New York Court Reporters Blog

Court reporting agencies as well as the court reporters who work for them are working in an ever-changing environment due to the severe economic recession. The recession has hit the court reporting agencies hard as well as their reporters.

People always say to me that the court reporting world is recession-proof. We live in a society that sues like no other. So that must mean that court reporters will perhaps even be busier in a recession.

The reality is that law firms have less work and are laying off employees. Corporations just no longer have the money to bring large and costly lawsuits as they did when money was flowing so freely a few years ago.

When people contact me about the future of court reporting and the outlook for jobs when they graduate, I do tell them that there is a loss of jobs and many experienced, good reporters are not getting the work they need. Bottomline, court reporting and court reporters have been greatly affected by the overall economic health of our society and we too have to adjust the way do conduct business as a court reporting agency and conduct ourselves our reporters.

Court reporting services are being offered all over the internet by large numbers of court reporting agencies. As the owner of a court reporting agency which was one of the first to go internet, I am fascinated by the twists and turns internet technology has brought to our court reporting profession.

New court reporting firms pop up every day on the internet due to the ease of putting up websites and getting exposure through paid advertising. The incentives being offered to book depositions is frightening because simple logic dictates that the money to pay for all this, ie, advertising and incentives, has to be generated somewhere.

The somewhere, ie, the generation of profits that I am told about almost on a daily basis is as new as the technology used to broadcast the incentives.

The National Court Reporters Association has guidelines for ethics which involve gift-giving and many states are now dictating transcript formats. Our profession like many others have individuals and firms which every day come up with new gimmicks to fleece the client. Luckily, our new internet technology has also allowed us to share information among our community about business practices which are contrary to the standards set by many states and our professional organizations.

Court reporting agencies are networking more and more. What exactly is networking among court reporting agencies and I would be curious to know just how many court reporting agencies actually network. I think an awful lot. Being a New York court reporting firm, our clients do travel a great deal and we have been fortunate to work with many other court reporting firms nationwide.

Our networking experiences with other firms have been generally very good. Some of the problems that have occurred relate to the reporter and the other court reporting firm speaking directly with our clients and not keeping us in the loop of what is happening.

When we take work from other court reporting firms, we treat the court reporting firm as our best client because, in essense, when you take work for another firm you are really taking work on behalf of the court reporting profession.

Our court reporting service located in New York City gets many calls from other court reporting firms to help them with court reporting services in New York.

Being a court reporting agency, we are especially attentive to court reporting assignments given to us by other court reporting companies.

I personally am greatly disturbed by the stories I am hearing about how many court reporting firms are treating court reporting agencies who take their work in good faith and then have all sorts of difficulties.

I understand we are living in very difficult times but that does not justify any of the less-than-professional behavior I hear about every day.

We as a profession would be much stronger if we worked together more often as a team rather than adversaries.

I get at least one call a day from people interested in going to court reporting school and inquiring about the prospects for work for court reporters in the future and what are the qualifications I look for in hiring new reporters.

The person I spoke to today said she was told she would be working in approximately 1-1/2 years as a court reporter. I know almost nobody who finished school in a year and a half and was working and making a good living after 1-1/2 years of school.

Buyer beware. Schools are in the business of selling services. The services here are court reporting classes. Prospective students must be realistic about what it takes to finish a court reporting program and that’s lots of hard work. Lots of discipline. Lot’s of time. Lots of money. Be realistic acout your skills when you are in school. There will be lots of competition when you graduate for the few beginning level jobs available. Many seasoned and talented reporters are having difficulty getting work, at least in my part of the country.

I love court reporting with a passion and have always encouraged people into our wonderful profession of court reporting. For so many years, court reporters were a dying profession. Today many people are looking our way for a new career, which is great. However, I am unable to help people almost on a daily basis who are very talented and are graduating at this time and need jobs desperately and that concerns me greatly.

My advice, if you are talented, disciplined and realistic about your revenue as a beginner, go for it. The rewards are great but it is not exactly the garden of Eden painted by the schools.

I have been writing about jobs in the court reporting industry and jobs in general, how to get jobs and how to keep jobs.

I have been focusing on what separates employees and when the choice has to be made who is keeping their jobs. I think something that would matter to me is if an employee expressed some concern for the difficult times a business owner is going through. I think an employee who shows some empathy for his boss and the problems they have will be surprised on how far a few reassuring comments would go. It is really just being a little considerate of your boss. I think the term would be an enlightened employee, who is thinking outside his own problems and showing a little concern for the person who signs the checks.

I have tried very hard to be sensitive to my employees’ and court reporters’ concerns but somehow I don’t think they realize that we employers, owners of court reporting companies are dealing with very difficult times too. And, yes, we do have some great years but when it goes bad, well, it ain’t so much fun.

I have been writing about court reporting jobs as an employee and court reporter jobs and how to ensure that you keep yours when the need comes to cut staff or there are less court reporting assignments and who gets what.

What really makes one employee or court reporter more likely to keep their position or even advance in position? It is a total package that comes under the heading of work ethic. What is this phrase work ethic all about?

There are so many elements that comprise work ethic that are equally important for an employee as well as a court reporter working in a court reporting agency. There is so much to be said about work ethic and so little written about it.

A basic concept in business and especially annoying in our court reporting culture is being late. Too many reporters are late or just on time which is really late because they are not set up on time. Late says so many things about a person’s work ethic. It says, I really don’t respect your time as much as mine because, in essence, I am wasting your time by having you wait for me.

We, in the court reporting business, are in a service business. A service business is about providing a service, court reporting, and all forms of the service should be performed with care and respect. Coming a little earlier for assignments as well as in your personal life show that you care and are aware and respect somebody else’s time.

Thinking about the other guy’s time is definitely part of a strong work ethic for me and one that I respect in my employees as well as my reporters, friends and family. Being on time is definitely something that says a lot about you!

I have been writing about how to write resumes, interview and get work as a court reporter in a very difficult period in the court reporting industry.

In writing about how to get court reporting jobs, it seems to me an area that has not received proper attention is how to keep jobs. If you go that extra step, put forth that extra effort, you may not find yourself out of a job to begin with. How do you improve on your work ethic and stand out from the rest of staff you are working with?

Well, look around as if you were the owner of the firm. What are the things you observe that you may think the owner is unaware of. Believe me, most owners who have survived in business are aware. I am always amazed how my employees are unaware that I am aware.

I understand that you are not an owner and you probably feel overworked, underpaid and underappreciated. How many employees go to work thinking how great it is to have a place to go to work and not deal with the horrible problems facing our country in the unemployment area. Many people will be faced with significant lifestyle changes because of loss of jobs and the inability to replace their jobs. Have you given any thought of the ramifications of losing your job? Anybody who has a job should count their blessings because every day there are many people emailing and knocking on your boss’s door looking to take your job.

I would counsel everybody to look at their job a little differently today, to give it the respect and appreciation you have probably never thought about but perhaps in giving some serious thought to what life would be without it this thought alone hopefully should motivate you to look at yourself more critically and give some thought on how to improve on your performance.

Our court reporting agency is located in the heart of New York City. We often get requests from other court reporting agencies to use our conference room with their own reporter. We always let them do it, bring in their own videographer and reporter. The agencies we work with on a regular basis give us the same courtesy.

However, we have on occasion asked agencies we do not work with regularly to help us when our client wants the reporter who has been on the case with him. Sometimes we are refused. The point being, why can’t more of us look past the dollar and help each other out. We have also had jobs “mistakeningly” gone out under another agency’s name or the reporter and videographer conveniently forget who they are working for. My agency is extremely careful to make sure this never happens.

It is more important now more than ever that we work together as a profession and really try and help each other out.

I get numerous calls weekly from other owners of companies in the court reporting industry. Everybody is talking about the same thing, lack of work, plummeting prices and fierce competition. Freelance court reporters are concerned with the lack of work.

As an owner of a court reporting business for more than 25 years, I have never seen or heard the type of proposals and negotiations that have become part and parcel of our everyday business. I hope that just one person reading this will try and hold to decent and fair rates and not be bullied into accepting absurd terms that are being dictated by some insurance companies and law firms. We have said no several times now and each time our clients came back with counterproposals because they did value our service and weren’t willing to sacrifice quality. That is reassuring to some degree.

We have a highly-tuned skill, and we deserve fair compensation for the time, effort and money we have invested in our profession.