I have decided that my focus in 2010 is going to be joy.  I want to live joy and give joy.  For every decision I make personally and professionally, I am going to consider joy as a factor.  I believe I have the greatest job on earth being a court reporter.  My clients are wonderful.  I have so much respect for the court reporters who work my calendar and my staff. 

 

The associations and clubs I belong to, Deposition Reporters Association of California (www.caldra.org), the National Court Reporters Association (www.ncraonline.org), Society for the Technological Advancement of Reporting (www.staronline.org), San Diego Downtown Breakfast Rotary Club (www.sdrotary.org), San Diego Legal Secretaries Association (www.sdlsa.org), Lawyers Club of San Diego (www.lawyersclubsandiego.com), and San Diego Paralegals Association (www.sdparalegals.org) all give me energy and joy.  It is where I can find like-minded people to share experiences and information.

 

I am blessed with many national and international friends and advisors I have met via Twitter and social media, businesspersons, reporters, CART providers, and captioners that are “best in class” in their respective fields.  I use the word “met” in the sense of only knowing these individuals online.  If you told me in 2008 I would have “web friends” and “web advisors,” I would tell you that you are crazy.  “I am not that kind of a person.”  Thank goodness I believe in new ideas and change, or I wouldn’t have these friends.

 

Because of this blog, I have received emails from “strangers” all over the country.  I have heard from wonderful court reporting students, people trying to decide if they should go to court reporting school and change their career paths.  Schools, state associations, and other court reporting firms have contacted me asking if they can post different blog posts in their newsletters or on web sites.  I consider all of the “strangers” who contact me because of this blog my friends.  I take all queries and questions seriously and am happy to answer anyone.

 

I look forward to 2010, a new year and the beginning of a new decade.  All of the people in my life, the people I described in the last four paragraphs, give me joy.  My plan is to give joy right back.  

 

Let’s make up our minds to really go for it in 2010 and be the best we can be.  I can hardly wait!

 

rosalie@kramm.com

 

Twitter:  @rosaliekramm

 

www.kramm.com

January 1, 2000, 12:00 a.m., seems like a long time ago.  As a working court reporter and firm owner I have felt the highs and lows that our industry has experienced.  I remember vividly the days before the millennium backing up everything on all of our computers.  We were backing up on floppy disks and weird little drives in anticipation of the great Y2K disaster.  No one knew if our computers would be able to handle the year 2000. 

In the early part of our decade, large “national” court reporting firms were being born.  As the decade passed, many small-to-medium-size court reporting firms became “national” creating relationships and affiliations with other firms in different territories.  “Networking” has become a common phrase.   With the ease of emailing transcripts, scanning exhibits, and video conferencing, reporting firms are able to cover jobs for each other and keep the client happy working with their local firm.

With the suffering economy in California has come a slow-down in my areas of litigation.  Business disputes are expensive to litigate.  I have read dozens of articles about law firms downsizing in attorneys, staff, and space.  Court reporters in California state courts have the monthly furlough now which means they work one less day a month and take a cut in their salary.  The freelance court reporters have had a very tough year up and down the state. 

My belief is in the spring of 2010 things are going to start popping.  I am a layperson, but I have been studying market trends, analyzing the banking crises and stimulus package, and I am of the belief things are going to be shifting drastically.  I hope my fellow reporters are going to be ready.  I don’t want to hear of any old, crummy machines being out there or DOS-based software.  I cannot emphasize enough the necessity of being on the top of your game for your future. 

This decade is almost gone.  Let’s thrive on the positive shifts our industry has gone through and flourish in 2010 – 2020.  Each court reporter as an individual makes up the profession as a whole.  We all need to work together.  Join your state associations and national.  They are on your side and are working for your future. 

 

rosalie@kramm.com

@rosaliekramm (Twitter) 

“I don’t want to fly to Cleveland for a two-hour deposition.  What are my options?”  Clark, our calendar coordinator, was asked this question last week by one of our clients.  As travel becomes more stressful, expensive, and time consuming, attorneys are looking for technology solutions to allow them to depose clients nationally and/or internationally without leaving their city.  The question is:  what are your options?

 

1.      Traditional Video Conferencing:  Many of the large law firms are buying video conference equipment and have the equipment in-house.   If a law firm does not have the equipment, typically the firm will call their court reporter and ask the firm to set up a video conference.  Many court reporting firms have in-house video conference equipment and offer it as a service.  The court reporting firm will find a public room in the location where the deponent is and coordinate the event. 

 

Tips for Traditional VC to attorneys:

 

a.      Make your notice very clear where deponent will be and the time including the time zone.

b.     It is best to have a videographer and reporter with the witness.  A notary needs to swear in the witness.

c.      Exhibits:  As much as possible, anticipate what exhibit(s) you will want to show the witness.  Have the exhibits shipped to the deposition site.  If you want the court reporter to present the exhibit(s) to the witness, please give her/him a chance to get the document(s) out.  She/he cannot write testimony and hand out documents at the same time.

d.     Be conscious of time.  The public rooms and line charges will be billed on an hourly basis.

e.     If your law firm has in-house equipment, be clear with your court reporting firm whether you want to use IP or ISDN.   If you are using your in-house VC equipment and are using IP protocol, you will want IP on the other end.  A bridge can be brought in so the IP speaks to the ISDN, but it adds a cost to the event.

f.       Expect your court reporting firm or VC provider to do a test the day before the event.

 

2.      Skype:  Clients are calling in requesting Skype.  Skype is free software.  When Skype was first put into the market it was meant to be an audio application and the video was added later.  The coordinator of the Skype deposition needs to have a good camera and be in a location where DSL or T1 technology is available via a CT5 connection.

 

Beware of Skype:  I have heard from many IT people it is easy to hack into a Skype event.  I just Googled Skype and hack and found numerous sites that sell software that allows a person to hack into a Skype feed.  No one would ever want testimony out in the public domain.

 

General tips for Court Reporters and Videographers: 

 

1.      If you are assigned to a VC deposition, be organized.  You are going to need to get the names of everyone participating, including the people at the remote location for your appearance page. 

 

2.     If you are asked to help coordinate the exhibits, have them readily available to you and away from the witness.  Take charge in a nice way.  Don’t let attorney(s) talk while you are finding a document and handing it to the witness.

 

3.     Many times you will be alone with the witness, and everyone else will be at a remote location.  If the witness wants to start chatting about the case or why he/she is there, quickly and firmly interrupt the witness, change the subject or say something such as, “I am only here to take down the testimony.  I can’t talk about the case.”  I can easily imagine a scenario in which the first question by the attorney taking the deposition is, “Did you discuss your deposition with anyone?”  And the witness answers, “Yes, with the court reporter.”

 

I hope this helps answer some of the questions about the use of video conferencing.  Our firm finds it to be extremely valuable for our clients.  Please contact me if you would like more information.

 

rosalie@kramm.com

 

twitter:  @rosaliekramm 

I learned my steno theory in 1979.  The idea of realtime court reporting was not on the horizon yet.  My theory consisted of learning only to write phonetically and for my eyes only.  I did not pick up a lot of briefs because I went through school fast.  I am to this day a pounder.  The faster they talk, the faster I pound on the steno keys.

 

Thanks to NCRA, I am now a proficient Certified Realtime Reporter.  The reason I give the National Court Reporters Association credit is they put together seminars in the late 1980s that focused on a new theory and the concept of writing for other people’s eyes, cleaning up conflicts and using abbreviations in a smarter, more efficient way.  I have written in a previous blog my painful shift to “conflict free” writing.  My pride pushed me to pass the CRR.

 

Now with modern CAT (computer-aided transcription) systems with artificial intelligence, being a realtime writer is easier than ever.  My software makes suggestions on new briefs, reminds me of old briefs I have used in the past for a word or phrase, and tries to figure out if I am writing Sandy (the name) or sandy (as in a type of dirt). 

 

I am surprised by the amount of “older” reporters who are too frightened to become realtime reporters and write for other people’s eyes.  I know reporters who have been working in the freelance field for decades, and they refuse to hook up because of fear.  Most of these reporters are baby boomers or generation Xers. 

 

I wonder, is it a generational thing?    The reason I ask that is I hear of new reporters, not even two months out of school, ordering their cables and putting on their resume they are realtime ready and want to do realtime jobs.  I understand they have had “conflict free” theories, and perhaps that gives them no fear.  They were told from the moment they entered school that they would be able to write realtime by the time they graduated or they wouldn’t get out of school.   

 

In the past, as a firm owner, I have insisted that a reporter have five years under her/his belt before she/he hooks up.  If I were mentoring a new reporter today, perhaps I would suggest two or three years.  I cannot imagine putting a reporter on a realtime job with only a couple of months of experience.  For the first year of a court reporter’s life there is a huge learning curve.  The dictionary needs to be built.  Dealing with overlapping talking, fast colloquy, and angry people takes finesse that only comes with experience. 

 

My advice to older reporters – get over it.  Face your fears.  If you are a clean writer, move forward and challenge yourself to the next step.  No one is perfect.  Attorneys understand.  Take my word for it.  I am not perfect when I write.  To test your ability, give a sample of a raw transcript with no edits to someone you respect and ask, “Is this good enough?” 

 

My advice to younger reporters – be careful not to hook in too soon.  Your reputation and credibility is important.  I am not going to say you have to wait a prescribed amount of time before you hook in.  Give yourself a chance to build up your dictionary and become comfortable with every type of job, not just workers’ comp or personal injury.  Those types of depositions rarely call for realtime.  The realtime jobs are going to be the more sophisticated, complex type litigation. 

 

I love doing realtime jobs.  To me it is a game I get to play, “How perfect can I be today?”  I know the secret “tricks” of the trade when I misstroke or even worse (too secret to write in a blog). 

 

All of this experience obviously comes with time.  Court reporters out there, let’s all become better reporters, faster, cleaner, and more confident.  It is so much fun.

 

rosalie@kramm.com

 

twitter:  @rosaliekramm

 
            

                        I am a fan of the CBS show 60 Minutes.  I love the simplicity of the ticking stopwatch in place of a catchy tune that opens and closes each episode.  I love the informative journalism.  Each week I learn something new and have my eyes opened to goings-on around the globe I may not otherwise be aware of. 

 

                                    Although some weeks I am discouraged by the stories, some weeks sad, last night I was absolutely inspired.  The story about American Bob Ballard, undersea explorer, fascinated me.  Bob Ballard is a man who never gives up.  He does not let others shut him down, and he finds new and innovative ways to solve old problems.

 

                        For 73 years the massive cruiseliner Titanic rested undiscovered on the ocean’s gigantic floor in pitch black water, eluding the world’s most relevant and successful undersea explorers.  Before Ballard, the searches for Titanic were done in exactly the same way, using the traditional sonar approach.  Many had tried; all had failed.

 

                                    Then Ballard came along.  Ballard found his success by thinking outside the box.  Referring to the method of sonar exploration to locate Titanic, Ballard said, “Well, clearly that’s not working.” 

 

                                    Ballard expanded his search area.  Rather than use sonar to comb every inch of the ocean floor as others had done, he used cameras on a remote-controlled vehicle to hunt visually, spacing his search lines almost one mile apart.  By using this approach, Ballard was able to pick up the trail of debris left behind when Titanic was carried north by the ocean’s strong currents and left her in her final resting place, her bow buried 60 feet into the bottom of the ocean’s floor.  Ballard followed the trail and walked right into Titanic, arguably the most successful, relevant, and famous undersea discovery in history.

 

                                    Ballard found his success by thinking outside the box.  When asked how other explorers could not find Titanic before, Ballard said, “They were in the, ‘this is the way you do it’.  I live outside the box.  I’m always outside the box.”

 

                                    Officials in court are forbidden to use paperless writers or wireless realtime connections to hook their judges, despite the recurring issue of realtime freezing each and every day.  Can you even buy a new writer that produces paper notes?  I have no idea.  I don’t care to know.  That method of storing notes is circa 19- something.  1920 perhaps?

 

                                    Court administrators are like the explorers who came before Ballard.  They are locked inside the dark, dreary box, afraid to even peek outside their air-tight seal to see what possibilities lie outside.  They believe things are done one way and one way only, because that’s the way it’s always been done.  To innovation and the latest technology, they say no, no, no.  (I just broke into a sweat and started itching as I typed this last paragraph.)

 

                                    Imagine if Bob Ballard had acquiesced to the restrictive opinions of those who came before him.  Where would undersea discovery be today?  To court reporters everywhere I say this:  Get out of the box.  Let’s all follow Ballard’s example and think of new ways to solve old problems.  Let’s invite change, try new things, share our knowledge, and see where it takes us.

 

                                    Though it is unlikely we will discover ancient mysteries of the sea, where will we end up?  We will never know until we pack our box with all those old paper notes, USB to serial cables, outdated versions of software, floppy disks, and discard it once and for all in a land far, far away.

 

Twitter:  @lindakpool