Do you need a certification or course for legal transcription?

You do not need one certificate for every legal transcription job. Many states require court reporters to be licensed or certified ¹, so that work depends on your state. Other legal transcription work has no single required credential that we could verify. The AAERT Certified Electronic Transcriber (CET) is the credential we could verify for electronic transcription, and a short course does not replace it.

Many states license court reporters, so check your state first

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says many US states require court reporters and simultaneous captioners to be licensed or certified, often by a professional association ¹. The rules differ by state.

Look up the licensing board for the state where you plan to work. Find out which title it protects and which credential it accepts. A course that does not match your state's rules can leave you with a certificate that does not qualify you for the work.

The CET is the credential for electronic transcription

The CET has two parts. You pass an online multiple-choice knowledge exam, and you produce a transcript from a digitally recorded proceeding in a practical exam ². The knowledge exam has 157 questions, and you need 80 percent or higher to pass ³.

The exam costs money. AAERT lists a $275 registration fee for the CET, and says that fee covers both the knowledge and practical portions ⁴. The same fee page lists a separate retake fee for the practical exam, so check that figure before you book. Check the fee page on AAERT's site before you pay, because fees change.

To sit for an AAERT exam, you must be eligible for a notary public commission and have a high school diploma or its equivalent ⁵. If you cannot meet the notary requirement, the CET is not the route for you, and you will need to look at state programs.

Courses teach the format and the software, not the credential

Course lengths vary a great deal. The Auburn University Outreach court reporting certificate says some students finish in a year, but others take 18 months, two years or longer ⁶. A short online course can teach you the format rules and the software. It will not give you the exam, the practical transcript or the record that a court accepts.

We did not find a verified free course that leads to the CET or to a state license. Our search turned up paid courses, and we did not check their outcomes, so ask any provider what its students pass, how many finish and what the course covers against the exam. You can study the format without paying for a course, because the federal courts publish their transcript rules. Those rules set 25 lines of text on each page ⁷, and you can learn the layout from the published guide.

Watch for training scams

Some offers ask you to pay for training and then promise a job. The Federal Trade Commission says that if someone asks you to pay to get a job, that is a scam ⁸. Be careful with any offer that charges for a "guaranteed" transcription job, and check the employer's name and contact details independently before you send money.

What to do, in order

1. Check your state's licensing rules. Find out whether the work you want requires a license, and which title or credential the board accepts.
2. Decide whether you need the CET. It is the credential we could verify for electronic transcription. Check whether the employers you want ask for it.
3. Budget for the exam and the course. Add the $275 exam fee ⁴ to any course cost, and ask what the course covers against the exam.
4. Practice the format. Learn the rules from the published federal format, then test yourself on real audio. Our question on the format of a legal transcript covers the layout.
5. Refuse any offer that asks you to pay for a job.

For the route into the work, see how to become a legal transcriptionist. To judge whether the work suits you, read whether legal transcription is a good career and whether legal transcription is hard. For the full picture, see our guide to legal transcription and the dictation for work overview.