Reply #23: Legal.

[Blue_In_AK]

The woman I work with has a contract with the state, and she has two or three of us independent contractors who take assignments from her. Mostly we transcribe the criminal trials for the public defender clients who are appealing their cases. We also do some federal public defender stuff (usually drug cases) and some private work for individual attorneys. It's really interesting work, and I love it because I get to work at home. I worked 25 years as a legal secretary/paralegal, and started doing transcripts on the side for extra money towards the end of that time, so when I dropped out of the 8-5, it was easy to just do more typing.

And people just keep misbehaving, so I think there's some job security. The technology may change (i.e., the trials are recorded on CDs now, not tapes like we used to have), but people are always going to need a record when they appeal. The Alaska court system doesn't use stenographers.