Ohio Requirements for Court Reporters

At the present time there are no certification, licensure or educational requirements to be a court reporter in Ohio.

Many courts in Ohio do require the RPR certification for employment. There are also many courts that will only hire realtime reporters.

Reporting for Courts in Ohio

In Ohio the courts are set up independently by jurisdiction. The Ohio Supreme Court has Rules of Superintendence, but there is no governing body over the courts.

• Supreme Court of Ohio
• Federal Courts in Ohio: 6th Circuit

In Ohio courts are set up as follows:

• Each county has a Court of Common Pleas.
• There are also municipal courts for the city and mayors' courts in the suburbs. Most mayors' courts do not use court reporters.

Freelance Reporting in Ohio

Ohio is NOT an automatic order state and transcripts are NOT automatically filed.
At the current time the protocol in Ohio is to charge an hourly rate (since not all transcripts are ordered), an original rate, if ordered; and copy rate, if ordered.

There are many independent reporters and many freelance agencies in Ohio. The protocol differs from city to city and agency to agency.

Contracting

Ohio does have provision regarding the prohibition of contracting. For more information, please click here Reporter Contracting Rule

Freelance Agencies in Ohio

Some agencies require the reporter to be at the office on a full-time or an on-call basis. Some agencies have all reporters working out of their homes. Some firms hire freelance reporters as employees. These employees work exclusively for one firm. They may be paid immediately for all billings or they may be paid when the firm is paid. Employee reporters are often provided with benefits, hardware and software. Some firms use exclusively independent contractors. The rate of commission usually varies by whether you are an employee or independent contractor and whether you are guaranteed on all billings or "pay when paid." The commission rate in Ohio varies from approximately a 40/60 split (employee/firm) to a 20/80 split (firm/independent contractor).

Notary Requirements

To be a freelance reporter in the state of Ohio, you must be a Notary Public of Ohio in order to administer the oath to witnesses.

>> Click here for more information on being a notary in Ohio. <<