June 29 2012

New York’s Note Retention Requirements


According to the New York State Court Reporters Association, a freelance reporter should retain their notes for a time period set forth by a court order or statute, or for no less than 5 years.

For officials, the New York State Court Reporters Association’s website, has the following time periods for note retention listed for the following New York courts:
Family Court- 5 years.
Surrogate’s Court- 5 years.
City, Town and Village Courts (civil)- 2 years.
City, Town and Village Courts (criminal)- 10 years.
New York City only (vehicle/traffic/parking cases)- 2 years.
Supreme/County (civil)- 5 years.
Supreme/County (criminal)- 50 years.
Matrimonial stipulations of settlement involving real estate- 50 years.
Also, officials must reportedly apply for destruction approval before disposing of notes.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Plusone Linkedin Tumblr Email
June 21 2012

Stenspiration™

“Life is too short to spend your precious time trying to convince a person who wants to live in gloom and doom otherwise. Give lifting that person your best shot, but don’t hang around long enough for his or her bad attitude to pull you down. Instead, surround yourself with optimistic people.” -Zig Ziglar

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Plusone Linkedin Tumblr Email
June 20 2012

Requirements For Practicing Court Reporting In New York State

According to the New York State Court Reporting Association, there are no official license requirements for court reporting within New York State. However, reporters may voluntarily obtain licensing via the CSR.

Court reporters must be notary publics in order to swear in witnesses. The same is true for freelancers; although they may be given a grace period by agencies to become a notary.

The New York State Court Reporting Association also states that in order to freelance in New York State, a reporter must have completed a court reporting program and obtained a certificate of completion at 225 words per minute.

In order to gain an officialship, reporters must pass a civil service examination.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Plusone Linkedin Tumblr Email
June 19 2012

RPR Requirements

The RPR is a certification test given by the National Court Reporting Association.

The Registered Professional Reporter (RPR) examination consists of skills test and a written knowledge test. The written knowledge test is comprised of 105-110 questions that is based on the following four categories (with accompanying percentages of the questions):
Reporting (48%)
Transcript production (44%)
Operating practices (4%)
Professional issues and continuing education (4%)
The written knowledge test is graded on a scaled score, with a passing rate of 70%. This test has a completion time of 90 minutes.

The skills portion of the RPR is based on three testing areas which must each be passed with 95% accuracy with an allotted transcription time of 75 minutes for each category. The categories are as follows:
1) 180 wpm Lit
2) 200 wpm Jury Charge
3) 225 wpm Q & A

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Plusone Linkedin Tumblr Email