You ask about court reporting. If you're writing "on spec" you should arrive at court early and approach the Clerk of the Court and explain what you're doing. Also introduce yourself to the police prosecutor. The etiquette is to be polite, ask questions, sit where you're told to sit, and ask more questions so there's no possibility of you getting facts wrong. Learning how to write court reports so an editor feels confident probably requires doing a course. I can't explain it all here, there's just so much to know. If you're worried, take your article to the Clerk and see if he thinks it is okay.
Court reporting is one of the great traditions of journalism, and also one of the most dangerous places for a beginner, because the law watches what you write very closely. Let me sketch the ground rules, but treat this as a first map only, not the full territory, and check the current law in your own state before you file, because the detail changes from place to place and over time.
The first principle is the one that makes court reporting possible at all: open justice. The public has a right to know what happens in their courts, and a fair, accurate report of what was said in open court is strongly protected. That protection, though, comes with hard conditions. Your report must be fair, it must be accurate, and it must be published promptly. Stray from fair and accurate and the protection can fall away, leaving you exposed.
The second principle is timing. While a matter is still before the court, before it is decided, you must be extremely careful not to publish anything that could prejudice the trial, such as a person's prior record or your own opinion on guilt. Comment can wait until the case is over. Until then, you report what was said in court, and only that.
The third principle is restraint on identity. Courts can forbid the naming of particular people, and the law itself protects others, often children, and the victims of certain offences. A suppression order is not a suggestion; breach it and you are in serious trouble. So watch for these orders, ask the Clerk if you are unsure, and when in doubt, leave the name out.
Above all, stick to what was actually said in court, attribute it plainly ("the prosecution alleged", "the magistrate said"), and never reach beyond the record. As I said, the safest course for a beginner is to learn it properly through a course, and to run a nervous early story past the Clerk. In court reporting, one careless line can cost a fortune, so caution is not weakness. It is professionalism.