Court Reporting Blog

May 24, 2013 By Dawn Houghton

9 Ethics Guidelines for Court Reporting Firm Owners

It has been said that it is easier to know how to do the right thing if you have a code of ethics to follow. In court reporting, there is a code of ethics for court reporters but not necessarily a written code for court reporting firm owners. Owners of court reporting firms have an entirely different set of ethical situations that are likely to arise. We’ve thought of nine ethical codes that could be applied by court reporting firm owners.

Ethics of Court Reporting Firm Owners

A court reporting firm and its owners shall:

Protect the record. Court reporters are officers of the court. Court reporters and firm owners must ensure that the firm and the firm’s court reporters are independent, impartial keepers of the record.
Disallow any appearance of impropriety. Disclose any contracts with any party to the case on the record at each deposition, including special rates charged to the party to the contract. This is required in the State of Michigan pursuant to MCL 600.1490-1493.
Charge each party in the litigation fairly and according to the laws of the state for transcripts and other court reporting fees.Reporters in the State of Michigan must follow the 2/3rds rule for transcripts as set out in MCL 600.1491 (2)(b), i.e., you cannot be charged more than 2/3rds the cost of the original for a copy.
Do not sell the reporter’s transcript, unbeknownst to the reporter, for the financial benefit of the firm owner at the expense of the court reporter. As keeper of the record, the reporter is an officer of the court and should be fairly compensated.
Require a court reporter to transcribe back-ordered transcripts.Only proceed with transcribing the reporter’s notes if the reporter is unavailable due to death, disability, or if the reporter cannot be reached after due diligence. If the firm has to have another reporter transcribe the proceedings, indicate on the certificate page who the transcribing reporter is to sustain the integrity of the record. Never indicate the original reporter transcribed the deposition if they have not done so.
Regularly reinforce the practice of ethical behavior with reporters and provide ethics training. It is important for a firm’s reporters to know their firm owner is 100% behind the ethical behavior of their firm.
Avoid the appearance of impropriety by excessive gift giving. Gift giving should not exceed $25 per incidence and $100 aggregate for the year for each client per IRS guidelines, and some clients’ firms discourage gift giving of any kind. Court reporting firms should be cognizant of the risk they put their clients in when they exceed this ethical amount. Gifts should never be given on a quid pro quo for work given. Repeat customer incentive programs are examples of “pay for work given” and should not be offered.
Educate clients regarding the consequences of excessive gift giving and the potential tax implications to their client of such gift giving. The gift may be considered as property of the attorney’s client, not property of the attorney or staff. There may also be tax implications to an attorney’s firm if an attorney and/or legal assistant for the firm is accepting gifts and not reporting such on their tax returns.
Refuse to assist in deposition or trial strategy for either party to a lawsuit while simultaneously providing the court reporting services for the case. There should be a complete separation of the trial technology business and the court reporting services business so there is no appearance of the court reporting firm appearing to be working for one side to the detriment of the other in a case.

For more on court reporting ethics from our perspective, download this free report: “Thoughts on Court Reporter Ethics: From a Court Reporting Firm Owner”.

May 22, 2013 By Dawn Houghton

Court Reporter Ethics and Judgment Calls: What Should You Do?

Over the course of your court reporting career, there will be times when you will be faced with situations that require you to make a judgment call. When choosing the right action to take, it helps to be familiar with a code of ethics. By reviewing a code of ethics, you will be able to more easily make the right decision. Here are a few situations you may face sometime in your career. Many of these types of situations are addressed in the National Court Reporters Association Code of Ethics.

Can You Deliver?

You are a new court reporter and are assigned to a deposition. When you get to the deposition, the attorneys inform you the witness is a doctor and the case is a medical malpractice case. You have never taken a malpractice deposition and are worried it might be above your skill level. What should you do?

Solution: When you are in a situation where you feel your skill level does not match the assignment, you should call your court reporting firm and explain the situation. A good court reporting firm will find a court reporter who is able to successfully complete the deposition. First and foremost, it is your responsibility to ensure the testimony is recorded accurately and that the record is protected.

Too Sick to Work

You wake up feeling very sick and unable to leave your home. You have a deposition scheduled at 10:00 a.m. and know you can’t make it. What should you do?

Solution: If you work for a court reporting firm, call your firm and ask that another court reporter be assigned. Most court reporting firms will have someone always available to take such emergency calls and schedule another reporter to take the deposition.

Independent reporters may not have the luxury of this type of backup. In that case, you should find another court reporter who is available and can take the deposition for you. If the deposition is of a technical nature, be sure to schedule a reporter that you know has the skill to complete the assignment. Your highest responsibility is to always ensure that the deposition testimony is being recorded accurately by a qualified court reporter.

When to Let Go

Once you transcribe a deposition, you keep the steno notes and a copy of the transcript for your records in case there is ever a back order. But you work from a small home office, and your closet is running out of room. You would like to free up some space by getting rid of some of those old notes and transcripts. What should you do?

Solution: Many states have different retention policies for shorthand notes. Various state and federal courts will also have retention policies. It is good to become familiar with these various retention policies for jurisdiction in which you do business.

The National Court Reporters Association’s Code of Professional Ethics states:

“Preserve the shorthand notes in accordance with statute or court order, or otherwise for a period of no less than five (5) years through storage of the original paper notes or an electronic copy of either the shorthand notes or the English transcript of the notes on computer disks, cassettes, backup tape systems, or optical or laser disk systems.”

Many good reporting firms are also able to provide storage capabilities. It is a good idea to have backups in several locations so in case of a hardware failure, you will be able to access your notes and dictionary.

Timely Service

You have had an unusually busy month, taking depositions every day. A few transcripts are due in 10 days. The rest of the transcripts have no specific due date. You usually have all transcripts finished within 10 business days, but there are so many transcripts right now that there is no way you will be able to finish all of them in 10 business days. What should you do?

Solution: Even though you haven’t been given a specific date by which the attorney will need the transcript, you should plan on delivering all transcripts to clients no later than two weeks. If you have enough backlog that you will start missing this reasonable time, you should ask your firm to stop scheduling you until you can catch up. If you are an independent court reporter, you should begin to call your network of court reporters and make arrangements for another reporter to take future depositions until you can catch up on transcription.

Stay Relevant

You have been building a very successful career in court reporting for several years now. You know there is new technology and new writing techniques out there but you haven’t had time to dig into any of these new areas. What should you do?

Solution: To stay relevant in the field of court reporting, you need to continually learn new things and improve your skills. You should stay up-to-date on new technologies. if you do not, you are in serious danger of becoming a dinosaur. Technology changes quickly, and you will be outdated faster than you think. It is a good habit to continue to add to your body of knowledge on all areas of court reporting, such as punctuation and grammar skills, the business of court reporting, new realtime and shorthand techniques and technology.

Michigan’s state association, Michigan Association of Professional Court Reporters, is a great source for reporters to gain knowledge in the court reporting industry, and they regularly put on seminars related directly to court reporters’ software, which is a very cost-effective way to learn about the updates in your software programs, allowing you to become more efficient in producing your transcripts.

Involvement Required

You have been reporting for a few years now and are very busy. You know there are court reporting associations at state and national levels. You find most of the reporters you know are in one or more associations or court reporting groups. You just don’t know if they are usefull to you personally. What should you do?

Solution: It’s time to join organizations and attend some events and meetings. You will find many resources that will be of direct benefit to you. Professional organizations are a place where the future of an industry and integrity of an industry is discussed. Activities and initiatives are often in existence that protect the profession and further advance the industry in many ways. These are all of benefit to you as a court reporter working in the industry.

Everyday Ethics

Your ethics govern your thought process so that when a problem arises or you need to try and work your way through a situation, your solution is based on your ethics. Having a standard of ethics that governs us each day of our lives means we always know how we are to act no matter what. It is important as court reporters to remind ourselves of what it is we stand for.

For more on court reporting ethics from our perspective, download this free report: “Thoughts on Court Reporter Ethics: From a Court Reporting Firm Owner”.

May 20, 2013 By Dawn Houghton

11 Questions a Court Reporter Should Ask Before Working for a Firm

How should a court reporter decide which court reporting firm to work for?

In today’s world, every industry has companies that are well-managed and mismanaged, as well as companies that operate with good ethics and those that do not. The legal and court reporting industry is no different.

When you decide to work for a company, it is important to know what to expect from the job. It is equally as important to realize that the stability of your job and your reputation could be at risk due to the business practices and ethics of the company.

In the hiring process, we typically think of the interviewee as the person who has to answer the most questions and justify why the firm should offer them the job. Of course, it is ultimately the court reporting firm who decides if they would like to offer a position to the court reporter.

However, from personal experience, I’ve learned that it is a good idea for a court reporter to take some time upfront to know more about the firm before they accept the job (whether they are going to be an employee of the firm or an independent who takes deposition work when it is available).

With over 30 years of personal experience in this industry, I am passionate about this topic.

I have personally been a court reporter since 1983. During the first 23 years, I was a court reporter and worked for 3 different court reporting firms. Since 2006, I have been the owner of O’Brien & Bails and have still been an active court reporter working with clients.

Not only have I been both a court reporter and a firm owner, but I’ve also observed how others approach their job and business. I have interacted with hundreds of court reporting firm owners and court reporters across our nation. I have networked with them and even done business with many of them. Since O’Brien & Bails provides nationwide court reporting scheduling services, I regularly outsource work to court reporting firms around the nation to cover our clients’ out-of-state depositions. Many of these firms have outsourced work to us.

This experience has given me the opportunity to observe the many differences in how court reporting firm owners run their business, along with the positive and negative impacts of those differences. Many firms have thrived and done well. Others have suffered and gone out of business.

Court reporting firms can have many differences. Some of the possible differences include:

Services provided
Methods to provide the services
How the court reporters are paid
What the court reporters’ responsibilities include
Ethics or lack thereof
Internal operations
Marketing strategy

To make a good decision, it is important that a court reporter be fully aware of how the firm operates before choosing to work for that firm.

Here are 11 Questions a Court Reporter Should Ask Before Deciding to Work for a Court Reporting Firm:

How will I be paid? If it is a percentage, define whether the percentage is figured on the whole invoice or is a percentage of the appearance and page rates. It does make a difference in the rate the court reporter is paid on how this is structured.
Will you pay me on just the initial transcript order or on all back orders and/or future orders? Define whether the firm considers the transcript the court reporter’s work product and will be paying on all back orders and future orders of that transcript.
Do you reimburse your court reporters for mileage? If so, what is your policy? Many firms do not charge mileage on a standard basis but may pay mileage to the reporter if they ask the reporter to go an unusually long distance.
What extra charges may be included in the invoice total that is considered the office’s charges, such as exhibits, scheduling fees, postage and handling fees, etc.? Knowing this detail upfront will avoid any miscommunication in the future.
When will I be paid on my work? There are many different structures on this issue, such as being paid on a two-week delay, one-month delay, or being paid when the client pays the firm. Being aware of how you will be paid will avoid any discontent down the road.
What are your accounts receivables procedures? How long does it typically take for your firm to be paid by your clients? These questions should be asked if you are being paid when the client pays the firm. This will give you confidence whether the firm has the correct procedures in place to ensure you will get paid as promptly as possible.
How are jobs distributed between the reporters? There are many factors that go into assigning a particular reporter on a job. Knowing what to expect upfront can alleviate any concerns the reporter may have.
What is your stance on contracting? In the State of Michigan, if a court reporting firm has a blanket contract with an insurance company, law firm, corporation, or hospital, the individual court reporter certified in the State of Michigan is required to disclose, on the record, at each deposition, the existence of any contract that exists for any party to the case, and they are also required to disclose the page rate being charged to the contracting party.
What are your gift-giving policies? If the gift-giving is excessive, it may be against the NCRA Code of Professional Ethics and could be against the law in some states. This could put the individual reporter in a compromised position.
What is your marketing strategy? If the firm has a proactive and consistent marketing strategy that is enabling them to retain their clients and attract new business, they are more likely to have consistent work for their reporters.
Would you give me the names and phone numbers of 2-3 court reporters to ask them about their experience working for your firm? This may be the most important question of the 11. Of course, with the internet and your network, you could easily find reporters that work for the firm and ask if what you are being told lines up with what they have experienced. But it’s good to ask your interviewer to see how they will respond. If they do not want you to speak with some of their reporters, it could be a sign that they are not telling you the truth and may not run their business with high ethics.

We hope these questions will help you think of what to ask when you are considering working for a court reporting firm.

What do you think? Do you agree? Have anything to add about these 11 questions? What other questions do you think would be good?

For more on court reporting ethics from our perspective, download this free report: “Thoughts on Court Reporter Ethics: From a Court Reporting Firm Owner”.

May 17, 2013 By Dawn Houghton

Michigan Court Reporters Care About Ethics

From time to time, the issue of professional ethics arises in the field of court reporting nationally and in Michigan. Over the years, we have seen situations that might appear unethical, or at least seem to be in a gray area. As Michigan court reporters, we love our profession and want it to thrive for many years to come. Abiding by standards of ethics allows us to protect the responsibility we have been given to be the keepers of the record and to stay neutral and impartial while carrying out our responsibilities.

The National Court Reporters Association has devised a standard code of professional ethics that they ask reporters to agree to and abide by. This code is a good reference to consult in any situations that may involve potential ethical issues.

NCRA Code of Professional Ethics

A Member Shall:

Be fair and impartial toward each participant in all aspects of reported proceedings, and always offer to provide comparable services to all parties in a proceeding.
Be alert to situations that are conflicts of interest or that may give the appearance of a conflict of interest. If a conflict or a potential conflict arises, the Member shall disclose that conflict or potential conflict.
Guard against not only the fact but the appearance of impropriety.
Preserve the confidentiality and ensure the security of information, oral or written, entrusted to the Member by any of the parties in a proceeding.
Be truthful and accurate when making public statements or when advertising the Member’s qualifications or the services provided.
Refrain, as an official reporter, from freelance reporting activities that interfere with official duties and obligations.
Determine fees independently, except when established by statute or court order, entering into no unlawful agreements with other reporters on the fees to any user.
Refrain from giving, directly or indirectly, any gift or anything of value to attorneys or their staff, other clients or their staff, or any other persons or entities associated with any litigation, which exceeds $100 in the aggregate per recipient each year. Nothing offered in exchange for future work is permissible, regardless of its value. Pro bono services as defined by the NCRA Guidelines for Professional Practice or by applicable state and local laws, rules and regulations are permissible in any amount.
Maintain the integrity of the reporting profession.
Abide by the NCRA Constitution & Bylaws.

Not only is our professional code of ethics a guideline for court reporters, it is also a declaration of what attorneys and other members of the legal profession can expect from court reporters. We want our legal community to know we intend to abide by a high standard of ethical and professional behavior.

At O’Brien and Bails, our court reporters understand the code of ethics and strictly adhere to them. The standards above are guidance in all sorts of situations that arise in our field. We know that the integrity of our profession relies on our strict adherence to this code. We are also proud members of NCRA’s Ethics First program.

For more on court reporting ethics from our perspective, download this free report: “Thoughts on Court Reporter Ethics: From a Court Reporting Firm Owner”.

May 8, 2013 By Dawn Houghton

4 Bad Habits of Attorneys That Can Ruin A Legal Deposition Transcript

As any experienced attorney will tell you, there is a skill to taking a deposition that reads well for use in court. As court reporters, we are keenly aware of the inconsistencies that can occur when the spoken word is taken in a deposition and turned into a written transcript. Something that made perfect sense when spoken may appear to have a different meaning when read on the page. These speech habits can cause big problems when it comes time for a judge, witness, or jury to read the transcript.

There are a number of common speaking styles that can cause problems in a deposition. Becoming aware of these habits will allow you to avoid them so the testimony of your witness goes into the record as intended.

1. False Starts

A false start is when a person begins to ask a question, stops mid-sentence, then begins again. We often speak this way without being aware of the habit. However, in a deposition, these false starts make it more difficult for the reader of the transcript to follow what is being said.

Example:

Q. Did you see the — I mean, this car — if there was a — well, what color was it?

With false starts, it can be unclear whether you got an answer to the full question. Your goal in taking a deposition is to glean information that is critical to your case. You want to be sure that information is easily understood by a reader.

The Solution:

One way to avoid false starts when asking questions is to gather your question in your mind before asking. Another tip is to slow down your pace of speaking, allowing yourself time to formulate the question fully.

2. Mumbling

A court reporter’s main duty is to record every spoken word. If a reporter doesn’t hear a question or an answer, he or she will ask you to repeat it. This is not a problem if it happens once or twice during a deposition. However, if you or your witness mumbles too many times, and your reporter needs to stop you several times this will disrupt the flow of questions and answers.

If a witness is mumbling and the reporter needs to interrupt to ask the witness to repeat, this often distracts the witness from his or her stream of thought during the answer. You want to be sure the witness’ full answers are in the record.

The Solution:

If you see the reporter is having trouble hearing the witness, it is important that you help remedy this situation. Here are a few suggestions:

Remind the witness to speak loudly and clearly so the reporter can hear.
Turn off noisy room fans if possible.
Close doors to active hallways.
Allow the reporter to sit as close to the witness as possible so every word can be easily heard.

3. Talking Over Others

In everyday communication, some people have a habit of interrupting before the other person is finished speaking. This is often an accepted pattern of speech. However, in a deposition, this pattern of speech can be deadly. When a speaker is interrupted, the reporter is hearing two streams of speech at the same time. However, the reporter has to write one stream, and then the second stream, one at a time. As a result, interruptions will immediately cause the reporter to have to write twice as fast. Writing twice as fast increases the stress on the reporter. Two people speaking at the same time also makes it difficult for both people to be heard and some words may be missed.

A court reporter will, at this point, stop the speakers and ask them to repeat. However, when a witness is asked to repeat an answer, they sometimes do not respond exactly the same as they did the first time, and that may mean that the answer you get was not the first answer you heard.

This speech pattern is difficult to read in a transcript with many partial sentences disrupting the flow of questions and answers.

Example:

Q. Did you see the —
A. Yes, yes, I did.
Q. — car coming down the —
A. Yes.
Q. — street?

Not only will this transcript be difficult to read, imagine having this testimony read into the record at a trial. The choppy nature of the read-back may make it difficult for the jury to follow.
The Solution:
To avoid this type of speech pattern, remind the witness they should allow you to finish your question entirely before answering. Also assure them that you will allow them to answer fully before asking another question.

4. Fast Talkers

As court reporters, we are tested and certified to write at a minimum speed of 225 words per minute. This is a fast rate of speaking. However, many times attorneys and witnesses speak at even higher rates. Most reporters are able to write at a faster speed for a while, but it is difficult and exhausting. Once fatigue begins, it is increasingly more difficult for a reporter to continue to write at higher speeds and catch every word.

The Solution:

If you are speaking too fast, a reporter will stop you and ask you to slow down. However, be kind to your court reporter and speak at a moderate speed. If the witness is speaking too quickly, stop and remind the witness to speak at a moderate speed so that his or her answers can be recorded accurately and fully.

By paying attention to these unusual speech patterns, you will ensure that your questions and the witness’ answers are recorded accurately, you will receive a transcript that is easy to read, and your court reporter will appreciate your help in making an accurate record.