93 | The Court Reporter Shortage: Is Hollywood Part of the Problem?

Who keeps the record?

We do.

Who walks in looking fabulous while making sure she's hurt?

I've stumbled upon what I think is the culprit to the nationwide shortage of court reporters.

And not only the culprit, in other words, the problem, but also the solution.

Let's talk about one of the most overlooked contributors to the nationwide court reporter shortage.

Hollywood.

It's a courthouse Runway.

Columns rise into the sky, every hallway.

The lawyers think they're ready, the witness thinks they're too.

But nobody is prepared for what this outfit's about to do.

The fact that court reporters have the front row seat to some of the craziest and weirdest and most interesting things that happen.

We witness such bizarre human interaction on.

The courthouse one way.

So, if you're new here, welcome.

I'm Bryn, your host.

I've been a court reporter for the past 10 years, working both as a freelancer and for two years, I was an official court reporter in the Supreme Court of the state of New York.

This podcast is all about court reporting and viewing life from the lens of a court reporter.

It's about communication, justice, professionalism, and protecting the record, as well as our mental bandwidth.

So my hope is that whether you're a student, a reporter, an attorney, or you're someone who's just curious about the legal system, you'll leave every episode having learned something valuable.

And if you've been listening for a while, thanks for sticking with us.

So where have I been for the past month?

I'll be honest, it's been intense.

Okay, so I'm back full force in freelancing.

And when I say I'm back full force, I mean every single day, five days a week, multiple depositions in some days.

So I'm not.

I don't play around when I say that I'm back full force.

And I also want to remind you, if you haven't heard some of my episodes over the past year, I'm going to be honest.

I spent a good amount of time looking for a new career.

I was fed up.

I was ready for a change.

I was stressed.

I was overwhelmed.

I was done with it.

I felt like I don't want to do this anymore.

I don't want to put all this effort in.

I just want to have a life.

Just, you know, So I applied for jobs.

I looked for a new career.

I tried to find things that, I don't know.

I was just running away.

I was trying to escape.

But it wasn't God's will.

I was redirected back to this path of building the VTM system and reporter flow and all these things that I've been talking about, I am not allowed to give up.

I will continue to try and try until it's built, until the systems are sustainable, until everything is smooth.

So if you listened to the episode where I said, train your VTM with me, at that time I was training a friend and it turned out that that didn't really work out too well.

I realized that taking shortcuts just because you trust someone, just because you know someone, doesn't necessarily mean that they will be able to pick up that skill if they've never done this before, if they don't have the skill already, if they don't have that training.

I mean, I did get very lucky the first time I did the VTM thing.

I found Natalie and she just picked it up like, like that.

But that's not common and I didn't take shortcuts last time I did the whole hiring thing.

I posted on Indeed.

I interviewed people in person, rented out an office.

I took no shortcuts.

I invested weeks into that process because I was committed.

And that's what I realized I needed to do again this time.

So I did.

I posted jobs on LinkedIn, on Indeed, on ZipRecruiter, on Upwork, looking for good, smart, well educated Americans.

And I found someone that I really have to thank so much.

Amy, thank you so much.

If you're listening to this, I don't want to sound dramatic, but saved my life pretty much because when I jumped back in full force without having a vtm, it was a nightmare.

I was going on sleepless nights.

I was going for weeks without not be able to go to the gym.

I would be up all night at odd hours.

It was so stressful.

And then she finally came into the picture.

So here's what happened.

I posted the job and I was getting a lot of applicants and.

But at the same time I didn't have time to really review them and interview people because the backlog was just so.

Was just growing so rapidly that I had to spend all my time on scoping and transcript production.

So when I saw an applicant that came through that was a legal transcriptionist who knows how to deal with transcripts, who's been doing this for her own business for five years, I just took the bullet.

I just ran with her.

I reached out and said, if you have the experience and you're already running a business doing this, let's just get started.

Please help me, it's an emergency.

I need your help.

And so together we got through the backlog and it took about two or three weeks and it's finally back up to date, I think.

But she's the one in charge of that now.

She's the one handling all the deadlines, all the transcript production, responding if there's a formatting issue, inputting all the caption stuff and the start pages and the end pages, the appearance pages, everything, all the data entry.

She's helping with that.

And she's actually not just helping, but taking ownership of it.

I entrust all of that to her, just like I did to Natalie.

And with Natalie, it went well for three years until I started working full time in court and, and now it's going well with Amy and I'm just really thankful and thank you to everybody else who applied.

I got so many applications and I'm so sorry I didn't get to go through all of them, but thank you so much if you did apply.

You know, I'm sure.

Actually we're planning to scale this because so many reporters need VTMs.

So we're going to start a VTM training program and a court reporter private network, like a business mastermind network.

And it's going to be amazing.

And in that network system, we're going to have VTMs for court reporters that are trained and certified by us.

We're going to have a whole system going and it's going to be so great.

So, yeah, that's what I've been doing behind the scenes.

I've been building a team from scratch so this podcast and everything surrounding it can finally become sustainable.

I've been hiring, interviewing, testing systems and building processes almost non stop.

I actually have six jobs postings out right now.

So if you're interested, if you're looking honestly, I will give priority to anyone who listens to this podcast over super qualified applicants who don't listen to the podcast.

So feel free to reach out brynourtreporterpodcast.com and I will be happy to send you the links to the job descriptions of what I'm hiring for right now.

And I just want to give a quick shout out to Grace Perozzi at Perozzi Reporting and Darlene at Lexitas.

Okay.

Because both of these companies have consistently provided opportunities.

And as a court reporter, having agencies that keep your schedule full is so incredibly valuable.

And yeah, that season has been challenging, but it's also reminded me why this podcast even exists in the first place.

So what's coming next?

I finally have a team helping behind the scenes.

So I can spend more time doing what I love most, talking with all of you and creating content that serves this profession.

And of course, taking down the record and up leveling my skills, my real time skills and my tech skills always has room for improvement.

So.

But yeah, seriously, having a BTM opens up time for not only that, but also these interviews and also time with family and just anything I want to do.

We'll continue with interviews, solo episodes, practical advice, industry conversations, some creative projects that I think are going to surprise you.

Next week we'll jump back into part two of my conversation with Cameron and Whitney.

And before I go, I want to leave you with another song.

And the Hollywood.

Oh my gosh, I forgot about the Hollywood.

What happened was I was watching Aaron Brockovich the other day and the reason why I was watching that movie is because I after my episode with Dr. Robert Lustig, I got so deep into investigating about this whole tobacco thing and the whole big sugar scandal and controversy and like how the processed food industry is really taking advantage of humans by engineering the food to be addictive, just like tobacco did.

They created something that was addictive.

They were okay with harming millions and millions of people for the sake of their own profit.

And that's what's happening with the processed food industry as well.

So I just got on this huge rabbit hole with Dr. Lustig and when I was looking into the tobacco case, the largest mass settlement agreement where Mississippi started a lawsuit against tobacco not on behalf of one person or an individual, but on behalf of the entire state.

And that's when things started to change.

Tobacco won 845 something Lawsuits against individuals because like the personal responsibility defense worked when it was just individuals.

But when an entire state sues and brings the Medicaid bills on behalf of the state from the hospitals, all the numbers, all the data, all the people that were affected, that's different.

They can't, they can't win.

So when Mississippi did that, then 46 other states followed and it ended up being, I don't know, I don't remember the exact number, so don't quote me, but $346 billion mass settlement agreement that tobacco ended up paying because of the damage that they caused.

As I was investigating this, I got so inspired that I started researching for movies that would help me to understand it.

And one of the movies that I came across was Erin Brockovich.

And I had never seen it before, so I decided that I wanted to watch it.

And as I was watching it, I, it was so, I mean, I loved the Movie overall.

But there was a point where she said something that was a little bit disrespectful to court reporters.

And it was towards the end of the movie, Aaron was frustrated and upset at the attorney she was working for.

And then she just like said she made a comment about the court reporter.

She was like stupid steno clerk or something.

She said.

She said steno clerk.

That was the words in a sentence where she was basically saying that it was a useless person or it was just basically disrespectful.

And you know, I know she was heated in the moment.

And that got me thinking, like, if this is the way that Hollywood is portraying the career of court reporting and every other clip that I've ever seen anyone share of a court reporter, it's always like they're just portrayed as background furniture.

They're never the protagonist, they're never the main character.

They're never super stylish or super like cute or ever in the camera.

They're never on the spotlight.

It's.

It's always someone that looks bored and that just is portrayed as just like a clerk or just like a very easy, low level job, which is inaccurate.

It just got me thinking, like, if.

I wonder if Hollywood could be a source of the problem for the shortage.

I wonder if Hollywood could possibly have caused the lack of desire for people or maybe the lack of visibility or, you know, something, for some reason nobody knows about court reporting and no one knows how good it is and how lucrative it is.

I mean, I know I just spent time talking about how I was trying to escape it, but it really is an amazing career.

I mean, to not have to have your bachelor's degree to be able to get through it in less than two years and to make the amount of money that we make.

It's a good career and people are not aware of it.

And people don't know how cool court reporters are.

People don't know how awesome we are and how important our jobs are, how important our duty is in the justice system, how massively wonderful it is.

So I think that if Hollywood has contributed to the problem, then Hollywood could also very well solve this problem just by simply having a famous actress portray like, be the main character but happen to be a stenographer.

Maybe a stenographer can uncover some amazing investigative discovery about corporate accountability.

Or maybe a court reporter can.

Maybe there can be a version of the office, but a courtroom version, a legal version, where the court reporter is the main character and is the one being interviewed and is the one that everyone can relate to and is the only sane one in the room.

Like, everybody else is going crazy, and the court reporter is witnessing it all and reacting to it the way that any normal human being would.

I think that would be so funny.

I mean, the fact that court reporters have this, the front row seat to some of the craziest and weirdest and most interesting things that happen.

We witness such bizarre human interactions, and it's just really funny.

And I think that that would be a great way to shine a light on the profession, but that whoever plays that role should be someone that really is fashionable and is bright and excited and happy and just.

Or relatable, you know?

So, I don't know.

I just wanted to plant that seed in your minds.

And if anybody thinks anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

I'd love to collaborate.

I'd love to maybe write a script together and submit it to Hollywood.

No.

Anyway, I just wanted to plant that seed.

But.

But, yeah, I mean, it's totally possible that we can make court reporting one of the most desirable careers.

All right, well, that's it for this week.

Enjoy the song.

As you're listening to the song, picture this as the way that court reporters are portrayed in Hollywood.

And check out my courthouse fashion Instagram page if you want to see a little bit of the inspiration of where this song came from.

It is a true story about how the attorney mentioned that I was the best dressed court report he's ever seen and that I should start a fashion page.

And that's exactly what I did.

Sun's up.

Hello.

It's gonna be a great day.

Pink dress in one hand, polka dots in the other.

Schedule packed.

Got a white plains calendar.

But the first order of business is choosing what I wear, baby.

Silver.

Professional grace says play it safe.

Black says just disappear.

But the bright pink jumpsuit's calling out my name today.

The lawyers think they're ready.

The witness thinks that, too.

But nobody is prepared for what this outfit's about to do.

No stylist, no agency, no fashion magazine.

Just one court reporter with a rolling machine and a vision nobody seen.

It's a courthouse Runway.

Columns rise into the sky.

Every hallways a red carpet when you're walking by Red.

Objection.

Blue.

Blue blazers, turquoise dresses in the light.

I'm preserving the record.

I'm wearing the record, but I'm wearing my vest.

Wearing my vest.

No asking for permission.

No committee saying that.

Just a court reporter turning every courthouse into a Runway.

Attorney says, you're the best dress reporter I've ever seen.

I smile and say somebody had to replace represent the team because these court halls deserve a little color too.

A little confidence, a little joy, a little something new.

Some say, isn't that overdressed?

I say, thank you very much.

Overdress is my middle name and I wear it with a clutch.

Some people fade into the background Some disappear from sight.

But If I'm spending 12 hours in a courthouse, I'm gonna shine a little light.

It's a courthouse Runway.

Columns rising to the sky every hallways, a red carpet when you're walking by Bright red pencil skirts and polished suits, polka dots, high heels and how about some neon hues taking down the testimony while I'm rocking patent shoes?

No, I can't for permission, no committee saying that.

Just a court reporter Turn any courthouse into a Runway because this isn't vanity.

No, that's not what it's about.

It's showing up completely without a trace about it Saying I belong here in every color that I wear.

The confidence isn't in the outfit.

The outfit just reminds me it's there.