Becoming a court reporter requires certain personality traits in order to thrive in the job. These skills include:
- Punctuality: the best court reporters show up to the given venue on time or a few minutes early
- Confidentiality: court reporters are involved in different types of legal actions and often the testimony being recorded is confidential and private information. Good court reporters understand the necessity of not repeating information heard in a proceeding.
- Neutrality: court reporters must remain neutral on the cases they are reporting on. Court reporters need to realize that they are there to report what is spoken and not express opinions on the different facets of the case.
- Business Etiquette: the best court reporters are polite and use good business etiquette to dress appropriately for court and introduce people in situations where the parties do not know each other
- Grammar, Punctuation, and Proofreading: Court reporters understand punctuation rules and how to apply them to oral testimonies.
- Assertiveness: Court reporters need to speak up if a witness needs to speak louder and make requests from parties such as spellings of street names, cities, or streets mentioned in the proceeding at the end of the deposition
- Organizational skills: Many court reporters work independently and control their own schedule and workload so they need to manage the information obtained from proceedings and ensure that transcripts are delivered on time.
- Time Management: Good court reporters know how to organize their schedules and manage their time to deliver accurate court transcripts.
- Customer Service: Providing good customer service ensures that there is a friendly working relationship with clients and that court reporters can gain repeat business.
- Shorthand Writing Skills: The best court reporters are great at writing shorthand and try to increase their skills by obtaining higher certifications and improving their skills.
