A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

Has the same thing happened to court reporting? - as has happened to us?

Posted: Nov 06, 2013

Just got to wondering. I know back when I made 50K doing MT, I was told court reporters were making twice that. I never really understood what they do, some kind of shorthand machine? only I don't think they use that anymore. So has their career gone down the tubes as well? anyone know?

Good question - I would like to know

[ In Reply To ..]
Hmm...that's an interesting question. I'd assume that they really need a live body doing the typing during a trial, since there are many instances of "strike this" and "objection" and "overruled," etc. They need the reports instantly, so I don't think they'd be able to outsource. But I don't know.

scoping - NK

[ In Reply To ..]
Check out scoping. I have a friend who does it, and I thought about it, but I live in a small town and can't relocate so it isn't feasible for me.

Notereader Scopist - Took the first course many years ago

[ In Reply To ..]
Back in the 90s I took the first course to become a notreader scopist. I absolutely loved it and for some reason the combination of letters made sense to me and I just could read them as though I was reading a book. Unfortunately I could not continue because each course was 500 and I didn't have that much money back then.

Don't know where the field is going. I've been reading a lot of things though that people need a skill that cannot be duplicated in a foreign country. Unfortunately notereader scopist can be, so I don't think it's what it used to be like.

I know that the court reporter - steno machine is very

[ In Reply To ..]
expensive... check them out if you are interested... but on top of that, to become State certified, you have to be able to "type" at a very high rate of speed. From what I have heard, it is very difficult to accomplish that rate, which separates the chafe, I guess. and you have to be certified in order to get the court appointed jobs.

Once worked with an MT who thought wanted - to become court reporter

[ In Reply To ..]
Fully trained as MT, bought equipment, signed up and started classes for court reporting. He did not last long, said he found it terribly hard to accomplish and gave up. By the way, in MTing he had really good speed. I have heard to be accomplished your speed needs to be faster than a speeding bullet, if you know what I mean. An average typist, I would say under 110-120 wpm, would not make the cut in any form or fashion.

A lot of courts are going digital - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
and that requires transcription of the proceedings. Depending on the nature of the court proceedings, it can be good audio or horrible - think multispeaker, cross-talk, arguing, telephonic speakers, etc. I do DMV appeal hearings and grand jury indictment stuff and it's definitely hit and miss on the audio quality. And you have to know your colloquy.

Court Reporting - see msg

[ In Reply To ..]
The thing about the skill of court reporting is that it has a wider range of what you would be able to do if "things" went electronic. (I'm not clear if you're worried about electronics taking over, or offshoring, but I'm talking electronics.)

In other words, you can go on to something like closed captioning if you have the court reporting skill, but an MT would not be able to do that w/out knowing how to use the machine.

Back in the day (1997), I was weighing out MT versus court reporting for my career. I had to do most of my research at the library with books, as the Internet was in its infancy and was no where near what it is today. Back then, they assumed court reporting would be lost to electronics before MT would, so I went with MT.

However, I am finding that court reporting would have been a better choice, because there would still be more options open now.

I was making $50,000/year "back in the day" until about 2004 when it started going sour with ASR and offshoring. I was still making $40K, so I wasn't too upset. It just went down REALLY FAST after that, so I got out completely in 2009.

I am a "court reporter/stenographer." - Forsteno

[ In Reply To ..]
There are many different fields that you can use your skill as a stenographer. Working for the courts is a very small percentage of those jobs. Most court reporters are not stenographers and never have been. The lower courts have always used straight typists. I have my own business and I transcribe every day using my steno machine and I transcribe a very wide variety of jobs; i.e., insurance, legal, veterinary, medical, etc. If the work is available, I am going to make more comparatively because I can type 220 wpm. But then you factor in amount of down time, rate, etc. and we may make the same per hour. I have been doing this from home for 16 years, every day, all day and I am very happy with my choice.

Similar Messages:

Mar 03, 2011

As I have all of my eggs in one basket with medical transcription, I am looking into court reporting. I have been in this industry for 20 years and I have seen the constant decline of this industry. I am just curious if anyone has knowledge of court reporting and if it would be an easy transition. I will primarily be focused on worker's comp depositions. I don't foresee any problem with the doctor's deposition as I have the medical terminology down. Thanks for any i ...

Oct 19, 2010

All of my work seems to be going to EMR or voice recognition. I have three kids and I need to stay financially stable. As I hang on to my last account, I am looking to go back to school. I dont know where to go. I was thinking about court reporting and/or scoping work. Does anyone know where I can find information on these careers? Better yet, does anyone have personal experiencing working within this field? ...

Nov 06, 2010

Anybody have any info on court reporting and/or scoping? ...

Apr 20, 2010

The date changes so much I'm just not sure. All I know is that when my shift is over, the jobs keep on coming in. I thought we'd be able to type the one we are in plus one in the queue and that's it...... ...

Dec 07, 2010

Whatever happened to this swapboard thing? Everytime I go in to check it there are no dates/times there to swap. Is anybody else using this? I wanted to try to swap some hours for next Sunday to go to X-mas church service. Sent 2 emails to supervisor and a phone call and have gotten no response in 2 weeks - that's ridiculous. So, is it up and running or not? ...

Oct 26, 2014

I politely refused to use it on my personal computer and was told I would be sent a company computer..nothing yet ...

Aug 08, 2013

Somebody fry these bas****s! Document EVERYTHING! Someone posted about how to save the voice files. Also save your completed document into a Word document so it can be proved that the document was created on a certain date and never modified. Print copies of all correspondence for anything that isn't just a mundane question. Take screen shots or whatever you need to do of FIEFSA or anything else. Challenge all errors. Document dates and times you run out of work. Document it all. Find w ...

Aug 10, 2011

Reading online earlier about 5 jobs where you can earn over $100K without a degree. The last was court reporter and the 90th percentile earnings were $105K, median $57,200. Not looking to even earn that much but would like to know if anyone knows what the training entails. TIA ...

Jul 26, 2010

I am considering taking a scoping course/do reports for court reporters, may be in the future to make a switch from medical transcription. Anyone has any advice for me. Thanks. ...

Jun 22, 2011

Has anyone heard of this company out of D.C.? and if so, what do you know? ...

Apr 08, 2010

So hoping it doesn't come to this, but I'm thinking I may need to take someone to small claims court. Would my invoices work? Logs? Or do I need the actual reports and if so how does HIPAA play into that? Any advice? many thanks busybee ...

Apr 15, 2010

MedQuist Inc. is set to buy bankrupt medical transcription firm Spheris Inc., sources confirmed to NashvillePost.com this morning. The New Jersey-based company came out on top in the race to buy Spheris' assets, beating out competitors Transcend Services and Nuance Communications in an auction that apparently lasted through Wednesday night and into this morning. It is unclear this morning what price MedQuist (Ticker: MEDQ) will actually pay for Spheris. Transcend offered $7 ...

Jun 28, 2012

Will MTs become dinosaurs? Will everything be point-and-click by the doctors and traditional dictation become a thing of the past? I've been using IntraScript for my doctors' dictation for many years now. Will these types of digital platforms become obsolete? I admit I'm worried. I'm the sole support of my family. All opinions are appreciated, and I look forward to reading each one.... ...

Jun 03, 2013

You know this board is being watched today after that email. I am sure the Royal 3 are being kept abreast of every post here today. ...

Feb 28, 2010

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/medquist-awarded-court-approval-as-stalking-horse-bidder-for-domestic-assets-of-spheris-85356647.html Wow, court okayed and approved for MQ to go ahead and bid on April 13, for Spheris. Plus MQ is coming out with their own EPIC and it causes 70% less dictation. EXPECT NO JOBS AVAILABLE COMING SOON. Also expect getting picked on with your job audits because they want to fire most of us and just keep the BEST OF THE BEST which I h ...

Jul 27, 2012

Whatcha think? :-) ...

Aug 01, 2010

anyone work for them? ...

Jul 28, 2011

I keep a log of my F11s and report then all at once, at the end of the day, like instructed since a couple of months ago. I apparently left one number out of the IJ# last week and just got a phone call. I got chewed out about ABUSING F11! I got so angry that I argued back that as the person that is having to attempt to decipher a ESL dictator using a poor quality system with disgustingly poor audio quality that I should be given a MEDAL to have made heads AND tails ...

Aug 27, 2012

Is that the right place, cause have been doing it for over 3 weeks now and getting really frustrated...my comments are getting nastier and nastier by the day, would hate for no one to be seeing them. ...

Nov 19, 2012

Log into Remedy and when I click report a problem-->report NJA, the screen turns blue and won't let me do anything. On hold with support, just wanted to check here.TIA ...

Mar 06, 2014

What difference does it make if we are over reporting our hours. We don't get PTO any longer so what does it matter? We r supposed to clock in and out when we get up to use the restroom or just stretch our legs. Other people that work outside of MT don't have to clock in and out each time they get up to go to the bathroom then why should we? That way we have to work an hour or 2 longer than we are scheduled just to get in potty breaks or leg stretching time!!!! ...

Feb 08, 2015

I had posted about this when I was still with the company. I'm reposting this to help you all out, as when I had last posted about it I had emailed Nuance regarding the New York law. I had emailed them regarding my shift, that I followed all procedures, and then I sent a .pdf of the New York State Labor statute regarding reporting time pay. THEY PAID IT. THEY ABSOLUTELY PAID IT. My TSM was not happy and thought I had mismarked the time card. HR/Payrol ...

Oct 10, 2011

it's a legal transcription that had a job listing late September and it has intrigued me. Apparently they pay by the page, and I have no idea how that would work out. I also wonder about work flow/ does it dry up? can you have backup accounts, etc etc. Thanks in advance. ...

Sep 19, 2012

can anyone tell me how to report an incident in Remedy? I click on report a problem then the only choice I have is Report a hardware/software issue, report NJA or F11. There is nothing there about reporting a new incident?? ...

Jul 21, 2014

Regarding the DLP - I've seen it written variously mGy-cm, mGy•cm and mGy.cm. Becuase it's a product, my inclination is think that the second (with the dot used as in mathmetical publications to indicate multiplication) is correct but just not sure. Anyone have a definitive answer & reference? Thanks :) ...

Aug 06, 2010

I am a former MedQuister who left over 2 years ago. I just today recieved a letter from MQ stating they have contacted me 3 times over equipment that had not been returned that belongs to them. As far as I know, I was only contacted one time, it was about 3 or 4 months after I had left, and I had returned my equipment about a week or two after I ended my employment. So...this letter says they will report the equipment as stolen to the authorities, will report $2000 value of equipment on a tax f ...

May 21, 2015

I am just curious...has anyone ever reported companies that don't pay you for your work? I have been reading posts about some of them particularly the one that has a new pay system where I think you all said you only get paid for 80% of your work?? How absurd. That has got to be illegal. I have provided the link to get you started. I reported a company I worked for 30 years ago in a different field who tried to withold my paycheck because I just quit without notice. All I had to do wa ...

Jan 21, 2010

...if it's obvious they are really looking for employees but want to avoid paying benefits. Just how much abuse and illegal crap are we supposed to take in this industry. Enough already!! ...

Feb 18, 2015

sooooo...I just received an email from the quality person of the day. She said the client requested an audit of all reports for a certain provider based upon poor quality. Two of my reports came up on this audit as being below 99.5. These reports had 1-point errors on them because of omitted and/or inserted medical words. I am not denying that I made the mistakes. However, if there is a consistent quality problem with a certain provider, perhaps...and I kno ...

May 12, 2011

You reported messages all morning and are still at it. There is nothing wrong with the messages you are reporting. I can tell from your statements that you think your comments are going to the person who made the post. Well, they aren't! LOL They come only to me. You can take your snide, hateful self to another board if you don't like what is being posted here. Moderator ...