These different type of court reporting methods are a result of shortages of stenographic court reporters in certain areas, cutbacks in funds in the court system and in certain instances type of work, in particular, meetings, where stenographic court reporters are not interested in doing this type of work.

I was particularly surprised recently to find certain areas of our country, which shall remain nameless, where it became almost impossible to cover a meeting which did not involve technical matter and was well organized. We were told by numerous agencies and court reporters that they just don’t do meetings.

Obviously, this opens the door for other methods of producing a final product. We finally did cover our meeting with a stenographic court reporter but it took much hard work to track down a stenotype court reporter. This is the first time we have found an area which had so many agencies and court reporters who would not take meetings.

Our experience with networking with other court reporters and court reporting firms has generally been very positive. We are very specific with our instructions while trying not to be overly burdensome with paperwork. We are very specific about the requirements of the deposition and the type of court reporter we will require so there are no surprises for the court reporting agency and reporter who has taken our work. We never misrepresent our payment terms or the rates we will be paying. Our production requirements are clearly set out. Everything is set out upfront.

Therefore, I find it extremely disheartening when we run across an occasional incident where we are not given the same professional courtesies.

We have built our business over many years and
believe in establishing long-term relationships with the court reporting firms and reporters we network with. We will most likely have more work in your area and would like to become a valued client and be treated as such. With such a shortage of high quality work, I am really surprised at the short-sightedness of some reporters, reporting companies.

Your cover letter is the first step. Personalize it to show you have a special interest in working with this firm and give lots of reasons and show lots of knowledge about the company. You have spent a lot of time doing searches for names of firms. Now spend lots of time doing a little research on the firm. No sense attaching a great resume if your email doesn’t generate any interest to open the attachment.

Personalize that resume. I personally always write back with questions on the resume. I want to get to know the person behind the resume. The email responses I get back to my questions might or might not open up another door.

Let’s say you do open up another door and get an interview. Be prepared with lots of info about the company on that interview.

And finally, a new reporter recently got through all these steps, we gave him a chance, spent time putting a transcript together with proper formats, gave in-depth feedback, and guess what, never got a thank you for all the time and effort I personally put into getting a professional looking product and giving this person a chance. Thank you never goes out of style. This is a classic story of how not to succeed.