New Website Connects Legal Professionals with Court Reporters

Attorneys, Judges and their admins use MyTexasCSR.com to hire Texas CSRs for court proceedings and other events that require verbatim reporting, transcribing.

ATHENS, TEXAS, UNITED STATES, December 17, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Texas Court Reporters Association (TCRA) announces the launch of MyTexasCSR.com, a new website that is dedicated to connecting legal professionals with court reporters.

MyTexasCSR.com was developed after much debate on solving an ongoing challenge in the legal community. According to an independent industry outlook report, the retirement rate of court reporters surpasses the rate of new Certified Shorthand Reporter (CSR) certifications, resulting in a national court reporter shortage with Texas being the second-biggest shortage in the country. There are currently over 2,200 CSRs in Texas.

Mellony Ariail, President of TCRA, said, “TCRA developed a multi-pronged and comprehensive plan to address the shortage of court reporters, including the creation of MyTexasCSR.com. Our mission was to develop a tool that ensured that 100% of Texas court reporter jobs were filled.”

MyTexasCSR.com is a first of its kind website that Ariail describes as an “Uber for Court Reporters.” Attorneys, judges and their administrators and assistants can use MyTexasCSR.com to notify Texas court reporters of their need for a CSR for court proceedings, hearings, depositions, conferences, meetings or other events that require verbatim reporting and transcribing.

Attorneys have expressed frustration with not being able to hire a court reporter when needed and may feel the need to resort to using non-human alternatives. Some companies are promoting digital recording and voice recognition as a way to fill the gap but the National Court Reporters Association describes those methods as "a loss in accuracy, timeliness and value."

Brooke Ingram, Executive Director of TCRA, states, “TCRA heard too many stories from lawyers that a CSR wasn’t available when they needed one, only to find out later that, in fact, there were many reporters available who could have done the job. The key is connecting those in need with those who can fill that need. MyTexasCSR.com is a website that we designed to be a safety net aimed at making sure that when courts and lawyers need a CSR in Texas, they always get one.”

All court reporters in Texas are invited to register for free on the website to receive immediate alerts for jobs that need to be filled. “TCRA developed this website to benefit our entire industry so membership on MyTexasCSR.com is not limited to TCRA members only,” stated Ingram.

After an attorney registers on the site and posts a request for a reporter to cover a job, the poster will get an email notification each time a reporter replies to the request. The email notification includes a link to the applicant's profile as well as their email address and phone number for direct communication.

“We are confident that this new platform will be a great asset to the legal community in Texas and for the court reporter profession in general,” stated Ingram.

MyTexasCSR.com was launched in September 2020 and has already connected dozens of Texas CSRs with attorneys, judges and court administrators in need of court reporters.

About TCRA:
The Texas Court Reporters Association is the leading organization representing stenographic court reporters, broadcast captioners, and CART captioners (Communication Access Realtime Translation). TCRA was established in 1939 and is recognized for promoting excellence, maintaining high standards in court reporting in the state of Texas, and impacting legislative issues through its actively involved membership. TCRA currently has over 1,100 members.

Brooke Ingram
Texas Court Reporters Association
+1 903-675-1806
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