Not many careers can guarantee job openings at any given time, but this one — described by employees as "interesting, challenging and fascinating" — has 33 openings in Iowa with an annual starting pay of nearly $56,000.

A powerful panel of lawmakers is close to voting on whether the state will continue requiring court reporters to be present at workers’ compensation proceedings.

It was a situation that La Crosse civil trial lawyer Mike Gill would run into from time to time while practicing in western Wisconsin and Minnesota in the late 1990s and early 2000s: He would attend a deposition and afterward get a huge bill from the court reporter.

Much like criminal and civil cases, the typical workers’ compensation proceeding has certain fixtures: a judge, lawyers, witnesses and a court reporter.