As posted to social media, it appears that Utah Senator John Johnson, working with Libertas, is moving to remove licensing for four professions, among them, court reporting.
Our sources say this is on the radar in Utah and that it’s been tabled for the next legislative session.
P.S.
As I admitted on social media, I’ve been on both sides of the licensing argument. As a young New York reporter I thought licensure was necessary because the rates were awful. As a still-young New York reporter, I just think, well, what’s the harm? They want to transform how we do things, cool. Stick me in a senior role and let someone else worry about the transcript. But then I feel guilty because I’ve just joined the “pull the ladder up behind me” crowd.
Of course the end goal would be perfection enough to do away with human oversight.
But we’re a long way off. We’ve learned that in the best of conditions with the best recording equipment money can buy it can be hard to accurately capture a moment in time. But “good enough” is also a threat to stenographer seats. I think we’re kidding ourselves to think otherwise. And make no mistake that it’s good enough. It’s outperformed me. I’ve outperformed it. Does it get better every day? Some seem to think so. But for those tense moments where something cannot be captured correctly, do you trust its judgment?
That’s what the market’s answering every day and a big part of why we’re still here in 2026.
I think I may have missed the memo on what’s “good enough.” What exactly has outperformed you? Do you mean digital recording with an underpaid transcriptionist? Could you direct me to a description of what this gear actually consists of?
I was speaking generally about the gear. But I know for a fact Rev can spit out a decent transcript in faster time than I can, likely dependent on the audio quality and service selected.
But as for what constitutes good enough, look around us. Decision makers every day are deciding it. It’s largely out of our hands absent the kind of collective action I preach. Association and union participation is probably the way to go there. But you still need people that will be advocates at the tops of those organizations, or else you kind of end up with something that manages itself but doesn’t grow with the needs of its members.
Nice post. Out here in the old world, in a 10 day arbitration I was confirmed with my longstanding client, with very demanding standards: Same night delivery of final transcripts, full realtime for all participants, fairly technical, a British law firm representing the other side, this firm was pushing their AI based “court reporting” firm who recently did a multimillion raise. I lost the assignment to the AI firm, looking for feedback. If my client agrees that it was “good enough” I’ll let you know. I think this would be honest market feedback. Just a thought
Let us know!
I’m firmly in the licensure camp but only if the states that require licensure provide the means to properly police such licensure. In Illinois that component is not in place, which is why we have licensed CSRs while unlicensed digitals “practice” with impunity. As a result, those licensed individuals here wonder what having a license to practice even means. We need to change the language in our legislation to indicate exactly who is authorized to provide court reporting services in our state. I encourage CSRs in Illinois to contact their state legislators to discuss this very important issue.