Kornika King, CVR, FPR-C, CCR, CSR, has been a professional court reporter since 2021. She holds national certification through the National Verbatim Court Reporters Association, certification from the Florida Court Reporters Association, and licenses in California and Georgia. When not on the record, she enjoys time with her family, traveling, and writing, and is committed to “reaching back” through mentorship and service within the court reporting community.
I sit in the room where facts are placed on the table one word at a time.
I am not here to decide what they mean.
Meaning belongs to others.
My hands move.
My ears stay open.
My opinions stay outside the door.
Some days, the air is heavier than language.
Some days, silence presses harder
than any spoken sentence.
Still, I listen.
Still, I write.
This work asks for steadiness, not certainty.
Accuracy, not righteousness.
Presence, not power.
I do not weigh guilt.
I do not sort truth from consequence.
I do not tilt the scale with feeling,
no matter how loud it grows in my chest.
I am a witness to words,
not their judge.
The record does not belong to me,
but I belong to it while I am here.
Fully. Carefully.
With restraint that looks like neutrality
and discipline that looks like silence.
There is honor in holding the line.
In being trusted with what is said
when it matters most.
Justice is not something I deliver.
It is something I protect
by refusing to touch it.
And when the room empties,
when the day follows me home,
I remind myself:
Impartiality is not distance.
It is devotion to the process.
It is respect for every voice
without elevating my own.
This is not small work.
This is not passive work.
It is a calling to guard the record so that truth has a place to stand.
