Court Hearings

• Legal transcription - momof4
  • I did legal transcription for 10 years befor MT. sm - Mom of 4 too
  • Legal Transcription - Lynn
    • Court Hearings - momof4
      • Lucky You! - Sara
  • I've proofread legal documents; not difficult, but extremely dull. - sm

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That kinda is what my conversations with my dear old dad sounds like.  I'll say something and he will COMPLETELY twist it around because he can't hear for nuthin' and refuses to wear his hearing aids! 

It is amazing though that we're not all insane piles of goo just babbling and drooling by the end of some of our shifts.

Thought I had a great, lengthy report the other day, for it to be over 7 minutes of one physician talking with another about getting sued by a patient due to overmedicating - the patient overmedicated, but the doctor prescribed the meds.  Anyway - have any of you ever had to go to court and testify?  This, along with Dr.Infection (almost every report I get is someone who has had surgery and now is infected - and this is not an infectious disease physician but the surgeon), I am wondering if I will ever get called in.  I can't believe that none of these patient's are suing.  Just wanted to vent and get someone's take on this.

Out here in CA, if you have unpaid tickets, a warrant is issued.  So when you show up at DMV or the court house, you most probably will have to pay right away or explain to a justice why you need an extension to pay.  They probably wont want to hear the argument that it was your sister cause you dont have proof.  You will be responsible and then you can kick your sisters butt or sue her. I have a friend who had outstanding speeding ticket and the cops came to her house, arrested her and she had to spend the weekend in jail till Monday when her boyfriend was able to bring the money to the court house. 

Out here, we have cameras at stop lights and on different roads..So when someone is exceeding the speed limit or goes through a red light, the camera takes a picture.  You never see an officer, you receive the ticket in the mail and they have the picture for proof.  Good luck to you. 

Hello all !   Years ago I considered getting into court reporting, but back then I remember being told you only get paid PER PAGE/LINE, and not for your time in the court room when you're recording the cases. Recently I was told a court reporter gets anywhere from $3 to $5 per page.

Does anyone have any info on how payment for court reporters works? Is the above true?  I thought MT was a better-paying position, as the whole go-to-work-and-jot-down-the-text part was eliminated - and we (used to) make good money doing MT. 

Any info would be interesting! Thanks  !

I am not sure what your limit is for small claims court, it used to be $3500 here but know it has changed.   If it is more than one doctor in practice, you need to find out how they are listed through their business license, etc. through the state.  They helped me at the courthouse how to do this as it had to be listed exactly.  If you want to make a last ditch effort and make sure it isn't just the office manager that is not paying you, send a certified letter to each doctor that has to be signed by them and them only outlining what you will be doing and why.  You can act as your own collection agency instead of paying someone a commission to collect the money from you.   That is why I always keep on file a copy of their checking account number that they pay me on as I did sue once and we used it to collect the funds.  Also if the 7K is over the amount of small claims, then perhaps breaking out each individual doctor is under the amount.  But that is a pretty big amount and cannot believe that you let it go that high unless it is a large account and that is only one to two month's worth.  But again, try to get the correspondence directly to the docs as sometimes they do not know that the bill is going unpaid.   Good luck, let us know what happens.   Hopefully you are no longer providing service to this clinic.  Do some digging and get home address phone numbers if you are that gutsy and for that amount I would probably do it. 

Again, good luck.

Well over half and probably 75% of court recordings are now on CD's as well as dispositions and are being transcribed only if necessary or requested and many times at home by some of us. 

Recently there had been an ad in our local paper for a full-time court reporter for the superior court in our local area.  It was advertised at $78,000 per year with full federal benefits, and bonus days off like President's day (when was the last time a MT got paid for being off on President's Day?)   Again, I too pick the wrong career and should have went into court reporting but at that time (in 1976) there was not a lot of interest in that field so I just went into transcription training and here I am 30 years later.  Can you still teach an old dog new tricks?

Does anyone have experience with CR training?  Anyone made the transition from MT to CR, or the other way around?  I am looking into this as an alternative to MT.  My chief regret is that it is rather late in life for me to invest in expensive/lengthy training.  I should have seen the writing on the wall long before this, as far as MT is concerned. 

My post on a court reporter board met with thundering disinterest...not a single reply.  Would appreciate input on this if anyone has first or even secondhand experience.

I definitely would go to school for court reporting, but unfortunately I am too old (64). I know this would be very interesting. Where I live near Chicago, they have an excellent court reporting program that a person can take.

Also, you can work at home eventually. Like I said if I were younger, I would go for court reporting.

It seems like there is more job security in court reporting -- and much better money.  I'm really thinking of getting out of medical transcription... just so tired of getting paid less and less to do the same job.  I was just laid off a great in-house job and I am really wondering if transcription is right for me anymore.  

*people who do bad things get breast cancer*, talking about the editor.  Rose is not a nice person.   In fact, she said *the (expletive omitted) ain't so nice anymore* or something to that effect.  Yep, what a role model.

After the court reporter translates his/her steno there are usually mistranslates and untranslates.  Reporters are so swamped, they don't have the time to do it themselves, so they use scopists.  There are good reporters and there are really bad reporters.  I know there are schools out there, but reporters and their scopists are usually pretty 'tight' and a reporter will want an experienced scopist, because the reporter has to certify the finished transcript.  So you HAVE to know what you're doing. Most scopists are ex-reporters and scopists work as ICs.  This work is not as easy as it sounds.  There are times I've had to stay up all night scoping a 200 page transcript that was needed by 8am next day - and I didn't get it until nearly 9pm.  A transcript is a verbatim re-creation of human speech.  Think about the way people talk and try putting that on paper.  Most transcripts have audio attached or sometimes video.  You have to get every stutter, stammer, bad grammer and bad word. There is usually a lot "butting-in" and people talking over each other - you have to get that correct.  The editing software is expensive and can be tough for some people to learn. The reporter you work with may have a different software than you have so you have to know how to convert the files.  You have to know how to help the reporter build her dictionary, plus different reporters may have different formating preferences.  But the normal TAT is days instead of hours, double to triple pay if it's an expedite (next day), the lines are double spaced and no more 65-character lines - a line is a line even if the only word is 'Yes' (you get paid by the page).  And this work will NEVER be offshored. You can work your rear off for two or three weeks and have very little to nothing for the next week or two. Due to a shortage of reporters, some shorter hearings are digitally taped then put to CD and given to a reporter who gives it to the scopist to transcribe (if the reporter had time to do it she'd be in the court room in the first place, right?).  So it HAS to be correct (did he say I-I-I three times or four?) but you get paid triple.  And you think medical reports can be graphic?  You ain't heard nothing, yet.  Try listening to a murder or rape case - especially when a child is involved. 

Fortunately, I had a mentor scopist (35 years experience) that taught me well.  I worked with her for a long time before she felt I was good enough to go out on my own.  Word of mouth has given me more business and I only do MT 1 or 2 days a week now, but that will be ending completely soon. Less stress, more money and more time to myself. The online schools make it sound easy, but it isn't.  Scoping is not for everyone and it can be tough to get your foot in the door.   If you are comfortable with MT, stay with it.  

...and the training is EXPENSIVE...so is the software and equipment used.  Go price a few stenotype machines online, basic models, nothing fancy...you're looking at over $1,000.00.  Just when you thought MT had an expensive start up/out of pocket cost, this career takes the cake and the 'best' part of all...there is NO guarantee you will ever reach the 225 WPM required to earn your degree. 

I had been looking at The College of Court Reporting, as well as a few other schools, currently I'm comparing programs and degrees offered...Plus, I'm still debating if I really have the desire to proceed with a court reporting career. 

I'd think it would be next to impossible to learn the language skills required to master the stenotype machine without receiving proper training.  Can't just buy the machine and the software, hook to your computer and expect to increase your MT production...there's a whole language of court reporting that needs to be learned.

If anyone is seriously looking into court reporting, I'd suggest you visit the NCRA site and read about it.  

Good luck. 

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/10/26/internet.calls.wiretap.ap/index.html

For those MTs like myself who access their work over the Internet, would this consist of violating the HIPAA laws?

excused or unexcused. They found the schools were failing NCLB criteria mostly on attendance. Now you have to show a judge the reason your child was absent (hospital records, etc...). Above a certain age, it is a truancy issue that the student is held responsible for. Below a certain age, the parent gets in trouble. 

They put out a very wide net in order to catch the people who simply don't feel like taking their kids to school on certain days and the families with joint custody who simply yank the kids back and forth between different schools.  Unfortunately, many people who have valid reasons for the absences are having to go prove themselves in court.