O'Brien & Bails

Michigan Court Reporters

By Dawn Houghton

Court Reporting – A Profession, Not Just a Job

Court Reporting ProfessionWhat is the difference between a job and a profession? A job typically requires minimal experience and education. All that is needed is a minimum amount of skills to get the job done. A profession requires a high level of knowledge and skills. Individuals in professions are not easily replaceable since their education, extensive training, and skills make them unique assets. As a result, professions generally have higher levels of compensation.

High Skill Levels

Court reporters must graduate from an accredited court reporting program at the writing speed of 225 words per minute. Court reporting students learn a writing theory called “stenographic shorthand”, which they must know how to read and write on their stenographic machines. Stenographic machines enable reporters to write at a faster rate through condensing words to phonetic syllables. This method is much faster than typing on a QWERTY keyboard. The language of court reporting is complicated, and students must become proficient at this unique skill.

Reporters typically spend several hours writing the verbatim testimony of witnesses. However, work doesn’t end when they leave the office. Reporters then return to their home or office to edit, research and proof for several more hours. A good rule of thumb is if the writing of the testimony took an hour, it will take two to three hours to edit, research, proof and produce into a transcript that hour of testimony.  Because a reporter’s job is centered around writing, transcribing, and editing, excellent verbal skills are required. It is imperative that reporters are well-read and educated so that transcripts are accurate and coherent. Reporters should always be in pursuit of enhancing their verbal and word recognition skills.

Professional Association Participation

Reporters typically belong to various court reporting associations such as the National Court Reporter’s Association (NCRA) or state-specific organizations such as the Michigan Association of Professional Court Reporters (MAPCR). These organizations provide great opportunities to network with other agencies and reporters. They also hold conferences where they meet and educate reporters on current trends, issues, or new technology. For example, the NCRA holds major conferences in different states each year. Reporters can attend special speaking engagements or even be the first individuals to experience new reporting technology.

The NCRA is also responsible for national court reporting certifications. Although being a member means you must pay an annual fee, being certified puts you at an advantage. It communicates to attorneys and agencies that you are a qualified and competent reporter because you have to pass written and practical tests with each certification that proves you are at the certified level. Being certified leads to better opportunities and levels of compensation.

A Diverse and Enriching Profession

People often misconceive that reporters are merely individuals who take down the record, go home, print out the transcript, and that’s the extent of their occupation. But there is far more to the profession than what they often realize. Not only does reporting involve extensive education and training, but a reporter’s education extends beyond school. A wise reporter never stops learning and enhancing their skills, often doing research and extra reading on various topics in order to broaden their scope of understanding of the world around them. Reporters often attend conventions, conferences, and become certified for the sake of building their career. For these many reasons, court reporting is a profession and not just a job. Court reporting is far more diverse and enriching than what a typical job can offer.

If you found this article interesting, you might also be interested in “The Top 10 Skills of the Best Legal Assistants.”

By Dawn Houghton

Transition from Court Reporting Student to Working Court Reporter

court reporting studentsLearning about reporting is far different than actually working as a reporter. Students often worry about whether or not they’ll be able to handle a court reporting career, but there are steps you can take to avoid being unprepared for the life of a working court reporter.

Practice Good Time Management

First, you need to practice good time management while in school. Time management is essential to any job, particularly court reporting, since transcribing, editing, and furnishing a final transcript is time-consuming. You need to be able to handle your personal life and your professional life so that you can finish everything within a timely manner. Agencies appreciate it when you hand in work sooner than their standard deadlines. Time management is a highly important skill in the profession of court reporting.

Work On Your Steno Dictionary

Second, you need to work on your dictionary. Working on your dictionary after class and at home will help you tremendously. Teachers and reporters alike stress the importance of having a great dictionary. You can begin to work on adding to your vocabulary and even defining misstrokes. Defining your misstrokes will cut down on time spent proofing and editing transcripts. Readback will be easier as well, which is something that all reporters appreciate. The time you spend on your dictionary now will mean less time you will spend on building your dictionary when you begin working.

Build Stamina

Third, you need to build your stamina for writing. This is crucial since some teachers only dictate for twenty minutes at most. While any practice is helpful, the reality is that you need to practice far longer than that. Depositions often last for hours, and if you don’t have the stamina to keep going, you run the risk of stress due to fatigue. Find a way to practice longer stretches of writing to prepare yourself for the real work world.  Try writing the news on TV or your favorite shows.  This will build endurance.

Participate in an Internship

Fourth, you need to intern. Interning is probably one of the most important things you can do to benefit your journey into court reporting. Interning gives you real experience that can’t be learned in class. Some of the reporters you meet while interning will give you wisdom on how to excel in the career and may even become your mentors. Interning will build your stamina, writing skills and working knowledge. It also helps prepare you with traveling to different locations, which is a large part of the profession. It is important to become familiar with following directions correctly so that you arrive to a job on time. Interning will also provide you with valuable connections with agencies and reporters. It’s important to be friendly with everybody you meet, especially agency employees (that includes receptionists). People will remember you and provide feedback to their employers. Many students have been hired at reputable agencies because of their connections made during internships.

Keep Connections With Peers

Lastly, keep in contact with your friends from school. Moving from student to reporter is a daunting journey, so it is important to keep in contact with people who are on the same journey as you are. A support group consisting of other reporters will help you cope or laugh about situations that your family and non-reporter friends won’t understand. Your friends may also help you find work or even give you insight into the company culture of agencies for which they work.

While every individual is unique and there is not one perfect formula, these points will help smooth the transition from student to reporter. So be sure to practice healthy time management, work on your dictionary, build your stamina, become an intern, and remain friends with your peers. These will all serve as precursors to becoming a successful reporter.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also be interested in our special guide “The Top 10 Skills of the Best Legal Assistants.”

By Dawn Houghton

The Court Reporting Profession is Alive and Well

court reporting professionFor years, people have been warning court reporters and students that the future of court reporting is doomed. But contrary to the warnings, the industry has not collapsed. It is alive and well, even thriving due to advancements that have strengthened the profession.

Over 30 years ago, when I became a court reporter, I heard the warnings, “Court reporters will be replaced by electronic recording….you won’t have a job once video replaces you…voice recognition is going to kill court reporting.”

Over the years, I have seen these arguments and many more fall by the wayside. One by one, they were proven wrong as our skills grew stronger, our technology blossomed, and new career paths opened up that widened our profession. A career in court reporting is as stable today as it was years ago when I first began reporting.

Projections

The United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor and Statistics publishes the Occupational Outlook Handbook. This handbook is a source for career information about many different professions. The profiles feature hundreds of occupations and describe the occupations, the work environment, how to enter the field, and more. Each profile also includes employment projections for the 2010–2020 decade. The Occupational Outlook Handbook lists court reporting and gives facts about the industry that are beneficial to anyone who is thinking of entering the field. These facts are also reassuring to court reporters who are still hearing warnings of job shrinkage.

There are currently 22,000 court reporters estimated to be employed in the United States. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics projects this number to grow by 14% from 2010 to 2020. This is hardly an indication of a shrinking job market. In fact, the field is expected to grow at an average pace when compared to other occupations.

New Technology

The technology of court reporting has evolved over the years, and continues to advance as computers and the internet advance in sophistication. For years, the only technology used was a stenotype machine and a typewriter.

In the early ’80s, computer-aided transcription became the norm. Court reporters were able to teach computers how to read steno notes and help turn those notes into transcripts. Over the years, the computer-aided technology has developed into realtime reporting, allowing our steno notes to be instantaneously translated at a high rate of accuracy.

Video began to be incorporated to allow for video depositions accompanied by traditional transcription. With the evolution of the Internet, we now have the capability to transmit video, audio and realtime transcription to remote locations. The realtime nature of this new technology means parties can effectively participate in proceedings that are taking place in different geographical locations without leaving their own office.

These new technologies allow court reporters to not only stay relevant to legal proceedings, but also offer wider and more convenient services to clients

New Skills

With the new technology of computer-aided transcription in real time, court reporters began to evolve the traditional shorthand theory into a new system of writing that allowed for more accurate realtime transcription. Over the last 20 years, many reporters have retrained themselves in a new way of writing. This higher level of realtime accuracy allows reporters to project realtime translation and also deliver a highly accurate rough draft immediately upon the conclusion of the proceedings. The realtime translation is helpful to the attorneys while they are asking their questions of the witness.  The rough draft being supplied is popular for attorneys preparing for an upcoming trial who want the convenience of having the written testimony in front of them immediately after the proceedings have concluded.

Another skill that has developed in the last couple decades is legal video. The profession, as a whole, has pioneered legal video and streaming video so that they may deliver these services to clients who can take advantage of the technology and use it to their best benefit. The National Court Reporters Association offers certification for videographers who are interested in providing a high level of professional legal video to clients. This standardization allows the court reporting industry to continue to provide highly professional video for legal use.

The ability to commandeer these new technologies and use them to offer a wider variety of services has allowed court reporters to continue to stay relevant over the years.

New Career Paths

Once reporters adapted their writing to provide highly accurate realtime translation, reporters began offering their services to the deaf community and people who are severely hard of hearing. These realtime skills are now employed to provide broadcast captioning of live television shows, such as news broadcasts. Television captions are typically created before a show airs. In the case of live television shows, there is no opportunity to create captions before the show airs. Working with television stations, court reporters began using their skills to translate the spoken word in realtime and send it out with live television shows.

Realtime also became the method to provide Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) to individuals in schools, the work place and live theater. With the CART provider writing what is being spoken, the person receiving assistance can then read the captions from a computer screen and is able to participate in live discussions that would typically be extremely difficult without the live captions being provided.

These new fields of broadcast captioning and Communication Access Realtime Translation has broadened a court reporter’s choices of fields to work in and expanded the number of jobs available in the profession.

A Profession That is Strong and Growing

This equation of new technologies, new skills and new career paths adds up to a profession that is alive and thriving. When people tell me court reporting is dying, I know they are wrong because of the developments I have watched and participated in over the years. The truth is the field of court reporting is stronger now than ever.

By Dawn Houghton

Fair Pricing of Legal Transcripts by Court Reporters

fair pricing of legal transcriptsIs it okay for me to get a free copy of a transcript from opposing counsel?

From time to time we hear of an attorney who has asked opposing counsel for a copy of a deposition transcript so that they don’t need to order one from the court reporter. To some, this may seem a simple and practical way of receiving a free transcript. As court reporters, there are some things we would like you to know about our pricing and why that practice undermines our standards in pricing.

The fact is that standard pricing practices for transcripts have always taken into consideration that a legal transcript is something that is usually required by both sides of a lawsuit in order for each side to do their job properly. If attorneys began passing around free copies of transcripts, court reporters would only be partially paid for the work they perform. We would need to change our pricing in order to be fully compensated. We would need to charge the full amount of transcription to the side who is ordering the original. This would almost double the cost of a transcript for the ordering party.

There could be undesirable ramifications to changing our pricing structure. For example, if the cost of an original was high, and the cost of a copy was free, it might reduce the number of witnesses you are willing to depose in a lawsuit and potentially change the way in which you conduct your case.

If there are multiple parties, is it okay to make free copies of transcripts for the other parties?

Again, the fact that there are sometimes multiple parties has also been figured into the pricing structure we use. Yes, sometimes we are able to sell extra copies of a transcript in the case of multiple parties. But there are also many times when only the original is ordered, and no one is ordering the copy. In those cases, we are making considerably less than we should on a transcript and the work that went into producing it. So the extra orders we receive occasionally from multiple parties help make up for those times when only one side orders a transcript.

If parties were to regularly only order one copy and share it, we would be forced to change our pricing structure. It would be necessary for us to charge the ordering attorney more to make up for the copy that the other party didn’t purchase. We prefer not to do that because it wouldn’t be fair to the ordering party to put all the weight on their shoulders.

As court reporters, our job is to be fair and impartial and we take that responsibility seriously. We are very careful how we structure our pricing to ensure that all parties in a lawsuit are treated fairly and equitably.

To learn more about court reporting pricing and costs, download our guide, “How Much Should I Expect to Pay for Court Reporting Services.”

By Dawn Houghton

Court Reporters Ethics and Gift-Giving

Court Reporters Ethics and Gift GivingRecently, there has been an increase in the number of gift-giving or reward programs offered to attorneys and their staff for scheduling depositions with a particular court reporting agency. The gifts clearly are made in order to influence the selection of court reporting agencies when scheduling depositions. There is an ongoing debate among court reporters whether this practice is ethical and whether it begins to erode the industries’ reputation for operating with high integrity.

Taking a look at the question from the vantage point of a law firm and its staff, receiving these gifts and rebates presents several ethical questions. Let’s say a client brings a large case to your office. Your assistant is offered gifts, such as $25 gas cards, a $250 shopping spree, maybe even an iPad if your office books the depositions with a particular court reporting firm.

  • Who does the gift belong to?
  • Should your client be entitled to a reduction in fees to reflect the cost of the gift, or entitled to the gift itself?
  • How do you know that your client is not overpaying for the reporting fees that cover this marketing practice?
  • How do you know if your firm is overpaying for transcripts to cover the cost of these reporting rewards programs?

What does the ABA think is ethical?

Someone pays for those enticing gifts, kickbacks and rebates. And the consumer, including the lawyer, is unprotected from the loss without even knowing it. The American Bar Association, in its published Opinion 278, states that a lawyer should not accept a gratuity from anyone without the client’s consent and that the gratuity belongs to the client.

What does NCRA think is ethical?

The National Court Reporters Association has come out with an opinion on the ethics of such activities from the viewpoint of the court reporter in its “Ethics First” campaign. In 1993, NCRA adopted as part of its Code of Professional Ethics a policy that prohibits giving excessive gifts to attorneys, clients, witnesses, insurance companies, or other persons or entities associated with the litigation. The original policy set a limit of up to $25 in value per occurrence and $50 in aggregate per person per year. The limit later was set at $100 per recipient per year.

The policy was established because the NCRA Board of Directors believed that the practice of providing gifts, rewards, or incentives to attorneys, clients or their representatives or agents undermines and dilutes the integrity of the reporting profession and the status of the reporter as a neutral and impartial officer of the court. Giving excessive gifts and incentives can create, in the eye of the public, the appearance of partiality or favoritism on the part of the reporter towards the recipient.

The Board of Directors in 2008 asked the Committee on Professional Ethics to review the policy. As a result of that process, the association’s policy on gift giving was reaffirmed, and COPE Advisory Opinion No. 45 was issued to clarify the policy.  In 2011, at COPE’s recommendation, the policy on gift giving has been revised to prohibit all gifts, regardless of their value, given as an incentive for future work.

What Constitutes a Gift?

To further define its position, NCRA recognizes that gifts of nominal value, such as pens, pencils, coffee mugs and other advertising paraphernalia or modest forms of meals and entertainment do not compromise the reporter or firm’s appearance of impartiality and are permissible. However, NCRA has now chosen to distinguish gifts that are for marketing purposes or to thank clients for past work versus gifts that are given in exchange for future work.

The amount of a gift is measured by its retail or fair market value, that is, what the recipient would reasonably expect to pay if they were to purchase the gift for themselves from generally accessible sources. The actual cost incurred by the firm or individual providing the gift is irrelevant.

What can be done about it?

NCRA also provides a complaint process for allegations of violations. The NCRA Committee on Professional Ethics may issue a written decision. It may issue a cautionary letter, warning or statement of advice, require remedial ethics training, order that the member be reprimanded, or determine that the member be suspended or expelled from the Association, depending upon the severity of the violation, prior history and other relevant circumstances. If a Member resigns from NCRA while a complaint is pending, COPE will still complete its determination of the matter.

The next time your firm or staff are offered an incentive in return for your repeat scheduling of depositions, stop and evaluate the practice. Is the value of the item too high? Would it need to be declared as income on your taxes? Should the gift be forwarded to your client, or simply refused by your firm? For attorneys and law firms, it would be a good idea to formulate a policy on such practices before they arise.

Most reporters understand their role in the legal system requires neutrality and impartiality. Offering incentives with high dollar values could begin to chip away at that reputation of ethical behavior that court reporters earn through fair practices. At O’Brien and Bails, we do not offer incentive gifts to capture more business.

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