What to expect with Court Reporting

Court reporting is known as one of the toughest reporting jobs in Journalism. You enter a place where you encounter the highest and the lowest of society; the professionals and the suspected criminals.

As a court reporter you have to be thick skinned. You have to expect to hear all the gory details of the crime at hand, without letting it faze you. It is extremely hard at times, to be in such an intense environment hearing the summing up amongst the defendant’s family and friends, but your main focus has to be on getting down all the details; ensuring your facts are exactly how you hear them in court. This is where shorthand comes in handy, it does speed things up if you can do it, but if you’re a fast writer longhand works just as well.

Your notepad is your bible, it’s important to keep hold of everything you write in court as backup, in-case somewhere down the line someone tries to sue you for libel. If you have the facts written down about what was said in court, then you have a Qualified Privilege defence.

Entering court initially is daunting, passing by security, and anxiously sitting outside the court rooms twiddling your thumbs until the next case is called. Court is an extremely isolated and lonely place, especially as a reporter when you go alone, but, when you get a good story you know your news editor will want it gives you the drive. You can be sitting in court for endless hours at a time, and still not find a good story that you can legally report on, so time and patience is crucial. Be sure to know your media law, in particular about defamation and the risks of contempt of court.

Writing the script is the next challenge you are faced with. For TV it needs to remain simple and to the point, summarising all the key facts in a way that is fast, accurate and fair. The most important part is to legally identify the defendant with their name, age and address, ensuring it is all spelt correctly for print - don’t be afraid to ask people how it’s spelt! As Journalists, it's sometimes worth playing dumb. This way you have positively identified them, and at no risk of defaming someone else, who could potentially sue you for a large sum of money!

When you are in court, you will hear a lot of jargon from the Defence, Prosecution and Judge, you do not need to worry about this, just get down everything you understand, in particular any quotes from the Judge. Contacts will rescue you when in doubt, for instance, Court Listings can confirm identification, and the Crown Prosecution Service can confirm details on the case. These are the people you will work closely with; you have to be confident and build a friendly relationship with professionals that you wouldn't normally speak to. In particular, the police, you need to know the name of the officer in charge of the case to see if they can give you any photographs or footage that they may have, in addition, with their name you can fill out a convicted photo request form to get a mug shot. Often the officer in charge is present at the court so if you go up to them and introduce yourself they can help you, either that or call the police headquarters and get in touch that way. There will be countless times you will be passed on to different departments, and feel as though you are not getting anywhere, but maintain persistence, and chase up calls, don’t wait for them to contact you back, because it’s likely that they won’t.

A good TV report has to be visual, court reports can be extremely dull, and it’s a challenge to make it more visually appealing for the viewer. Photographic features which are ideal to illustrate your report are a mug shot of the defendant, police photographs if there is evidence to be seen, a piece to camera on location and cutaway shots of the scene, if you can get there. Regularly you see reports whereby the reporter is stood outside the law courts, this can be visually mundane, so depending upon the time scale you have if you can get to the scene of the crime, it lifts the piece, adding context and colour.

We are seen as the nosy hacks of society, but you are there to do your job, so don’t let any evil stares, or off-putting glares put you off. Don’t be shy to speak to people, they are your richest source, just be sure to be dressed smart, and act professionally in court, and in return you will be treated in a respectful manner. Although you may feel as though you are intruding upon peoples personal lives, it is called a public gallery for a reason, no one can stop you from going, and it’s a reporter’s job to share what is the public's interest.

Here are some examples of the work I carried out as a Court Reporter -

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