Pennsylvania Court Reporters Association

Your Board wants to hear from you to help us plan better to suit your needs.

What are your thoughts for letting voice writers into our association? Should voice writers be allowed in as associate members or as full reporting members?

Just my opinion, but I think voice writers should be allowed as full members. They are court reporters. They use a different part of their body to produce the record. We use our hands; they use their voice. That's the only difference.

Associate membership should be for the folks that are not actual court reporters such as vendors or a teacher of CR or even an attorney. But why even bother having voice writers join us if they can't be full members.

Lillian

In my personal experience, most voice writers are experienced court reporters who have for medical reasons had to give up machine writing.
I feel a reporter who has paid their dues, so to speak, as a machine writer for part of their career absolutely deserves to be included in any organization that is beneficial to reporters as a whole.
That being said, I hope those who are new to the field and start their career in voice writing take any and all opportunities to expand their knowledge of the field and exude the responsibility and professionalism that it carries, thus making a wonderful addition to our profession.
Maureen Broderick, RPR, Philadelphia

Nicely said, Maureen!

Lillian

Change is always painful - even positive change.

Overall, the court reporting profession has responded admirably to the challenges of technology. Most of us are proficient with computers beyond the mere editing functions of our individual software packages, and many of us are willing and able to provide realtime.

Yet we resist accepting the reality that the next step in the progression of technology - voice recognition software - exists and is being successfully utilized. It's too frightening to acknowledge that we have competent competition.

The ability to accurately memorialize legal proceedings and produce a transcript in a timely manner is what sets humans - whether pen, machine or voice writers - apart from analog and digital recording devices.

We are guardians of the record. Voice writers are guardians of the record. We consider ourselves professionals. I'm certain voice writers consider themselves professionals.

We share a common goal, merely a different way of achieving that goal. If we also share common values regarding the manner in which we perform our solemn duties to be guardians of the record, then we should extend to voice writers the privilege of full membership in our organization.

I am a voice writer and am new to the Philadelphia area. I was employed as an Official Court Reporter for the Honorable Neal W. Dickert for 5 years in Augusta, Georgia. I was wondering if your association has made a decision yet in reference to allowing VOICE WRITERS into your association? I am having a horrible time finding work here and wondered if anyone knew of any Court or firm that would hire a verbatim reporter?! Please feel free to e-mail me back with any info. I appreciate all of the responses to the initial inquiry. I think if we ALL come together, we can only get BETTER!!!
April Smith CCR, CVR This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it