![]() ![]() Gast said they didn’t feel recording all court proceedings was the solution. Gast said he has been working on solutions with Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Susan Christensen, as well as others on the Court Reporter Utilization Committee that was formed and includes judges, court reporters and judicial staff. In those situations, a court reporter stays in Linn or Johnson, which have the busiest schedules, and reports remotely while the actual hearing is in a rural county. Schedulers usually take the court reporters assigned for juvenile court to fill in for district court - because juvenile proceedings can be audio recorded instead.Īnderson said courts have tried to ease some of the workloads by doing some remote hearings. Kellee Cortez, 6th Judicial District court administrator, said it’s a real challenge sometimes making schedules work with fewer reporters. “I can’t imagine what court administration does every day to make all the puzzle pieces fit,” Hyatt said. Two hearings were scheduled for 1:30 p.m., so she did one and the other judge and lawyers had to wait until she got done to start their hearing. Many times, court reporters are running between two different judges who may have hearings at the same time on different floors of the courthouse, Hyatt had a situation like that a few weeks ago. There may be “bursts” of faster speeds, but the natural breaks in speaking during a hearing or trial, such as questions and answers, allow the reporters to keep up, she added. People often talk faster than that, but the faster speeds aren’t sustained in reality like in the exam, McFall said. To receive certification, a shorthand reporter must pass a written exam and maintain 225 words a minute for five minutes, said McFall, who has been a courts reporter for 18 years. The reporters have shortcuts that allow them to write faster than on the QWERTY keyboard that is used for a computer or laptop. “It allows us to write multiple words with one stroke of the machine.” ![]() “We also use our specialized software program to build dictionaries of common words and phrases,” McFall said. “We write the words phonetically and then go back and correct the record.” “It’s a very unique job - a skill not everyone has or can do,” said Sarah Hyatt, court reporter with the 6th Judicial District, which includes Benton, Linn, Iowa, Johnson, Jones and Tama counties. Gast and others hoped that would attract more students, and it did have the largest enrollment for many years, with 48 students. The DMACC program was offered at the Newton campus, but in the fall the program went virtual. Gast said they may be lagging because they don’t have enough faculty. Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa and Black Hawk College in Moline, Ill., are working on programs but aren’t up and running yet. ![]() And we need that live reporting and depend on it for the appellate record.” “The district court has a large workload - it’s a hard job. “Even if a school did open, this problem can’t be solved quickly,” said Chicchelly, of Cedar Rapids, who previously was a 6th district judge for eight years. She thinks other states may have an advantage if they have more schools offering the program. Iowa Court of Appeals Judge Mary Chicchelly said the fact that there’s only one school in the state - Des Moines Area Community College - with a two-year real time/court reporting degree - has contributed to the problem. It takes two years to finish training and then students must pass a certification test - which they agree isn’t easy. State Court Administrator Bob Gast with the Iowa Judicial Branch told The Gazette the shortage continues because there haven’t been enough certified shorthand reporter graduates to replace retirees, and many who are working now are nearing retirement. Court reporters are the eyes and ears of the courtroom that judges, lawyers and litigants depend on every day. ![]() These positions are crucial to the judicial system because they are responsible for making an accurate, verbatim official record of trials and other court proceedings. CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) - Not many careers can guarantee job openings at any given time, but this one - described by employees as “interesting, challenging and fascinating” - has 33 openings in Iowa with an annual starting pay of nearly $56,000.Ĭourt reporters in Iowa and nationally are in high demand, but there aren’t enough people pursuing the career or not graduating fast enough to combat the crisis level shortage that Iowa courts have been experiencing for the last several years. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |