New York Court Reporters Blog

Most court reporting agencies have many different types of clients. The court reporting services these clients require also differ. It is important for court reporting firms and law firms to give as much information as possible when they are scheduling depositions.

Sometimes real time court reporters are requested when what the attorney really needs is an experience reporter with skills necessary to report his deposition accurately.

Many court reporting firms are now charging different rates when a real time reporter is requested because these reporters normally do get a premium for the difficult type of court reporting services they are capable of providing. They should be given an opportunity to perform these services and not cover depositions where their extra skills were not needed.

There are many excellent court reporters who for many reasons do not want to report real time but would put out a wonderful transcript.

So, please, do not request a real time reporter when, in fact, what you need is an experienced reporter with the capability to record difficult testimony.

Many court reporting agencies are offering nationwide court reporting services. What are the differences in the court reporters and the court reporting services being offered by court reporting firms which advertising nationwide services?

Ownership is a major difference among court reporting companies. There are still many court reporting companies owned by court reporters who may still be doing court reporting or have put down their machines in favor of running their businesses.

And then there are the big corporations who have been buying court reporting companies for many years now across the United States.

There are also some court reporting companies who have been bought by entrepeneurs who have seen an opportunity in the court reporting industry to be successful.

And then there is another type of ownership which I am unaware exists in other industries to the extent it exists in ours, former sales people of court reporting companies who amass a nice book of clients and go out on their own.

After more than 30 years of participating and observing our industry, I see that each type of ownership has its own unique management type and each also shares many similiar characteristics.

I don’t think many people give much thought to the differences in court reporting companies but we are as different as any other group of professionals, and one of the differences certainly is the type of ownership.

Court reporting agencies offer many additional court reporting services besides court reporting and video depositions.

One of the more recent court reporting service offered is scanning of exhibits. Court reporting firms have always copied, bound and tabbed exhibits. Now court reporting firms are offering additional services concerning exhibits marked during a deposition.

When a court reporting company scans an exhibit, the exhibit is put into a digital format. Once the exhibits are digitized, this will enable us to link the exhibit to the transcript. So when the exhibit is mentioned, it has become a live link which will lead you directly to the exhibit which is being referenced. This is called linking the exhibits to a transcript.

Another option for exhibits once they are scanned is to put them in a searchable format so you can search words within the exhibits.

A scanned exhibit can be as simple as just images of the pages of the exhibits.

Normally, an attorney will tell you whether they want their exhibits scanned and if so whether they require linking, seachable or just images.

The furnishing of exhibits in these various formats is a service most court reporting firms are now capable of offering.

Court reporting agencies offer many different types of court reporting services. One of the first additional court reporting services to be offered was videotaping depositions.

Videotaping depositions is quite common especially in medical testimony where it is difficult for a doctor to be present at trial.

Video depositions have been greatly transformed with computer technology. There are so many different things that can be done with video depositions that were not available when attorneys first started taking video depositions.

One relatively new court reporting service to be offered with video depositions is called video synching. That is when the transcript and video are synched together, ie, each line of the transcript appears on the video in its appropriate place. Video synching requires special software which the videographers use to watch the video and make sure that the video and transcript line up correctly.

Video synching is a service court reporting companies are now offering to attorneys. In our court reporting firm, I would say, there is less than 50 percent of the videos we do that are asked to be synched. I would think that some other court reporting firms might see higher figures, and I am unsure what type of litigation would require the most video synching.

Video synching is usually required when a case is going to trial and involves trial presentation work.

However, a lot of the trial presentation companies do the synching themselves so a law firm will just order a plain unsynched video and have their trial presentation firm do the synching and clips, whatever, at the same time.

Court reporters have many different career options available to them. That is one of the nicest thing about becoming a court reporter, the different type of court reporting positions available and the flexibility some of the different court reporting positions offer.

The most flexibility is a freelance court reporter who is not tied to one firm. Of course, there are down sides to each type of position but I am just going to touch on the flexibility of not working for one firm.

You can pick and choose where and when you want to work. The greater your skills and the more flexible a court reporter is about taking work, ie, the type of work and the location of work, the more you will probably be called by court reporting agencies looking to cover their work with outside court reporters.

These court reporters also are known as overflow reporters because they get work when a court reporting agency’s regular reporters are not available. When we look outside our staff reporters, we try also to match a reporter’s skills to the type of case. We do not send a reporter who wants a full day to a short day, nor somebody who wants a half day to a long all day job.

We also will try to match the skills of the court reporter with the type of case. Again, we try not to send our real time reporters to cases that are not appropriate for their high level of skills.

It is important for an overflow reporter to be honest about their skill level and the type of work they want to do and the agency to be honest about the type of deposition they are trying to cover.

Many court reporting agencies are offering court reporting and video services nationwide. When our court reporting firm works with court reporter agencies outside our area, we are very careful in explaining our format and delivery requirements.

Court reporters who take work from court reporting firms that they have not worked with before should ask for the firm’s format and anything else that might make the relationship work better.

Many court reporting firms today have work outside of their main location and are looking to establish relationships with court reporting companies who are capable of handling their type of work. Court reporting firms should be thinking in terms of a long-term relationship with out-of-state firms. This could be a very good source of additional income.

Many court reporting agencies communicate with each other through online forums, at meetings and other court reporting functions. We often ask for recommendations in different areas so you are really not just establishing a relationship with one firm but that one firm and its network of court reporting companies that it communicates with on a regular basis.

Court reporting services are available from many different types of companies. New court reporters usually aren’t aware that court reporting agencies are very different in many aspects.

There are court reporting firms of all sizes, from very small to very large court reporting companies owned by Stock Exchange companies. The size of the court reporting agency has a lot to do with the internal workings of the firm. Large firms operate very differently from a court reporter owned and operated company.

There is also a great difference in the types of clients court reporting agencies have. There are so many different types of clients. Law firms also differ so much as to size and clientele and the type of court reporting services they need.

The new court reporters I speak to usually have very little information on the differences in the court reporting companies in their areas. Perhaps the schools could spend a little time educating their students on the different types of court reporting firms and the services they offer and the type of clients they have.

When I speak to students entering the court reporting profession, I try to get an understanding of what their ultimate goals are and direct them to court reporting firms where their skills are best suited.

The incentives being offered for court reporting services has become a hot topic over the last several years. The recession has caused a large decrease in the amount of depositions and the competition for the depositions has become fierce.

The National Court Reporters Association has a Code of Professional Ethics that specifically mentions gift-giving. Many of the court reporting agencies are aware of the gift-giving practices in the court reporting industry which outright violate the NCRA Code of Professional Ethics.

I congratulate the many members of the court reporting community who are trying to educate their clients on the ramifications of taking these incentives. More and more court reporters and owners of court reporting agencies are educating their clients in this regard.

I hear about and see these violations on a daily basis. Yet I do not understand how members of the NCRA maintain their membership with these types of violations.

Ethics has become one of the main topics in our society in all types of businesses. Perhaps, the severe economic conditions we were living with bring out a more desperate type of behavior. It is yet another unfortunate state of our society brought about by the financial problems we are all facing and our professional, court reporting is not immune from these forces.

Our court reporting agency offers nationwide court reporting services. We work with local court reporting firms we have met over the years at court reporting meetings and conventions. Many of the court reporting companies we have worked with for many years and know their staff and owners well.

When working with other court reporting firms, it is much easier when problems arise when you have met the owners and worked with the staff before. That is one of the benefits of going to meetings and conventions.

Court reporting companies are also different in the type of work they are used to doing. Many court reporting firms have reporters that are qualified to do a certain level of work that other firms perhaps don’t have that much experience with.

When choosing to work with another court reporting agency, it is important to know something about the firm and the type of work they are accustomed to doing. Just as you would when you choose to employ the services of any other professional you might hire.

As a court reporter and owner of a court reporting agency that has been part of the court reporting community for many years, I have lived through many changes in the way court reporters, court reporting firms and our staffs render court reporting services.

Court reporting services are now being offered by many local firms nationwide due to the ability to network with other court reporters, court reporting agencies and legal videographers through the vast changes in communication technologies.

Our experiences in working with court reporting firms nationwide has for the most part been very successful. However, it really saddens me when I hear or read about some of the problems, mostly financial, some court reporting firms have encountered working for other court reporting agencies.

When we accept to provide court reporting services for other court reporting agencies, we apply the same credit standards that we use when working for law firms, namely, we check for credit references. We will call our contacts in their city and ask for a reference.

In these times, it is better to turn down work than take any kind of chance that you will not be paid.