Despite a nationwide shortage in court stenographers, or court reporters, Iowa’s 6th Judicial District, which includes Johnson County, does not hold any court reporter vacancies. Demand for the service, however, remains an issue in the state.
Steve Davis, the Iowa Judicial Branch communications director, said only 148 of 183 court reporter positions are filled in Iowa. Out of those 35 vacancies, five are part-time.
Interest in the stenography among college students remains mixed, primarily due to the intensive schooling required to obtain stenography certifications.
Stenographers play a critical role within courtrooms and other documentation proceedings, and their shortage is dependent on more student enrollments.
According to an April 2025 report from the American Association of Electronic Reporters and Transcribers, the number of students enrolled nationwide in stenography programs has dropped by 74 percent, and 42 percent of stenography schools have shut down in the past decade. Stenographer shortages were predicted back in a 2013 study by the National Court Reporters Association.
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Traditional stenography is the practice of fast-paced verbatim transcription using a stenotype machine. These machines have 22 keys with two rows of consonants on each side, and four vowels at the bottom. By pressing multiple keys simultaneously, stenographers can spell words and phrases in one single hand motion.
On Jan. 1, 2024, the Iowa Supreme Court made changes to Chapter 46 of the Iowa Court’s Rules. They redefined certified shorthand reporters, who are professional stenographers, to include “Verbatim record of a proceeding using a closed microphone voice dictation silencer, stenomask, or similar device using oral shorthand and voice notes.”
Stenographers who use oral shorthand are called voice writers and play a significant part in managing the ongoing shortage of traditional typist stenographers.
Ashlyn Watson is a second-year student at the Des Moines Area Community College, or DMACC, Court Reporting program in Newton, said her interest in legal work led her to pursue court reporting.
Before enrolling in the DMACC program, Watson attended the University of Iowa. She believes her bachelor’s degree in English blends well with stenography, although a bachelor’s isn’t required for stenography. She said the field is highly specialized and in demand, guaranteed job placement was another benefit to becoming a court reporter rather than attending law school.
She said court reporting schools are fast-paced and high-stakes.
“This is the most challenging academic thing I have ever done for myself,” she said. “My peers say the same thing, and a lot of them have master’s, extensive educational backgrounds, and this is the hardest thing they’ve done.”
Throughout the program, Watson said she’ll have to write at three writing speeds: 180, 200, and 225 words per minute to pass. There are three categories: literary, testimony, and jury charge, with each of them having two exams. These exams require a 95 percent accuracy rate; otherwise, it is counted as a failing grade.
After her program, there are two kinds of national exams. One for the standard Registered Professional Reporter certification and the advanced Certified Realtime Reporter.
Watson said studying for the program and the national exams takes up a lot of her time.
“I think that can be a little scary to people, knowing how much this program demands of you,” she said. “This is more than a full-time job, being in court reporting school. It’s about 40 to 45 hours a week that I am on my machine, in classes, and studying.”
As for artificial intelligence, or AI, Watson doesn’t believe there is much to worry about when it comes to the technology indefinitely replacing court reporters anytime soon. Unlike AI tools, court reporters can talk and consult with lawyers and judges.
“What we’ve been told by our professors and people who work in this career is that judges love their court reporters. They love having someone beside them who they can talk to, who they can consult with. Lawyers love having a court reporter who can print off the transcription and send it to them.”
Fourth-year UI criminology student Lauren Johnston said she is familiar with stenography from being in courtrooms and watching videos of them. However, she said due to the difficulty of stenography, the career doesn’t appeal to her.
Johnston works at the UI Campus Safety Department and the Iowa City Police Station as a student dispatcher. She frequently observes nonemergency 911 calls.
“Stenographers would be helpful in hearing something and only having to write it down verbatim and gathering notes to audio rather than using it for 911 call logs,” she said.
As someone who likes being in the moment and hands-on when it comes to legal issues, Johnston believes stenography wouldn’t be a career she’d look into.
“Dealing with stressful situations while trying to articulate clearly so your partner can dispatch it, then the added factor of a stenographer would make the job more challenging,” she said.
Jody Malloy, a freelance shorthand stenographer and founder of Malloy Reporting, has worked as a court reporter for 44 years. She is also a two-time Iowa Speed Champion, writing up to 270 words per minute.
“It’s like learning a foreign language,” Malloy said. “Once you learn the shorthand theory or how to write the words, then you build the speed.”
As a freelancer, Malloy reports on sworn oral testimonies, or spoken statements, and makes transcripts of them before a case goes to trial. Other stenographers are called officials; they work for judges and report trial proceedings as they take place in court. Malloy said court reporters are often called the “guardians of the record.”
She also shared her perspective on court reporting alternatives as the scarcity of stenographers continues, saying that although AI isn’t certain to take over, the courts have put in efforts to employ more voice writers.
When Malloy attended the American Institute of Business for stenography in the ‘80s, which is now part of the DMACC court report program, she said people believed court reporters would be widely replaced with digital recorders. While some courts do use digital recorders for smaller cases, they have not reduced the demand for real stenographers.
“Now, there is a shortage of court reporters, and they’re starting to digitally record some proceedings in court, so we’ll see what happens with AI,” she said.
Unlike traditional stenographers who type, voice writers use a microphone to make verbatim, real-time transcripts.
As a result, Malloy said the expanded definition of certified court report by the Iowa Supreme Court has allowed voice writers to help combat stenographer vacancies.
Kelly Pieper is a freelance court reporter at Tri-State Court Reporting Inc and the president of the Iowa Court Reporters Association.
Pieper said voice writing programs are slightly shorter than traditional stenography schooling, which makes the process less demanding and easier.
“I would say the voice writing is the biggest alternative when there is a shortage of stenographic court reporters,” she said.
Pieper said stenography is a unique skill set, and misconceptions about digital recording methods as substitutes for court reporters are far-fetched. If AI tools are implemented, then they are entrusted to be used by stenographers, rather than being used alone for transcription.
She also attended AIB College and is a certified court reporter in Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri. Although the career can be difficult, she’s managed to have a good work-life balance.
However, she said there is a strain on court reporters, both freelancers and officials. As well as the lawyers and litigants who rely on them. This is because stenographer shortages cause hearings and depositions to be delayed.
“It does require us to work harder, and the workload can kind of be intense, but it also makes the wheels of justice turn much more slowly,” she said.
The shortage has hindered court reporters from booking more than one deposition when no other stenographers are available to cover scheduling requests, thereby stalling transcripts for litigants.
Organizations like the Iowa Court Reporters Association help combat the shortage of court reporters by providing scholarships for stenography students and professional opportunities. Pieper highlights the associations’ mid-year seminars and annual conventions, which allow court reporters to network and stay up to date with their profession.
“Our job can be very mentally demanding, and we must have support amongst each other to be able to keep going and continue to do a good job. So that’s our main benefit,” she said.
The association provides advertising to freelancers and helps recruit new court reporters to Iowa as well. They actively support court reporting students at DMACC and Black Hawk College in Moline, Illinois.
“It’s neighboring and right on the brink of Iowa, and we want to be able to help support them, too,” she said. “So we try to offer a lot of support to those students and to those teachers in those programs to do that.”