Guest Post: Why We’re Betting on Human Court Reporters in the Age of AI

Why We’re Betting on Human Court Reporters in the Age of AI

By Lindsay Stoker, CA CSR, RDR, CRR, CRC

At Filevine’s recent California webinar on the future of court reporting, I opened with a simple, unapologetic truth: “The record’s integrity is sacred, and reporter excellence is what protects it.”

Court reporters are being pushed out of their own industry by AI tools that are misrepresented and under-regulated. The enemy isn’t the tools themselves, it’s greed: deployed to cut corners and replace professional expertise with cheap inputs and ship the “savings” upstairs. Profit-first; standard-last. The profession I’ve dedicated 20 years to is being quietly strip-mined and resold with a sticker that reads “innovation.”

I joined Filevine as their Court Reporter in Charge to make sure the standards I’ve defended for two decades are built into the next generation.

What Filevine Is (and Isn’t)

Filevine is a software platform used by approximately 6,000 law firms to manage cases and conduct depositions in the same system. It handles scheduling, hosting, exhibits, realtime preview, analysis, and transcript delivery, while a licensed California court reporter owns and certifies the record. That line isn’t blurred; it’s enforced.

At Filevine, compliance comes first and we follow the law every time. Our processes are built to align with California’s Code of Civil Procedure Section §2025 and Business & Professions Code §8051. My role as the Court Reporter in Charge means there’s a single point of accountability for standards and sign-off. If the record is challenged, we answer with certified transcripts, produced under state law, by licensed professionals who were in the proceeding.

(A note on national practices: Filevine operates in states across the U.S., and the rules for court reporting vary widely. In California, we follow strict state law requirements. In states where digital reporting is legal and widely accepted, we offer compliant solutions that meet relentlessly high quality standards, upon stipulation by all parties, and only on prior notice – no steno-to-digital bait-and-switch. The record’s integrity starts with knowing who’s behind it, and our clients always know.)

Greed Is the Threat, Not AI

Christopher Day’s article, “Artificial Intelligence in Court Reporting: An October 2025 White Paper Generated By Artificial Intelligence,” maps the pyramid of the court reporting industry – low-value recordings at the base, bread-and-butter depos in the middle, and high-paying certified realtime at the top. As Day warns, “Somewhere along the line we convinced ourselves it was okay to give up most of the pyramid…Eventually all you have is realtime.”

The play he describes is simple: Hollow out the base by punting recordings and transcription of exhibits to AI tools and legal transcribers, move the goalposts in the middle by normalizing inferior shortcuts, then desperate novice “realtime” providers flood the zone at the top –consumers get duped, and the pros take the pay cut. Margin flows up, standards flow down. Students lose appropriate and viable paid on-ramps, schools close, and the profession gets hollowed out. AI isn’t the enemy; greed is. The “innovation” pitch is the oldest play in the book in a new hoodie: downgrade skill, cheapen inputs, move profits up.

How We Solve The Pyramid Problem

Big-box agencies make their money by capitalizing on your labor, so their incentives push them to swap certified reporters for cheap alternatives. We don’t. We make money selling software and our revenue comes from the platform, not from making money on you. The economics thus run the other way: keep a licensed CSR in the chair, pay market-leading rates with 72-hour payouts, and offer bonuses to reporters for client referrals. Our software-first model gives the pyramid back to reporters: we don’t have to hollow out the middle to hit agency margins, and we never have to pretend a machine can replace you.

We don’t play games with your business. Reporters can always sell certified realtime and rough drafts. Our AI-generated realtime insights and rough draft products are always clearly labeled, and when precision matters, clients upgrade to a certified reporter realtime or rough product. Greed blurs the lines – we re-draw them and pay the reporter for them.

The Stakes

The industry is eating itself from the bottom up. If we let cheap shortcuts replace real training and standards, there won’t be a profession left to fight for, just broken records and court challenges.

We’re not sitting back while that happens. Filevine is rebuilding the pyramid: certified transcripts by licensed CSRs, industry-leading rates, payouts in 72 hours, clearly-labeled AI products, and never, ever using your work to train a model. This isn’t innovation dressed up as disruption: It’s accountability, ownership, and standards backed by actual humans.

You want to fix this? Start by putting professionals back at the center. That’s the only future worth betting on.

Disclaimer: The content of this publication reflects my personal opinions and is provided for informational purposes only. It does not constitute the official position of my employer, clients, or affiliates.

Addendum (by Chris Day):

The original PDF is available for download here:

Why We’re Betting on Human Court Reporters in the Age of AI – Google Docs Download

I look forward to more guest writers! Thank you, Lindsay.

Happy Thanksgiving to all that celebrate.

(As of launch there are some issues with the plain text version of this article I am trying to fix on the website. Please be patient.)

Veritext: Our Digital Reporters Provide Realtime…

The statement source link is found here.

We were all told realtime is the future, realtime is valuable, realtime is job security. Manufacturers, agencies, associations — everybody knew realtime was king. There were only fringe idiots like that Christopher Day guy who pointed out that if you trade away all the non-realtime work to the digital folks then the realtime reporters become more easily replaceable by virtue of having no political or pushback power. Everyone pointed and laughed at his stupid ideas and that was the end of that.

Well now I’m showing you in print that they intend to equalize you with digital court reporting. Stenograph had also made public statements that indicated as much.

I read up on enough law, science, and business to put these allegations in print and make it easy to Google the court reporter shortage fraud / Veritext fraud. The corporate fraudsters didn’t really have an answer for it. They got caught with their pants down, gave up on Speech-to-Text Institute, and ran over to STAR.

My position is growing stronger with time. My current understanding of defamation law is that pretty much anything in my state published over a year ago can never be challenged. That significantly diminishes my formerly overblown fear of a BS lawsuit. These companies have allowed publication of things that describe their fraud and lies to the public for over two years.

Which also means we’ve entered a period in court reporting history where the largest court reporting firm in the country was accused of fraud and didn’t care enough about its reputation among stenographers enough to do or say anything about it in the middle of what it outwardly professed as a massive shortage. Doesn’t seem to make much sense, does it? I wonder who could have seen this coming…

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.

Addendum:

A Stenonymous reader gave me permission to repost their social media post.

– – –

After this post was launched, a person claiming to work in Veritext sales wrote to me, in pertinent part,

“Hi Christopher. I work for Veritext in sales. Good morning. In re your most recent post about DRs providing real-time, I can assure you of the following:

Veritext’s technology, since our DR software/hardware implementation is proprietary, as of today is not capable of providing real-time.
As someone who works in sales, I can assure that I nor any of my colleagues are telling attorneys that DRs can provide real-time. First, it’s not true and second the attorneys who want real-time also tend to want stenographers.

I cannot speak to why the website says that, but I’d imagine it was either put together by someone high up on totem pole who knows very little about the industry, or a third-party who knows even less.

Overall, your concerns about real-time being possible via DRs are real—it’s just the nature of technology. However, as of today, it’s not possible nor are we actively selling a service that can’t be provided.”

PSA: Why Realtimers Need to Defend Non-Realtimers

Something that comes up very, very often is “realtime is safe.” “There will always be a need for good realtime.” These things basically allow some realtimers to kid themselves into believing they are irreplaceable. I’m going to rip the band-aid off here. If we lose the non-realtime work, realtime will cease to be good income. It may take a while, but my basis for saying that goes back to economics / supply and demand. Needless to say, if you’re one of the many realtimers that gives a damn, the vitriol isn’t directed at you.

At present, we have a field of about 30,000 people. About 2,000 are CRRs. In the event that non-realtime work is lost, it will create a situation where about 28,000 people have an incentive to lie and say they are realtime providers. Effectively, the supply of realtime writers will go from a few thousand to tens of thousands. What happens when the supply of something increases while demand remains the same? The price falls. We’re talking about 10x or 15x today’s supply. Even if you think I suck at math and it’s a third of that, that’s still 3-5x the supply. The rates are going to fall through the floor as a matter of economic reality. The agencies will coddle you and tell you how special you are right up until they slit your throat and send someone else to do your job for less.

I accept that this will be unpopular. Confirmation bias is a powerful thing. For the last two decades you’ve all been soaked with “realtime is the future,” “everyone must go realtime,” “realtime will always be in demand,” “the cream rises to the top.” And all of that is bullshit. We’re all better than digital. The cream didn’t rise to the top there, they just started replacing us. If anyone thinks for one second companies won’t start sending “okay” realtimers who agree to work for less over “super special realtimers,” while pocketing the difference, then this might be a really rude but necessary awakening. USL allegedly stole from one of its executives, for crying out loud! You think they won’t pull off a completely legal move that makes them more money?

If you think court reporters wouldn’t lie about their realtime status, think again. It was happening back when I started in 2010. The smart ones figured out they could beat the atrocious rates by claiming to be realtime. Needless to say, I wasn’t so smart. Now imagine a world where the rug has been pulled out from under thousands of people and their families, and all they have to do to keep their jobs is say “oh yeah, I’m realtime too.”

I believe in realtime. I think it should continue to be a specialty. I think it should continue to command good income. I also know there are a lot of damn good realtimers that are fighting, educating, and care about everyone. But for those sitting on the sideline assuming things will just work out for you because you worked so hard to get where you are, rethink it. When they’re ready to turn the faucet off on you, you don’t get advanced notice.

Will they, though? Are you really sure? Do you have it in writing?

Lawyers don’t play this game. When the robots came for their “beloved” traffic court they fought back. They don’t throw those lawyers under the bus and say “the cream rises to the top, so sad for you.” And this is why this post is a little indignant. We’re the only ninnies that go around saying “yes, please take food off everyone else’s plate, but when you get to me, I know you’ll reward my loyalty with a second helping.”

TKPWHRUBG

Learn To Caption – Real Realtime by Anissa

So I received an email from and have read at least two testimonials about Learn To Caption. I feel it is important to promote all educational materials. I’ve extensively promoted the free basic learning materials at OpenSteno so now that I see something popping up and positioning itself to teach working reporters captioning, realtime, and possibly CART, I want it to be out there.

In New York City I’m told there’s a devastating need for CART providers. There are so many deaf or hard of hearing people that need the services of a professional CART writer that it’s not funny. But I am a true believer that the more we get the word out there, the more we can get people to be what’s coined Real Realtime. Though I first saw the phrase used by MaryAnn Payonk as far back as 2011, Anissa’s materials say that’s what she’s teaching people to be, so if you want to get Real Realtime give it a shot and feel free to comment about it here.

Am not in any way affiliated with Anissa.