The court reporter is a court officer who plays an essential role in the judicial system. His/her main functions are to record the words of the participants in a hearing and to produce a verbatim transcript.

To become a court reporter, you must obtain a certificate in court reporting from the Court Reporting Academy of Québec and have passed the examination of the Comité sur la sténographie of the Québec Bar.

To be eligible to take the Comité sur la sténographie of the Québec Bar examination, a candidate must:

• Hold a Diploma of College Studies (D.C.S.) or its equivalent;
• Hold a certificate in court reporting from the Court Reporting Academy of Québec

A stenographer accreditation is granted by the Comité sur la sténographie of Québec Bar to a candidate who has:

• Passed the examination of the Comité sur la sténographie;
• Not been convicted by a Canadian or foreign court of a criminal offence which, in the opinion of the committee, is related to the practice of stenography, unless the candidate has been granted a pardon;
• Paid the assessment prescribed by section 11 of the Regulation respecting the training, skill and knowledge evaluation, accreditation and discipline of stenographers;
• Taken the oath of office before a Superior Court judge.

Speech recognition has been undergoing a real technological revolution. Speech notes taken by a computer-assisted stenomask is the easiest method to learn, the most economically accessible, the most efficient and one which is constantly evolving.

The program leading to obtaining a certificate in court reporting from the Court Reporting Academy of Québec is taught in remote synchronous mode, i.e. the student can interact live with the teacher and his/her classmates, but in a virtual classroom setting from the comfort of his/her home. Class schedules are fixed and attendance is mandatory.

The Court Reporting Academy of Québec is the only bilingual educational institution in Canada teaching court reporting. The method taught is the most promising; learning the stenomask method is much faster than other legally recognized means of note-taking. The class schedule allows students to maintain full-time employment during their studies. Together, our teachers have over 45 years of experience in voice writing and will be ensuring a personalized follow-up.

With a few exceptions, court reporters are all self-employed, working on their own or joining a court reporting outfit. The first part of their work, note-taking, takes place in courthouses and law offices; the second part, transcription, takes place in the comfort of their homes or professional offices.

There is currently a significant shortage of anglophone and bilingual court reporters in Québec. The lawyers and litigants are anxiously awaiting the coming of new court reporters. In addition, the justice system needs a constant succession of francophone, anglophone and bilingual court reporters to fill the deficit caused by retirements.

During the first session, the student must have the following equipment:

• A computer with webcam connected to high-speed Internet
• Headphones
• A pedal
• WordPerfect X9 (or later) word processing software

During the second session, the student will additionally need the following equipment:

• A laptop with a minimum of 16 GB/32 GB of RAM with a webcam, connected to high speed Internet, running Windows 10
• A stenomask with XLR jack
• A table microphone with XLR jack
• Nuance Dragon Professional Individual version 15 software bilingual
• The VocEdit RapidVoice Xtreme and 4-Channel Reporter softwares (up to six microphones)
• A Focusrite mixing console
• A transcript condensing and indexing software