Court action
Posted By: Patti on 2006-06-20
In Reply to: Stiffed by Doctors. What would you do? - Stiffed in NC
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.
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Has anyone had court reporter training or looked into court reporting?
I am thinking about taking a distance learning course in court reporting and I was just wondering if anyone has tried it, done it, looked into it and what they have found out. If you have gone to school for it or are going to school for it or know anything about court reporting could you share what you know with me? I have been in the transcription field for 15 years and I thought that might be something that I could bridge over to pretty easily, but not sure. Any comments on this idea? Thanks everyone for your help! 
last time I was in court -- no court reporter
I have taken my ex back to court a few times in the past couple of years and there was no court reporter in the room... In fact it was mentioned that they make a recording of the proceedings and then it is transcribed... I just asked a simple question if anybody knew if this job could be done at home and based on my experience it would make sense that it could be. No need to get nasty.
The class action against MQ by MTs should be about
forget about Ricca laws and tying it to hospitals and line counts.
They have lied and done smoke and mirrors to the point that there
probably could be a case made for that alone.
And why do we never hear anything more about the SEC case?
And the FBI case against MQ for sending military information over
unsecured lines?
What happened to all that?
Legal action
First of all, my condolences to you and your wife. I feel for you. I lost an adult child 14 years ago. Among the many aspects of grief, the realities of your deceased child's legal affairs can be a nightmare. I am not a legal expert and I don't know if any legal changes have been made in the past years. At the time our son died he left behind a student loan for $13,000.00 and a personal loan for about $5,000.00. He was over the age of 21 when he signed for these loans. It was a nightmare for me and my husband. These creditors hounded us and threatened to get the money from us even though our son was 23 at the time of his death. One creditor even tainted our credit report because my son and his father had the same name. It was a complete nightmare for a couple of years. We sought legal advice, send copies of the death certificate to the creditors several times, and eventually things got straightened out. In your case you have an individual who claims money is owed to him. Did you daughter have a will? I assume she was still legally married. I would definitely seek legal advice. I doubt this individual can force you to pay on her debt if there indeed was one. However, you can stop the harassment by legal means. Seek legal counsel. The last thing you need is this aggravation. My thoughts and prayers are with you.
Class action...
I was involved in several of these suits - most of them with Medquist - and the biggest check I ever got was $3.61.
Miss all the action too. Not like it used to be.
Used to work for an old country GP. Had a guy stagger in with the tip of his finger hanging from a close encounter with a table saw. Blood everywhere. We gave him a roll of paper towels and went to fetch "the mop" out of the garage. It was 20 below out and the mop was frozen solid so we ran it under hot water in the kitchen sink and cleaned up the blood spills. No gloves. No worries.
Many stories from that place. My favorite was the patient in the waiting room with a paper bag full of baby chickens that he had to bring in because it was too hot in the car and he had to stop in on his way home for his weekly BP check.
Ask to see the software in action, if
possible. Ask if there is a spellchecker, and whether it checks medical terms. Oddly enough, the supervisor may be oblivious to the fact that the MT has to enter all the terms into just a standard English spellchecker, but at least ask the question. Ask if it is compatible with ShortHand or other program like that. Hopefully you will be allowed to talk to an MT who is using it. You want to see how efficient or backwards the software might be, and hear the sound quality. Do you get to make your own normals, or share them with another MT, so that you can't correct any errors you might find (but don't say that about errors out loud). Most radiologists are the opposite of psych dictators (from my experience). Radiology dictators tend to be fast and very efficient and need somebody who can give 100% accuracy. And if you can catch misspeaks and tactfully correct them or blank them, that will help. (But they are so smart that they are always shocked if they misspeak, so it has to be handled very carefully). Always think about where in the body you are and don't make anatomical errors for all of those sound-alike parts.
Take Further Action On Offshoring
Please, PLEASE people, especially all who left posts on the news story below, call the White House. It is your right. I do it all the time and I have not been abducted by the FBI yet. They do not ask for your name or phone number or anything. They usually are pretty decent to talk to.
Tell them: I AM CALLING CONCERNING THE OFFSHORING OF AMERICAN JOBS, ESPECIALLY OUR MEDICAL REPORTS LEAVING AMERICA WITH SENSITIVE INFORMATION ON THEM SUCH AS OUR NAMES AND SS# . Then take it from there. Tell them that you MUST make your feelings be heard and you want the President to take action on this situation.
As one person, I am only making a peep with my calls and emails, but if we all start calling and emailing in droves, we will make a roar. Please, don't be afraid, we have to start taking action here folks. Time will not wait.
The White House Phone: 202-456-1111
ALSO:
The Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121
Email:
Obama and Biden:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Middle Class Task Force Questions: Tell them to save jobs and stop all offshoring:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/strongmiddleclass/
Your senator: Upper right hand corner, "find your senator"
http://www.senate.gov/
Your congressperson:
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
Let's do this together people 
It is not a class action suit as of yet
It is not certified class action because MQ filed for the proceedings to be held in NJ with all the other law suits. Therefore, this is stalling the certification of the suit to class action. They have received numerous calls over the checks.
Of course they cannot offer legal advise as they are not representing all MQ MTs as of yet, it is still the original 3 that filed, but I don't think it would be wise to cash it. That is just me. I know there are those that will disagree and call me names, but thats my two cents.
Does the class action include the DEP
platform? Somewhere, don't remember where now, I thought I read the class action was about the old platform MedRite and was for a certain range of years. Is there info out there that the class action pertains to DEP also?
emails for action plan
and now they send out emails wanting to know our action plan for wkends, whether we are working, so they are cvd. no extra $$, just remind you to "get the lines while you can"
I was in a class action suit once & got $600
nm
Legal action when not getting paid. sm
Hello fellow MTs,
I knew this was bound to happen. I was an IC for a company and left after giving contracted one-week notice. Now I'm not getting paid for the work I did.
What is the first step to take? I am prepared to get an attorney if need be but would like to take other steps before this.
Anybody else have experience in this? There are state differences. I'm not sure which court to start with to start any court proceedings. I guess that's where the attorney will help.
Thank you all so much for any advice.
Do most of us work the day shift, M-F? Action
s
I received an opt-out of a class action
lawsuit involving a certain MTSO and the other party involved (think it was formerly AAMT). Anyway, since I won't get a dime even after having been ripped off all those years, I just threw it in the garbage. AAMT, or whatever they call themselves now, plans on keeping ALL settlement monies for their greedy little selves.
When I worked for the MTSO there were rumors flying around about the 90 character line count that was then converted to 55 characters before going to the client. The MTSO pocketed the rest. Guess it really wasn't a rumor after all. How sad.
I was involved in a class action suit
against PayPal, probably 2 years ago, haven't seen a penny. I was in a class action suit another time, can't remember who, and I did get some $$, I think about $15.00. I don't initiate anything, just get e-mails or letters about them.
I am part of three class action lawsuits.
Franklin-Templeton mutual fund apparently committed fraud while I was invested with them, Fen-Phen (the doctor's office notified me; sheduled me for a carotid ultrasound and had me come to a Radisson Hotel to meet with the attorneys) and MQ which I never really heard from but read about and this fraud took place while I worked there...
Bottom line is people should really not be getting money out of other peoples' pockets by fraudulent means.
Also, any action you eventually may take will have to happen in her state - not yours. nm
x
Might need to mail her a letter from a lawyer that requires a signature and take some action. nm
,
Affect is an Action (or psych state)..Effect is a rEaction
nm
Sounds to me like a class action law suit just waiting to happen! nm
x
could it have to do with the class action law suit, my credit card company did that once...
they sent me a check of some money they supposedly owed me because someone filed a class action suit regarding their not posting monies received the same day and therefore charging people late fees, etc. I got like $3.46 for something or other.
perhaps it was a class action suit that was filed, and then of course MQ would have to go back and pay any monies due to everyone regarding the line-count discrepency issue.
maybe I am way-off, but if it is on the QT, that could be why. once they pay you off, they are no longer liable, right?.
anyone else have any ideas?
Anyone ever tried Dual Action Cleanse or any other colon cleansing products? sm
The infomercial was not pretty, and this guy focused way too much on BMs and such, but said that John Wayne died with 42 pounds of undigested material in his colon ... yuck! Supposedly, you use this product and feel tons of energy and all that ... wondered if it was just more hype or maybe someone had actually tried it. ?
Happens all the time. Make phone calls for more definite action. nm
s
I have definitive proof from the MT that the money is owed. The MT is also taking action
on her part to get the unpaid wages compensated by the owner through the Labor Board.
Talk about blowing smoke! No one, not one MQ MT has "joined" the class action suit.
Its not even up to that point yet. We will be notified and given the legal options via the legal system. So, if you claim you "joined it", you joined nothing - just gave your name to the laywers. Nothing more, so get over yourself. If there is nothing more to pursue after discovery, you won't be joining anything!
Or even notifying an investigative reporter/call for action type of thing on tv - nm
x
Court?
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.
DMV/Traffic Court
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.
Court Hearings
I have been offered a job to supplement my medical transcription job. The job is transcribing court hearings.
court reporting
I have a friend who did court reporting for many years. She made excellent money, but had back trouble and neck, arm and carpal tunnel problems. The machine she had to tote around is quite heavy, even in a roller suitcase, was not easy, especially if elevators were out and she had to be on the third floor. Of course, no one ever offered to help her with the suitcase. She did her own editing and printing out of all her depositions and made probably $70,000 to $85,000 per year attending all the courts and taking depositions. She gave it up because of her hands and back and is now a paralegal. after going to college for that. She loved it though and used to call me for medical words she was stuck on....
Court Reporting
I actually graduated from CR school in Iowa and use my machine to transcribe. I would never discourage anyone from trying, but be aware that is very difficult to learn and achieving speeds takes dedication and a lot of time and practice. It sure isn't as easy as it looks, but the payoff is great in the end. I couldn't transcribe w/out my machine!
COURT REPORTING???
Has anyone out there ever thought of going from being an MT to court reporting? I have been transcribing for almost 15 years now. I know that the pay scale is better for court reporters, and there are schools that offer on-line classes now. I just wonder what the job prospects were. I have only known 2 court reports and both of them were working as MTs. Any info, anybody? Thanks
court reporting
I often think about court reporting too. I was told just recently by a court reporter if I was going to do it to go into real time reporting, don't know much about it, other than it is doing caption work for live tv.
court reporting
She's right, there are no jobs...they're all held by people who have no intention of giving them up and the rest of the court reporters are doomed to working for services. How do I know? My daughter attended a local college for this, finished the course with excellent grades and looked for a job but could not find an opening within reasonable distance. Tuition is horribly expensive also, so she's now in debt to the tune of approximatey 14,000 dollars, luckily it's Sallie Mae and is at 2.12%. Don't do it! This job is just too hard on your body and mind (if you do get a job, all you'll be hearing is about murders, drug deals, divorces and child abuse), and who needs that? In West Virginia, a court reporter starts out at 13,000 a year -you could make that McDonald's, easy, without having to repay an education loan. The local college's ads say Make $60,000 a year your first year...that is also bs. It's more like $28,000.
why would YOU get called into court?
All you know is what is in the medical record. You have nothing else to do with it...
Court Reporting vs MT
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 !
Court reporting (see m)
Hi - if you work for a court, you are paid an annual salary plus benefits, starting around 50k per year, just for sitting in court and taking down the proceedings and even if no one orders a transcript. On top of that, you also get transcript fees (if anyone orders a transcript) of $3 to $5 per page and more if you provide RealTime. Most court days come out to about 250 pages of transcript, so if someone orders even the cheapest transcript that's $750 right there.
Court reporting is much more lucrative than MT if you can get a full-time job with a court.
If you freelance and take depositions, then you can charge the parties an appearance fee for showing up, plus the transcript per-page fee, but it's usually a bit less lucrative than a courthouse position.
court reporting
thanks for the info! It's a better position than I was aware !
Court transcription
Most of court recordinds are now done on CD's during the hearings. If someone wants a transcript you can buy the CD. I have done some when they were on tapes and they are not wasy to transcribe with voices coming over voices, not being able to hear clearly, etc. A friend of mine works for an atty and she sometimes has to transcribe the CD's and she has torecord them over to tapes to transcribe -- now not sure if they would work with a .WAV pedal or not. But again, it is worse than insurance depositions or interviews as someone is always talking over someone else and it is hard to place the microphone where everyone that says something says it. And you never know when someone will want one transcribed. I acatually got a CD from my divorce hearing.
Court recordings
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.
Court Reporting
The poster is right in that it's a hard field to get into, at least in our area at the Courthouse, but there is always freelancing. You can make really good money if you're good. I do know that when I took ShortHand a long time ago (I was a legal secretary), there were court reporter students in the class and the machine looked really hard. You have to have tremendous speed. Good luck in whatever you decide to do.
court reporting
I used to transcribe for a friend who was a court reporter and she did voice recording. This was 15 years ago though. She had a 2-track tape recorder. She would repeat everything being said in the courtroom into a small microphone, that I believe was almost like a mask. One track of the tape would record the court proceedings, and the other track would record her. I would transcribe the court proceedings, and if I could not understand something, I would switch to the other track, and it would be her repeating the testimony, etc. Not sure if they even do this anymore, but she made a lot of money at the time.
court reporting
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?
IT COULD LAND IN COURT SM
Sorry for the shouting, I also did legal and one of my reports from a service with my initials on it was evidence and they questioned the doc on the stand. They say the report belongs to the doc but who knows when this will change. Thank goodness I had nothing to do with it, but they did ask him where it was typed, by whom, the time and date. Some docs do doctor the date to cover their kiesta and that's a hard decision to make. If the case were serious enough, I would question it or send it back with a note and document that note and make a copy. Sorry to be so serious but I've been in this a long time and I've hear it all. Lots of CYA stuff goes on (cover your -ss)
Court reporting
Yes, I've been through CR school. If you want to do it, go for it, but fair warning...you have to be married to that machine and have no life outside of it until your graduate. I agree with the other poster...it is extremely difficult, and unless you can dedicate 100% of your time to it, it's near impossible to make it through the course.
court reporting
I spent almost 3 years in CR school, was about to graduate and began to hate every minute I was chained to that machine. The school also had a MT program, so most of my credits transferred. Of the people that I knew who did go on to that career were disappointed with the money. Be careful researching this career and make sure you really want to do it. You really are a slave to that machine in court.
Took MTSO to court. sm
She only owed me a little, but refused to pay. Left post if I should sue or not, and I did!!!
Lawyer is waiting for check from MTSO, so I should get it shortly thereafter. Who knew???
MT to court reporter?
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.
Court Reporting
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.
court reporting
Go for it! You can do it. If I lived near a school, I would try it myself. I am 69 and will be 70 in the fall plus I am a disabled person (terrible back after surgery). Do not let your age stop you for doing anything. At the rate it is going now days, you might live to be 90 or 100. Just think all the productive years you have ahead of you!
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