

I have decided to do a small series of re-occurring posts chronicling some of my internship experiences. A recent essay requirement for school prompted me to simply segment these very thoughts out into a few blog posts. Obviously, many of these experiences and thoughts are backdated, but I hope you enjoy my ramblings all the same.

At the start of my internship, I found myself pretty unsure of what path I specifically wanted to pursue when it came to the world of court reporting. I have always been a little baffled that many of my peers seem to have a really strong idea of the direction they want to go in professionally, yet I just can't seem to pin down what it is that I want to do. Why is it I can't seem to make up my mind about what interests me most? I am prone to be somewhat indecisive, but seriously, how can I be this far along, and still have no clue? Too many options I tell you. Ironically, the variety of options is precisely one of the reasons that enticed me into the court reporting profession to begin with. Sure, I admit it. I was drawn in by the lure of flexible hours, the ability to work from home, and the promise of high pay. But I was equally drawn in by the variety of options available.

More often than not, when you tell people you are in school for court reporting they immediately think of "that person in the courtroom that types on that funny little machine." True, technically you could say that, and it is indeed one of the options you have once you have mastered the skill. Although, I'll be the first to tell you, it is a little more involved than that. It is, also, slightly annoying when people word it that way. It makes it sound so easy, yet if it were truly this easy, why, I ask, does court reporting have a 95% failure rate?! (I digress) In addition to being an official reporter, you also can be a CART provider, a broadcast captioner, or work as a freelance reporter. Upon enrolling in school, I had no clue what path really interested me most, but I was confident of one thing…it wasn’t the world of officialship.

As a random side note…I find it funny that the admissions department was quick to talk about all the various areas in which I could work, however, they failed to leave out all the little, nitty-gritty details about how much work, time, and dedication would really be necessary to advance to that magical speed of 225. Of course, had they told me that, I may have backed out right then and there, so it's probably best they didn’t take that route. I never consider myself to be the very driven type growing up. Thankfully, that is a trait I feel for the most part I have left behind. (Most likely, because I have found something that interests me and I am passionate about.) But I best get back on track. I feel a rabbit trail around the corner if I’m not careful.

Back to my thoughts on officialships. For some reason, since day one, I have had it stuck in my brain that I have zero desire to be an official reporter. The idea of going to court every day, and hearing all the crazy things that people have done seemed pretty undesirable, and I felt like it would just callous me in some weird way. Yes, you do hear a lot of crap. There are definitely some weird people out there that do some weird things. I have already found myself slightly desensitized and I'm not even working yet. But that's neither here nor there. I'm not quite sure whether it just seemed uninteresting to me, or intimidating, but nonetheless, these were my feelings and thoughts at the start of my internship. Funny how you make up some of these ideas based solely on your own preconceived notions. As a result of these preconceived ideas, I figured I would simply do a few court hours just for the sake of fulfilling a requirement but I already knew that it just wasn't for me. You can imagine how surprised I was to find that after spending much time interning, my thoughts about this have drastically changed. I won't get ahead of myself just yet, though. I will let you journey with me through my thought processes and experiences that led to this profound change of heart.

Lesson learned: Allowing preconceived notions dictate your destiny will only lock the doorway to opportunity.

My day in court

Yesterday I had the exciting opportunity to shadow my mentor, a court reporter at the Federal Courthouse here in Phoenix. The experience was amazing. Mondays are criminal sentencing day, so I spent the day sitting in on a variety of hearings that ranged from Reentry after deportation and assault with a deadly weapon to armed bank robbery and sexual assault. I also had two hearings that required an interpreter which I thought was really great to get acquainted with. It was a great experience and I feel like I learned a great deal.

Favorite Random Courthouse Room:
The marshal's shooting range in the basement of the building. (who know they even had one??)

Favorite Quote of the Day:
(From a convicted armed robber) "Your Honor, I am NOT a criminal. I am the nicest person you will ever meet."

Most difficult moment:
For one of the hearings, the defendant was in custody elsewhere and not present the in courtroom. He was teleconferenced in and had a very thick Iranian accent. I couldn't understand a word he was saying. Needless to say, the hearing was rather short, as it was quickly determined an interpreter would be necessary. The entire thing was actually pretty comical as it was very clear that most everyone (minus the court reporter) could hardly understand what he was saying. I was surprised how much the c.r. actually understood and was able to write. It was pretty ironic since the c.r. and I had just previously had a conversation about what things she still found difficult, and various accents was one of the things she had mentioned.

Most unexpected person that I met:
Marilyn Sanchez, last year's NCRA President. Didn't know she even worked in AZ.

What I've realized I most need to work on after spending the day in court:
Colloquy/ speaker identifications.



This is the view of the inside of the courthouse from the main entrance. The large circular room straight back is actually a court room that is used for only the most special cases.


Along this hall are all various court rooms which is where I spent my day.

I see a shadow

Sandra Day O'Connor United States Courthouse
Phoenix, AZ

As I prepare for my upcoming trip home to Arizona, I have also been busy taking care of some preparations related to school. Things such as scheduling my 160 mentor tests, a requirement to advance to the very last steno class requirement, as well as set up some face time with my mentor back in AZ while I am home. My AZ mentor, who is an official reporter for the Federal Courthouse in Phoenix, has graciously agreed to let me shadow her while I am home. I am extremely excited. This will be my virgin voyage into the long-awaited internship hours, and I can hardly wait to experience life in the courthouse.