#74 - Navigating the Confusion of Notary Requirements for Court Reporters

Welcome to the Court Reporter Podcast.

This is a space where one conversation can teach you more than years of school.

Because we talk about the real world of court reporting both on and off the record.

We zoom out to understand our role in the justice system, the responsibilities we carry, and how to navigate this profession with clarity, confidence and professionalism.

If you've ever felt like you were expected to just figure it out on your own, you're in the right place.

So we are in quarter one of 2026, where it's all about up leveling professionally and really getting to the bottom of the confusion and the frustration around notary law, CSR certifications across jurisdictions.

Now, if you're a court reporter again, chances are you didn't become a notary because you wanted to notarize documents.

So here we're going to kick off this miniseries with my initial thoughts reactions that came up for me the night that I took the test, the notary test that night.

It was December 23rd, the last opportunity to take the notary test.

It was snowing, it was a blizzard, but I was going for it.

I knew this was my last chance of 2025 to take the test and I didn't want to have to wait until the New Year.

I wanted to get it out of the way, especially after I had prepared so much a few hours to process what I had just been through, what I had just realized I was really maybe overanalyzing but just really thinking a lot about everything that I studied, everything that I prepared for and really just looking deeply into the issue at a fundamental, at a principal level.

So I did record a video on TikTok and if you are watching this on YouTube or on Spotify, you'll be able to see the video talking about how I felt and what I realized.

Just a summary of my feelings while it was fresh.

The day of, the night of it was like midnight after the exam.

So I just wanted to share this with you all on the podcast.

Here's the first episode and I going to play the video now.

Before I press play on this video I just want to preface this.

I don't want anyone to take this as complaining or blaming the system or pointing out like I want to bring it, always bring it back to reflecting within myself, seeing what I can do differently and being very solution oriented.

It was really just meant to reflect and to ask the community if they have any insights because I'm still learning and exploring this.

If any of you have listened to episode 57.

In that episode I interviewed Heather Hansen.

She was a trial attorney turned coach.

She's the author of the elegant how to Win Life's Trials Without Losing Yourself.

And I have this book I've been reading and one thing that really stuck with me was from chapter one.

I'm just going to read it so that everyone can understand where I'm coming from.

Okay?

Chapter one.

Don't just complain, Move.

It starts with a quote from with an anonymous quote.

The only thing complaining does is convince other people that you aren't in control.

Sometimes you find yourself surrounded by complaints.

I've found that the best thing to do in those situations is to move and perhaps even to sing.

A complaint without movement will get you nowhere.

When I was in high school, I was about 100 pounds overweight.

In general, I was happy, but I wanted to lose weight.

And there were days when I cried about not going to prom, not having a boyfriend, and feeling like I was missing out.

There were times I'd complain, but not often.

More often than not, you'd find me singing.

I just like to sing.

One day I was in the girls bathroom putting on my new Clinique Black Honey lip gloss and I thought I was alone.

So I was quietly singing.

While I didn't have a good voice, that lack never stopped me from singing in the car, at home, and anywhere.

I don't think someone will hear.

But there was someone in the last stall and she came out with a look of disdain.

I waited for her to make fun of me, my voice or my choice of song.

Broadway musical, not pop rock.

Instead she said, what do you have to be so happy about?

The question stopped me in my tracks.

I saw what she saw.

A teenage girl with no boyfriend, uncomfortable in her own skin and in the clothes she'd bought at Lane Bryant, a clothing store for plus sized women.

I didn't know how to answer her question.

What did I have to be so happy about?

And the bigger question for me was, did I sing because I was happy or was I happy because I sang?

Would complaining about my situation make things better or worse?

I saw myself from her perspective as and I didn't like what I saw.

So I chose not to stay there.

I lost the weight in college, gained some boyfriends, and years later I was a lawyer sitting at my desk covered with a pile of complaints and a Dictaphone.

My job was to answer the complaints, those legal filings that start a civil lawsuit.

Spending all of that time surrounded by complaints took its toll.

My perspective had changed and I had stopped singing and started complaining.

But I found the more I complained, the more I found to complain about.

Soon, though, I discovered that complaints weren't fatal.

They were just the beginning, the first step in the resolution of a lawsuit.

In my cases, the complaint had to be dealt with, and that meant something had to move.

A complaint had to be followed by discovery, questions, exploration.

If I stopped with the complaint, nothing happened, nothing changed, and there was no opportunity to see things from another perspective.

But once I started moving, new ideas showed themselves and I could see the complaints in a different way.

Movement changes perspective.

The same is true for you and for this episode and for the notary exploration and everything.

Okay, now that was just a comment I inserted, but I'm going to continue reading just one more paragraph.

If you surround yourself with complaints, complaints are all you can see.

You need to move to see past them.

Sometimes that means leaving your seat and stepping outside to take a walk and look at the complaint in a new way.

Other times, it means leaving a relationship that is no longer supporting your growth.

It can also mean something as simple as picking up the vacuum rather than complaining about the dirty floor.

Movement changes things.

I often think back to that moment in the bathroom.

What did I have to be so happy about?

Nothing, I guess.

But I was the type of child who chose to be happy, and that in itself is something to celebrate.

I saw songs where I could have seen complaints and made the decision to sing later.

As a lawyer, that way of looking at the world helped me to dig out of the pile of complaints that could have weighed me down.

You can see the world as full of complaints or full of song.

Remember, though, sometimes your perspective depends on where you are standing.

Move and things can change.

For most of us, complaining may actually cause more stress.

And the more you complain, the more inclined you are to complain.

Our brains create pathways, and by complaining, you are creating more and more complaining pathways.

If you're stuck in a rut that causes stress, sorry, you may actually be shrinking the hippocampus, the part of the brain that involves memory and learning.

When you move out of that rut, you can create a different pathway and gain a different perspective.

So, yes, I read this just to preface this episode with the fact that my asking exploratory questions is not.

It's not really meant to be, just complaining.

Like, I'm not stopping there.

It's really just exploring and asking questions to take the next step of filing a motion, so to speak.

Like making a movement, doing something about it, and inviting you all on the journey.

Okay, so here it goes.

Today, I just can't believe What I how much I realized, oh my gosh, I have a lot to to share, a lot to update you guys on.

Get ready for 2026.

Learning.

A lot of learning.

That's what there's going to be a lot of.

Love it.

Something that I'm on a mission to understand.

So let me ask you, maybe you guys understand it better than I do.

Why are court reporters required to be notaries?

The reason I started thinking about this is because I spent a considerable amount of precious time studying for this test.

I failed it the first time before working in the in the court system where you don't need your notary.

But.

I spent a considerable amount of time studying for this.

Traveling into the city, parking, paying for parking, getting fees for being eight minutes late to get my car.

So it was quite a day.

It was really adventurous.

I loved it.

But it really got me thinking because 20 out of the 40 questions I guessed on, I counted every single question that I didn't know the answer to and it was 50%.

And I was really thinking like I spent all day studying.

I was really trying to focus my studying on what was relevant for court reporters, which was not much.

So maybe that was my downfall.

Literally.

The test is 99.9%.

Maybe that's an exaggeration, but it feels like 99.9% not relevant for court reporters.

The only relevance that it has is that being a notary allows you to to administer oaths.

But guess what else allows you to administer oaths?

Being an officer of the court, which is not related to notarial law.

Notarial law is governed by the executive law, whereas court reporting authority officers of the court are governed by the cplr.

Completely different law.

So if our authority doesn't come from the notarial law to administer oaths as a court reporter, I mean, in court, the court officers administer oaths.

They are not notaries.

They do not have to take the notary test, they do not have to pass the notary test.

But yet they do the exact same thing we do.

Please raise your right hand.

Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth under penalty of perjury?

The authority to do that as a court reporter doesn't come from the notary.

From being a notary.

In some states they do specifically say that you have to be a notary.

In the law it says that.

But in the state of New York at this moment in time, it doesn't say that anywhere in the law.

It doesn't say that in the cplr, it doesn't Say that in the executive law, there's no crossover, there's no cross referencing.

I can't figure it out.

So that's my question for you.

Do you know why they say that court reporters in the state of New York have to have their notaries?

Because according to my research, no, we don't.

The only thing that the notary to be.

If I'm gonna be completely honest, the only thing that the notary test that studying for the notary test did for me was make me wonder if I'm.

If I'm in the wrong career or if I'm like.

It made me second guess my education and wonder where was I when I was supposed to be learning all these things and when am I going to apply these things?

When am I going to use these things?

Because to be honest, 99.9% is stuff that we don't do as court reporters, which means if you're not practicing it, you're just memorizing.

Memorizing it for like a moment.

And then if you're not actually doing it, you're just going to forget it.

Like, things take practice to remember.

And I genuinely want to be a good court reporter.

I genuinely want to understand my duties.

I genuinely want.

Genuinely want to know how to be compliant with the law.

I genuinely want to know what, when is it okay to do what and when is it not okay to do?

Like, I genuinely want to take tests, to be required to take tests that actually make me a better court reporter, not.

Not tests that make me learn about real estate and deeds and conveyances and conveyor belts and.

I'm sorry, conveyor belts?

Conveyances.

What is that even.

I mean, Mortgages, deeds.

I know, I know I'm overreacting, and this is just a part of the journey, I guess, but I just really wish that.

I really wish I lived in California where they really care about.

They really make sure that the court reporters know what they're doing and that the court reporters are required to be certified to get a CSR number to.

Just like, we don't have any requirements.

Like that in New York.

It's so ambiguous and vague.

Objection.

Vague and ambiguous.

I object to the state of New York's process of certifying court reporters because we're not certified, we're not licensed.

And I don't mean to expose myself.

I'm just saying, like, I want to be certified.

I want to be the best that I can be.

But being in a state where it's not required and they just like.

But I.

Okay, I'M gonna be determined.

I'm gonna be going to go back to my determination, and I'll decide for myself, not because it's required, but because I personally want to become a professional, compliant, seasoned, confident court reporter.

Yeah, that's what I'm gonna do.

But, I mean, who says we can't advocate for a better system, for a better test, for maybe a nationwide mandate that all court reporters should get licensed?

Maybe we should adopt something like what California has.

If you're in, let me know.

We can totally do this.