5 Characteristics Of A Quality Court Reporter
Five Characteristics of a Quality Court Reporter
When looking to employ a quality court reporter, there are a number of key characteristics to keep in mind. A court reporter should be able to perform the tasks of his or her profession accurately, of course, but there are a number of intangibles to look for when making the ultimate critical hiring decision. Court reporting can be a tough career, but there are a few traits that set the paramount court reporter above the rest. They include:
- Concentration
- Organization
- Flexibility
- Maturity
- Promptness
A first-class court reporter needs to concentrate on the task at hand and not allow outside distractions to get in the way of hearing the proceedings and making a precise record of them. Quality court reporting requires concentration on the minute details of each legal proceeding to ensure that a comprehensive and concise legal account has been taken, free of inaccuracy or omission. A court reporter with exceptional concentration skills is ahead of the game.
Organization
Learning to use the stenotype machine, filing documents, and organizing a workspace all require excellent organization skills from a court reporter. Many people are depending on a careful record of legal proceedings, so organization is of the essence in order to keep various legal items from becoming misplaced.
Flexibility
Most court reporting jobs take place in a standard courtroom during business hours, but some proceedings may take place after-hours in diverse locales. For this reason, flexibility is important in a court reporter. A court reporter that sets unyielding hours and location limits on oneself will likely miss out on a veritable bounty of work and will not prove as essential to his or her employer.
Maturity
Maturity is an important character trait in court reporting because of some of the subject matter that may be covered in transcribing various legal proceedings and because of the basic maturity needed to handle the varying duties of the occupation. A court reporter needs to be able to keep his or her cool during the task at hand in order to take an exact and emotion-free record of the events.
Promptness
The importance of punctuality in a court reporter can never be taken too seriously. As a court reporter is a vital part of a legal proceeding, his or her timeliness is of the essence. If the proceedings are waiting for a court reporter, it clearly does not reflect well on the agency that hired the employee in the first place.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
