How CAPTUR is Changing the Legal Industry

Nashville delivered on its promise. A profession that has wrestled with division for years came away from this event feeling more united.

When AAERT and STAR chose to call their gathering the Unity Summit, they named something they were still building. This year, in Nashville, they finished it.

The 2026 Unity Summit drew professionals from every corner of the legal record industry to the heart of Music City. Stenographers sat beside digital reporters. Agency owners compared notes with freelancers. Scopists, transcribers, legal videographers, voice writers, instructors, and students shared sessions, lunches, and late nights on Lower Broadway. And on Saturday, they voted.

The CAPTUR ratification vote passed. AAERT and STAR are merging. The profession now has a single unified home, and the legal record industry will never be quite the same.

What CAPTUR actually means

The acronym is worth saying out loud: the Council for the Advancement of Professionals, Technology, and Unbiased Reporting. Every word was chosen deliberately, and it shows. This is not a rebrand. It is a statement of what the profession believes about itself.

CAPTUR is the industry’s first association to unite every professional who creates, supports, and protects the legal record: stenographers, digital court reporters, voice writers, legal transcribers, videographers, scopists, editors, proofreaders, students, instructors, agency owners, and managers. That list matters. For years, the divisions between these roles were a source of real tension. CAPTUR does not resolve every disagreement, but it declares that the debate will now happen under one roof, with one voice advocating for the legal record as a whole.

“The success of the Unity Summit shows just how much demand there is for an association that puts human judgment, skills, and expertise assisted by technology at the center.”

Susan LaPooh, President, AAERT

Nashville Was the Right Room for this Moment

Nashville is built on the idea that all are welcome, that the door is open, and that the music is for everyone. The Welcome Reception on Thursday evening set a tone of genuine warmth rather than networking-as-obligation. By the time the Saturday membership meetings arrived, the room had already done the relational work. The vote was not a surprise. It felt inevitable, earned. The Music City Social that followed was not incidental. It was a celebration that had been quietly building all week, and Nashville delivered exactly what the moment asked for.

Fourteen hours of sessions that actually mattered

The Summit offered up to 14 hours of educational programming, and the session lineup reflected the breadth of the newly unified membership rather than any single constituency. A few highlights:

• Capture This: Many Paths to Making the Record

• NCSC Whitepaper Overview: AI in the Courts

• Partnering for Success: What Agencies and Providers Value Most

• Industry Best Practices: Retention, Storage, and Security

• From Opportunity to Longevity: Building a Career That Lasts

The session on AI in the Courts deserves special attention. The National Center for State Courts whitepaper is the most substantive public framework yet for how courts should evaluate and procure AI tools for the record. Hearing it presented in a room full of practitioners who create and certify those records was exactly the kind of cross-sector conversation that courts need. Technology does not fix process problems alone. The human professionals in that room are the reason accuracy is possible at all.

The AAERT and STAR Leadership Townhall gave members direct visibility into what comes next. Leadership answered questions honestly about the merger timeline, what certification pathways will look like under CAPTUR, and how the combined organization plans to advocate at the state and federal level. These are not settled questions, but they are being asked in the open now, which is progress.

Why this Matters Beyond the Membership

Courts across the country are managing a real and growing crisis in the availability of qualified record professionals. The reporter shortage is not a projection. It is a daily operational reality for courthouses in dozens of states, affecting case timelines, access to justice, and the integrity of the appellate record. A fragmented profession cannot advocate effectively against that backdrop. CAPTUR changes the political math.

A single organization representing every professional who touches the legal record can engage policymakers, procurement officers, and court administrators with a unified voice. That voice can shape legislation rather than react to it. It can inform AI procurement standards rather than be displaced by them. The passage of the CAPTUR vote is, in the long run, an access-to-justice story as much as a professional association story.

For vendors, technology partners, and the broader legal technology community, CAPTUR also creates a cleaner point of engagement. One organization means one conversation, one advocacy channel, one place to understand where the profession is headed.

What Attendees Said

“I left with my heart so full. I feel like I got my money’s worth and then some.”

2025 Unity Summit attendee, returning in 2026

That sentiment was not unusual this year. The conversations in the hallways and over dinner were different from typical conference small talk. People were processing something larger. There was a quality of relief in many of them, the sense that something that should have happened, was finally happening. Professionals who had watched the AAERT and STAR boards work toward this for two years were watching it become real.

From our own conversations at the Summit, the energy around CAPTUR was matched by a practical curiosity about what comes next. How will certifications evolve? What does unified advocacy look like in practice? How does a merged organization serve members who come from very different professional traditions? Those questions are the work ahead, and the people asking them are ready to do it.

A Note from SoniClear

SoniClear has served digital court reporters, agencies, and court administrators for over two decades. We believe that accurate, accessible, and secure digital recording is a foundational piece of the legal record ecosystem, and that the professionals who operate and certify those systems are essential to the integrity of every case that touches them.

We were proud to be part of the 2026 Unity Summit, and we are excited about what CAPTUR represents for the profession we have grown alongside. A unified voice for the legal record is good for courts, good for professionals, and good for access to justice.

If you attended the Summit and want to continue the conversation about how digital recording and AI transcription tools fit into your practice or agency, we would love to hear from you.