Vital to the Justice System, Court Reporters have been Around for Centuries

Please welcome guest blogger, Janette Johnson Melson, author of Underneath the Ficus Tree.

With eyes weaving back and forth from speaker to speaker, the woman whispers into the mask covering her mouth. Her words identify not only what is being said and done in the courtroom but also who is doing it. Providing an accurate transcript of the proceedings is her job. She may sit off to the side and blend into the backdrop, but her role is important. She is the court reporter.

Many are not familiar with this type of court reporter, known as a voice writer, but the technology has been around since Horace Webb invented it in the 1940s. A pen shorthand court reporter, Webb was frustrated by the difficulty of keeping up with fast talkers and complex terminology and with the double work of the transcription process. At that time, most reporters dictated their shorthand notes to be typewritten later. However, if the proceedings could be dictated while they were happening, there would be no need for dictation later or for schooling to learn shorthand. Webb’s idea was a good one, but how could a reporter repeat everything being said without disturbing the testimony? What he needed was a microphone inside a sound-insulated container that would record his voice without his voice being heard outside the device. Unfortunately, nothing like that existed, which sent Webb to the drawing board.

After months of unsuccessful trial and errors with cigar boxes, tomato cans, and other

household items,Webb finally hit upon a coffee pot. Stuffed to muffle the sound and fitted with a rubber facepiece, which had been originally designed for the Air Force, the Stenomask came into being. By placing the mask over his mouth and nose, he could whisper into the microphone inside the pot, and his voice was recorded onto analog cassette tapes to be transcribed later.

By the 1990s, the masks were smaller and lighter, and the device recorded onto a dual-track cassette tape—one track for an open mike that recorded the actual proceedings and a second track for the reporter’s whispers. Nowadays, the mask covers only the mouth, and the dictation feeds directly into a computer with speech-recognition software that instantly converts it into real-time text.

Although Webb was a pen shorthand reporter when he invented the Stenomask, another form of shorthand reporting already existed and had been around since 1877. Miles Bartholomew invented the first stenotype machine, a ten-key device that used dots and dashes to represent letter combinations. Then in 1906, Ward Stone Ireland invented the prototype for the modern stenotype machine, and it is still in use today. Resembling a typewriter, it combines the qualities of shorthand and the ease of typing to allow the reporter, also known as a stenographer, to record the proceedings. It writes numbers and letters phonetically, which uses fewer strokes than a typewriter. A stenographer is the type of court reporter that most are familiar with.

However, court reporting itself has been around for centuries, dating back at least to 450 BC when people used cuneiform, similar to Egyptian hieroglyphics, to group sounds together and then assign symbols to those sounds. Pictures were then assigned to these symbols.

Since the earliest days of Adam and Eve, people have committed crimes and been involved in disputes which had to be judged. And within those judgment proceedings, someone had to be recording them. Regardless of the way those people do their job, they are vital to the justice system. They are the court reporters.

For more information about Horace Webb and his Stenomask, read this story. 

Janette Johnson Melson spent seven years as a voice writer court reporter, during which she gained the knowledge and experience to write her debut novel and prequel novella, Underneath the Ficus Tree. But her dream of becoming a writer happened long before, after she penned her first poem at the age of six. A degree in English/journalism helped her to realize that dream, and she worked as a print journalist until a move to another state required a new career path as a court reporter. Through the years, her writing has garnered recognition and awards, most recently receiving an Honorable Mention in the 2025 ACFW KidLit Contest. She has also been named a finalist in the 2021 Oregon Christian Writers Cascade Contest and 2021 Florida West Coast Writers, Inc., Contest. When not writing, she teaches piano and enjoys living in a lake house in Georgia with her husband and their rescue pup. She is also blessed with a daughter, son-in-law, son, daughter-in-law, and two grand girls. She can be reached on her website (jjmelson.com), author Facebook page (JanetteJohnsonMelson.Author), or by email janette@jjmelson.com.

Underneath the Ficus Tree

Because of her Christian conviction to save herself for marriage, voice writer court reporter Edie Randolph often feels like a mythical creature in today’s broken world. She’s hesitant about dating but finds a potential partner in her own klutzy way. Tripping over a potted ficus, she literally falls for legal clerk Matt McConnell, a man of similar values but more experience. Intimidated by his past, she wonders if she can learn to cope with it.

Matt hasn’t dated since recommitting his body to Christ. When he meets Edie, a lovely woman with a strong faith, he feels an immediate bond. However, a misunderstanding leaves him feeling judged by her, and he fears his past may hinder them from having a future.

With the baggage each of them carries, will they be unable to navigate a path going forward? Or will they find their way back to each other underneath the ficus tree?

Click the picture of the book to subscribe to my newsletter and receive a free copy of the e-book, Underneath the Ficus Tree.