While COVID-19 has decreased court reporting opportunities and shifted all available work to remote access, it's provided some work benefits. And some say recent regulatory action and a tighter focus on remote capabilities may strengthen the industry in the long-term.

Various social distancing guidelines have caused many courtrooms to pause jury trials and jury selections and limit court proceedings. As such, court reporters' caseloads were significantly diminished, and all remaining work was conducted remotely via video conferencing platforms with transcribing software, observers said.

Registered professional reporter Matthew Moss said the Denver court system provided him and other court reporters with laptops connected to the court's network drive and other materials and tools needed to work from home. 

"We do have judges holding hearings for motions and matters [even] if they can't convene a jury right now. The things they can do they're doing, [and] that's usually pretrial, motion to suppress evidences," and other matters, Moss said. He explained that such proceedings are held via video conference platform Webex.

But working remotely has provided some upsides. Judges and counsel are now more aware of speaking clearly, Moss said, which makes his transcribing a little easier. Still, court reporters may confront new background distractions "if someone is not muted and a sound comes in of a dog barking or dishes falling," he noted.

But most court reporters are backed up by judges who request someone to restate a comment to ensure the transcription is correct, Moss said.

"For us, the hearings moving to the video platform venue reminds people you just can't have three people talking at a time on Webex or Zoom. It's a terrible experience for everyone."

Though the courts have limited services, Moss said working remotely eases the likely backload that will welcome the court when it fully reopens: "We are handling that stuff as much as we can so it's not clogging up calendars when we're allowed to go back into the courtroom."

In addition to court proceedings, depositions also took a significant hit and impacted court reporters.

"I've talked to firms on the deposition side, and they've seen things come to a screeching halt. They are adjusting their models and making wider use of remote reportering, which is something that's existed before but is certainly proliferating now," noted Jim Cudahy, executive director of nonprofit digital legal record-keeping advocate Speech-to-Text Institute.

While COVID-19 stoked the sudden need for remote court reporting, American Association of Electronic Reporters and Transcribers president Janet Harris said it wasn't a hard transition for digital court reporters to make.

"They are not tied to a steno machine or doing voice transcription. They have fewer pieces of equipment to operate and this is a very comfortable setting for court reporters," she said. "It's a common occurrence for digital reporters to report remotely."

In the midst of a pandemic or during normal circumstances, the tools leveraged when court reporting remotely are the same, Harris noted. Some court reporters leverage a court reporter agency's proprietary software or commercial platforms such as Zoom, Webex and GoToMeeting during depositions, she said.

Still, while the tech was already available to work remotely, recent regulations drove the sudden uptick in remote court reporting, said U.S. Legal Support president and chief strategy officer Peter Giammanco.

"There was a lot of executive orders around the country by various states that allowed remote swearing-in of the witness so they relaxed those rules so I don't have to be physically in front of you to swear you in but I can swear you in remotely," he said. "That really helped us to facilitate the use of remote platforms for depositions."

COVID-19 may also soften some objections to transcribing prerecorded matters, which some have previously deemed as "too risky."

When asked if opposition toward transcribing a recording was waning, Harris said, "I would say yes because there isn't always a need for instant real-time transcription." To be sure, Harris is pro-digital reporting and co-wrote a response letter to the National Court Reporters Association's complaints earlier this year.

For court reporter and NCRA member Moss, COVID-19 hasn't shored up his hesitancy toward digital reporting.

A distorted or muted microphone could send a statement "into the digital ether," he argued. "We are the only ones listening and noticing if something obscures an accurate record."