Should You Use an Offshore Court Reporting Agency?

Author: Christine Harrell

Many industries are moving jobs to other countries in order to take advantage of cheap labor. The internet has made it easy to move information-oriented jobs, including court reporting. However there are serious concerns with using offshore court reporters.

Accreditation and Certification

A US court reporting agency has high expectations of training and conduct from their staff. Clients going through US agencies can expect a level of professionalism that may not be available from offshore providers.

Court reporting schools in the US are held to high standards of accreditation, ensuring their graduates have demonstrated proficiency with the work as well as an understanding of the ethics critical to their positions. Although many other countries have equally high requirements for their colleges, some have lax criteria which lead to poor quality education.

Most states in the US have mandatory certification programs requiring staff at a court reporting agency to not only show a certain level of skill but to maintain continuing education efforts so their abilities grow as new technology is introduced. Again, some nations have little or no credentialing so there is no way to judge the ability of offshore court reporters until it is too late.

Privacy and Security

A court reporting agency is privy to information of a sensitive nature. It might include proprietary corporate information damaging to a company if released to their competitors. It could contain personal information such as Social Security numbers or the ages and home addresses of children.

How private is that information? For example a subcontractor from the Philippines threatened to publish medical records of US citizens in an effort to pressure her client to pay her. An American court reporter who engaged in such action would lose the right to practice and could face criminal charges as well.

Even if the court reporter has the best intentions, how secure is the information against hackers? The global network that makes it easy to export information jobs also makes it easy to compromise that data.

Offshoring May Even Be Illegal

Most legal proceedings occur within the structure of federal, state and local regulations. A local court reporting agency can be expected to know and follow these guidelines, but the same cannot be said for a reporter in another country. If the reporter inadvertently violates the rules of the court, it could result in a mistrial or an improper judgment.

Using offshore court reporters in non-court matters can also lead to problems, such as the case of the medical records mentioned previously. A company not only might breach the security and privacy of their clients but might face legal action after violating privacy regulations such as HIPAA or GLBA.

Although offshore labor is valid for many industries, using offshore court reporters is simply too fraught with uncertainty to be a viable solution for courts or private companies.