These are the items that will set you apart, from my perspective as a firm owner, who will want to continue having you cover calendar for Jonnell Agnew & Associates.
New Procedure for handling exhibits on zoom/remote depositions, hearings, court:
When you introduce yourself on the record, this is the time to let everyone know that once an exhibit is marked, the attorney needs to email it to you ASAP or put it into the chat box. Be sure to take it out of the chat box before the attorney logs out of zoom. You can even let him know that you will take exhibit out of chat room right after he marks it. In the old days before zoom, and still in the in-person depositions, the attorney hands the exhibit to the reporter to mark it and then the reporter hands the document to the witness. After the witness is finished with the exhibit and attorney has no further questions with that exhibit, then the reporter keeps it in her custody. We would always double check before anyone left the deposition room to be sure all exhibits are with the reporter. Some attorneys inadvertently put the exhibit back in their file. And if there is a doctor as a witness and the attorney wants his records included as an exhibit, be sure to state that if you don’t get the document during the depo, there is a chance it will not be attached to the transcript.
If there are annotations made to the document, then mark it with a new number or mark it as 1-2, and have the attorney email it to you ASAP or put it in the chat box. Do NOT be afraid to ask them to do this. You are the guardian of the record and need to keep the chain of custody of exhibits in your possession. This is the only way to get exhibits and keep them under your control. If the attorney complains about you asking for this procedure, tell him it is the only way they will be attached to the transcript. And he can take his objections up with me.
If you do not get the exhibits because the attorney failed to upload to chat box or email to you, let him know that the exhibits will not be attached to the deposition transcript.
What sets the reporter apart for me, is when my clients let me know how pleased they are with the court reporter. The court reporter who dresses professionally. The court reporter who goes the extra mile by turning in rushes, roughs, dailies on time and with exhibits, meets all deadlines. Seasoned reporters do this with the help of scopists and proofreaders, but the court reporter is the one who gets the compliments because she is an amazing writer, she has certifications, goes to continuing education at court reporter conventions, she writes verbatim, that includes false starts, stuttering, never cleans up the language. Attorneys want all this on the record. It makes a difference how the witness answers questions if the attorney is asking disjointed questions. It is not the court reporter’s job to clean up anything on the record. You are to capture the record however it is spoken.
While on the record, the court reporter has control of the room at all times. The court reporter doesn’t let attorneys speak over each other. If the court reporter can’t hear something, the court reporter asks immediately for it to be repeated and then she reads back with clarity and confidence always. And a smart court reporter asks for breaks every hour. A court reporter needs to be rested in order to make a good record. Attorneys want the court reporter to control the room. But if you are a court reporter who is asking to repeat over and over because you are not up to speed or not paying attention, this will not end well.
What sets the court reporter apart for me is also keeping track of exhibit numbering and reminding the attorney to mark the exhibits in order which saves hours of time since you won’t be emailing the attorney to ask for instructions about marking the exhibits after the deposition has ended and making sure the court reporter has all exhibits at the end of the deposition.
Take screen shots as often as necessary so you have the exhibits in different stages. The court reporter needs to guard the exhibits and the record, the CSR notes, with her life. You cannot lose these items. You cannot leave exhibits in your car or the raw notes anywhere if they can get stolen. A court reporter always backs up their files. A court reporter who knows how to use her CAT software to make her writing and transcript production quick and easy is a blessing.
Always turn in the transcript within the due date period. Being late on turn-in creates extra work for the office and we have to deal with irate attorneys who expected their transcript on a particular day. Turn in a complete transcript with exhibits, invoice, with parking receipts, and worksheet with instructions about delivery, and be that court reporter who has confirmed with all attorneys present at the depo or court their addresses, email address and email address for the person in accounts payable who will pay for their copy order and get the email of the witness to be notified to read and sign. My agency does a quality control check and my court reporters appreciate the feedback and knowing their mistakes so they can learn.
The court reporter who turns in their transcripts earlier than the due date stands out especially if the job comes in without typos, etc. and lets the office know when the court reporter has finished the job just in case the court reporter can cover a last-minute setting and who helps out covering calendar when the court reporter really doesn’t want to. Very helpful for the agency owner.
The organized court reporter never loses track of job status and differentiates this by keeping files of progress on each job and due dates. Using Google sheets can help with this.
The following are bullet points of good practices:
- Arriving to the job site or zoom job early by 30 minutes so you can meet and greet the attendees whereby you can confirm their names, who they represent, their email information and address. If they have a business card, please take a screen shot of it when you are on a Zoom depo or court. In person, get business cards.
- Where you can also ask if they want to purchase a copy and get the accounts payable email so the invoice goes to the correct department at the firm. (This means you get paid faster too.)
- Set up your EZ speaker files in your CAT software, enter job dictionary words. Fill out your caption and appearance pages at the job site.
- Ask attorneys to speak one at a time whenever necessary so you do not have to spend hours transcribing garbage. Write smarter not harder. Ask to speak one at a time as often as it takes. If you don’t understand them, ask. Create briefs on the fly.
- Ask for breaks every hour at an opportune time as not to interrupt a question and answer. Preferably after an answer or end of a topic.
- Control the exhibits. Always keep track of the next exhibit number. Put the exhibit blurb right where the attorney introduces it as an exhibit. It’s okay to put the blurb before she or he says to mark it, (fyi, mark the exhibit as soon as the attorney introduces it to avoid forgetting the ID of each exhibit.) It is okay to interrupt the attorney to say, “Please let me mark it now.” So when the attorneys are looking on the index page and see the page number for a particular exhibit, they go to that page number and that is where they started talking about the exhibit.
- If on zoom and one exhibit is being used for different annotations, then suggest that each doc is a new exhibit number. Never leave the depo without the exhibits. You are the custodian of exhibits especially original exhibits that the witness annotated or marked with circles, etc. Do not leave exhibits in your car ever. You do not want them to get stolen.
- ID exhibits properly, cut and paste from the transcript the ID, don’t just put “photographs,” use description the attorney made on the record. Use CAT software index building. ID with Bates numbers and if no Bates numbers, put 3-1, 3-2, etc. on each page and note how many pages the exhibits are in your description.
- Name your job files differently to show different stages, i.e., if you send to proofreader and get the job back you need to use the correct file to make changes. When job comes to the agency, it can be named with “final” at the end of the name. It helps us know we are using the correct file.
- When you scope the job, you do so on the computer. If you go through it once, I suggest going through it a second time on the computer, and then print out the pages on paper and then proofread it. If there are a lot of mistakes, then you need to proofread it again on paper after you make the necessary corrections. And it is very important to read on paper. You miss things reading only on the computer. After you send the job to your proofreader, spot check the proofreader. Especially the first three pages which have the caption, index and appearance page. And share corrections you found with your scopist and proofreader so they learn how to produce the transcript properly.
- In my agency the Quality Control department will find a lot of mistakes on final job turn in. That is not acceptable, but it does happen because we are human. I want to work with reporters who take pride in their work and who turn in jobs without mistakes (some slip through the cracks.) You make a lot of money and you work hard to earn that money so you want to do a good job.
- Keep track of due dates, and turn in work on time or early and as a final-final job.
- Its teamwork that helps with this highly intense profession.
- In read-back blurbs, insert what court reporter reads back in the blurb.
- Double indent quoted material.
- Paragraph after a bunch of false starts.
- Paragraph after 4-5 lines so there is ease of context if it calls for it.
- Keep dashes together with the previous word so it doesn’t split the line.
- Ask attorney when they need the transcript delivered, do they need it expedited, if not when do they need it. If they ask you what is regular turn-around time, tell them “whenever you need it.”
- Jobs need to be turned in by the due date on your job notification unless attorney specifies differently.
- Need to keep an open line of communication with the office always. Must give us job details including estimated page counts so we have an idea of your workload. Please treat every job as if it is an expedite so you can get a head start on getting the transcript to the office.
- Best case scenario is that you give yourself time to turn in the job to us in 8-10 business days as a final. We need time to quality control the job and spot proofread it. We will return the job to you to proofread it again if we find mistakes. We need to do accurate scoping work. Need to do accurate proofreading and it is best to print the pages and read them on paper. (just saying it again so it sinks in.)
- If the attorney needs the job sooner than three weeks, then you need to make sure you get it to the office five days before due date, if possible. Communicate with office always about deadlines and meeting them. We are here to help you.
Thank you for taking the time to read these suggestions.
Jonnell Agnew, Certified Shorthand Reporter No. 5437, RPR No. 453
Jonnell Agnew & Associates
Court Reporters, videographers, interpreters
Serving the legal community since 1981 – I do know a thing or two about producing transcripts and court reporting, but am always open to suggestions. This is the best career choice ever for me and hopefully for you. I am here always to give pep talks.