Great news for the court reporting world is coming out of Illinois. A certified shorthand reporter with the Illinois Eighth Judicial Circuit was in Washington last week advocating for the court reporting profession at the National Court Reporter Association’s 2019 Leadership and Legislative Boot Camp.
Kim Cottrell, who has worked in the Eighth Circuit for two years, met with staffers from U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood and Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin. It was a fruitful meeting.
“My experience at Boot Camp was life changing,” Cottrell said. “It gave me the confidence to continue to advocate for court reporting in any arena; particularly, its superiority over electronic recording in our state courts.”
What Did She Do
While meeting with congressional staffers, Cottrell, a member of the Illinois Court Reporters Association Board of Director, urged the lawmakers to support the reauthorization of the Training for Realtime Writers grants under the Higher Education Act enacted in 2009.
The legislation created a grant program to train realtime writers to provide both captioned information and communication access for 30 million Americans who are deaf and hard of hearing. Programs established with past grants also aided working reporters in learning and polishing realtime skills.
The National Court Reporters Association represents stenographic court reporters, captioners, and legal videographers. And boy are we thankful for them and their representation.
What Did the Boot Camp Provide
The Boot Camp provided sessions on politics and grassroots lobbying, effective press communications and what to expect when visiting lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Other session provided mock hearings and tips for promoting the profession to consumer groups, as well as how to testify before legislators.
This is something that can only help the court reporting industry which can use any help it can get. We have shown in previous posts here at CourtScribes.com that there is a dire shortage of reporters out there.
CourtScribes.com is ready to serve you in your court reporting, videography services, interpreters, live-streaming, and video-to-text synchronization.
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