Can someone give me information about CART?

[Jennifer Benci]

I'm a new court reporter in New York, and I am trying to move to California. Unfortuneatly, I can't work there because I am not a CSR, and I won't qualify to take it until March of next year, so I'm trying to get some information about other forms of court reporting, like CART. Can anyone give me information??? Thanks!

[Karen Yates]

Jennifer, I am a CART provider in Nevada, and have been a court reporter for 37 years. If you're a new reporter, I really urge you to not go out into the CART world yet. You may not need a license to provide CART in California, but it is not fair to the person with hearing loss. They are relying on your text, so you don't want to provide them with anything that is not readable or complete. As a CART provider I have to write a consistent 220 in absolutely clean realtime mode to do justice to the subject matter and give my clients word-for-word communication access.

Check in with the Yahoo Broadcast Captioners group, too. You'll find the nation's best CART providers and captioners, and they are very good about answering the questions of newcomers. Send an email with your questions to : [e-mail]

If you're moving to California, practice every day, all day, and get through that test. It will pay huge dividends in the long run. Without at least one certification, you're going to have a tough time getting reputable firms to hire you. You're just starting out, so buy yourself more confidence, less stress, and a competitive edge by getting certified.

I wish you lots of success. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have further questions or if you need others in the field to talk to.
Karen Yates
[e-mail]