Does a court reporter have to be licensed?
Each state has its own licensing requirements for court and deposition reporting. In some states a court reporter must pass a CSR (certified shorthand reporter) test to be licensed to work in court or depositions. To be eligible to take the test, your state may require that you be “qualified” by a certified court reporting school, have passed the national RPR (registered professional reporter) test first, or have already worked in the field of verbatim shorthand reporting for a specified length of time. Other states require only an RPR certificate granted by the National Court Reporters Association to work in court or depositions. A person must be a member of the NCRA to take the RPR test. The RPR test is roughly equivalent to a state CSR test. Both tests include machine writing as well as written knowledge portions.
