DepoFill

Idea

AI-native scheduling and backfill-automation software for independent court reporting agencies. DepoFill replaces the phone-and-spreadsheet grind of matching a shrinking pool of freelance stenographers to depositions and hearings with instant mobile accept/decline links and an AI agent that auto-texts ranked replacement reporters the second a job is at risk. Built for the small and mid-size independent agencies (5 to 50 reporters) that legacy Windows-era agency software and the national consolidators have left behind.

Market gap

The US has about 23,000 working stenographers, down 21 percent in a decade, and stenography school enrollment has dropped 74 percent. 76 percent of legal professionals now cite scheduling difficulty as their top pain point from the shortage, and 55 percent report higher costs. Independent agencies are the ones absorbing this: they staff a fixed, aging reporter roster against a volatile flow of deposition and hearing requests, and every late cancellation means an office coordinator working the phones to find a replacement before the job goes unfilled.

At the same time, national consolidators (Veritext, Lexitas, Magna, U.S. Legal Support) are actively rolling up independent agencies, and Tyler Technologies just paid $212.5 million for For The Record, a signal that AI-powered scheduling and reporting technology is becoming the dividing line between agencies that stay independent and agencies that sell. The legacy agency software independents run today (Windows desktop tools, basic web calendars) has no automated matching or backfill capability. Timing is right because the shortage keeps tightening every year and the technology gap with consolidators is the thing forcing owners to decide whether to modernize or exit.

Total Addressable Market (TAM)

Bottom-up, US-only:

• 37,337 court reporting services businesses in the US (IBISWorld, 2024). Source: https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/number-of-businesses/court-reporting-services/6271/
• Assumption (estimate, not separately sourced): roughly 20 percent of these are true multi-reporter agencies that coordinate and dispatch a roster of reporters, as opposed to solo independent reporters who only schedule themselves. That is about 7,470 agencies.
• Assumption: about 55 percent of those agencies fall in the 5 to 50 reporter target band (excludes the roughly 10 to 20 large national consolidators, who build in-house tech, and excludes the smallest 1 to 2 person shops with minimal scheduling complexity). That is about 4,100 target agencies.
• Blended ACV: $4,200/year (the Growth tier, $349/month, the plan most agencies in this band would land on).
• TAM = 4,100 agencies x $4,200 = approximately $17.2M ARR.
• SAM: agencies actively evaluating new software rather than locked into legacy tools by inertia, estimated at 40 percent of TAM = about 1,640 agencies, approximately $6.9M ARR.
• SOM (3-year realistic capture): 8 percent of SAM = about 130 agencies, approximately $546K ARR, before expansion into adjacent verticals like legal videography and interpreting agencies.

Monetization strategy

Monthly SaaS subscription billed to the agency (not per reporter), sold direct via self-serve trial plus outbound to agency owners found through NCRA-affiliated state associations. Agencies keep paying because the alternative is going back to a full-time coordinator working phones and texts, or losing jobs to unfilled slots. The AI backfill agent is the retention hook: once an agency has seen a last-minute cancellation get auto-filled instead of turned away, switching back to manual scheduling is a hard sell.

Pricing strategy

• Starter, $149/month: up to 10 active reporters, job intake, availability calendar, one-tap accept/decline links, dispatch confirmations, fill-rate dashboard.
• Growth, $349/month (anchor): up to 30 reporters, AI backfill agent, QuickBooks export, multi-user admin access. This is the plan most agencies in the target band will land on.
• Agency+, $699/month: unlimited reporters, multi-office/multi-brand support, priority backfill SLAs, API access, dedicated onboarding.

Entry point is a 14-day free trial on Starter, no credit card required, since agencies are wary of switching off a paid legacy tool without proof it works during a real cancellation.

Lead magnet

A free, no-signup "Reporter Fill-Rate and Lost Revenue Calculator" web tool. An agency owner enters monthly job requests, roster size, and jobs turned away or rescheduled last month. The tool estimates annual revenue left on the table, benchmarked against the AAERT-reported 76 percent of legal professionals citing scheduling difficulty, and ends with a CTA to start the free trial.

Social proof that the problem exists

1. AAERT 2025 Court Reporting Industry Trends report: 76 percent of legal professionals cite scheduling difficulty as their main challenge from the shortage, 55 percent report increased costs, and the stenographer workforce has shrunk 21 percent to about 23,000 while stenography school enrollment has dropped 74 percent. https://aaert.org/industry-report/
2. Court reporting agencies are actively hiring dedicated staff just to run scheduling by phone: Indeed's live listings for "scheduling coordinator" roles at court reporting agencies describe duties like "entering deposition information into the scheduling system and answering incoming phone calls from court reporters and clients," confirming this is still a manual, phone-driven process worth a full-time salary. https://www.indeed.com/q-scheduling-coordinator-court-reporting-jobs.html and a live listing at https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/scheduling-coordinator-at-universal-court-reporting-4061554829
3. Jackim Woods & Co., an M&A advisory firm focused specifically on the court reporting and litigation support sector, tracks an active wave of acquisitions and frames Tyler Technologies' $212.5 million purchase of For The Record as a signal that owners who cannot invest in modern, AI-powered scheduling and reporting technology face a near-term choice between transformation and exit. https://www.jackimwoods.com/acquisitions-in-the-court-reporting-legal-litigation-support-sector/ and https://www.jackimwoods.com/tyler-technologies-acquired-for-the-record/
4. Veritext alone has acquired more than a dozen independent agencies in a single year (14 in 2018) and continues acquiring internationally, evidence that independents who don't modernize are consolidation targets rather than long-term competitors. https://www.lawnext.com/2021/09/court-reporting-company-veritext-acquires-canadian-company-reportex-expanding-its-north-america-scope.html

Competitors

• Acclaim Solaria (Acclaim Legal Solutions): Windows-desktop, all-in-one office management for court reporting and litigation support firms, covering scheduling, billing, and reporter payroll with Microsoft Office and QuickBooks integration. https://www.acclaimlegal.com/acclaim-solaria
• RepAgencyWorks: browser-based scheduling, billing, and transcript repository software built for court reporting agencies. More modern delivery than Acclaim Solaria (no install required) but a thin public presence and no evidence of automated matching or reporter self-service. https://devel.repagencyworks.com/
• Veritext, Lexitas, Magna, U.S. Legal Support (national consolidators): each runs proprietary internal scheduling and client portals at scale (for example Veritext's MyVeritext portal) but these systems are not sold to independent agencies. They are the competitive threat buying market share, not a tool an independent can license.
• General field-service dispatch tools (ServiceTitan-style platforms): not built for reporter certification, specialty, or CAT-format matching, so agencies in this vertical don't adopt them.

What competitors offer now

Legacy and current tools store a static reporter roster, a shared calendar, and job/invoice records. Finding an available reporter, and especially finding a replacement after a late cancellation, is still a manual process: the office coordinator calls or texts down a list until someone answers yes. None of the named tools automate the search for a replacement or let a reporter accept or decline a job from their phone in one tap. The national consolidators solve this internally with scale and headcount, not with software an independent agency can buy.

What can be done differently to attract customers

Ship the two things no incumbent has: a mobile-first, one-tap accept/decline flow for reporters (no app install, just an SMS link), and an AI backfill agent that automatically ranks and texts replacement reporters the moment a confirmed job is cancelled, instead of waiting for a human to notice and start dialing. Price it so a 10 to 30 reporter agency pays less than one part-time coordinator's monthly wage, and lead with the free fill-rate calculator so an owner can see their own lost-revenue number before they ever talk to sales. Position the whole thing explicitly around the consolidation pressure: DepoFill is the tool that lets an independent agency modernize enough to stay independent, instead of becoming an acquisition target.