The “court reporter” is an independent licensed stenographer that is not an employee of the court system (some courts do employ court reporters, but those court reporters transcribe court hearings or trials. Depositions are normally not held at the courthouse but rather at any suitable conference room or an attorney’s office conference room). In every city there are court reporting firms that have licensed court reporter stenographers on staff who are essentially independent contractors.
An attorney simply calls up a court reporter for the area and asks that the court reporter cover a deposition and that court reporter is paid through a bill provided to the injured person’s attorney or if the deposition is requested by the insurance lawyer or the defense lawyer, that lawyer is obligated to pay the appearance costs and fees for typing up each page of the deposition they order. Ultimately, no matter who wants a copy of the deposition transcribed, the court reporting company bills per page for the deposition transcript, and these days attorneys often receive both a hard copy and an e-mail copy of the deposition testimony of the witness. The longer the deposition, the more pages, which translates to more cost billed by the court reporter.
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