In a moment of clarity, I sent a blog post of mine to a friend. She rightly pointed out that for many the confusion is not so much that there needs to be a contract or agreement, but rather many do not know what to put in a contract or agreement until they’ve been royally screwed.
To that end, I set out to see what people put on their rate sheets. I asked court reporters from around the country and received two or three actual rate sheets. For purposes of this post I will not add rates. Perhaps, if people ask, we can have a whole other post with regard to rates and numbers people may charge. As a general note, I express no opinion on these line items, but this gives all an idea of what others do so that we may all emulate what we want to emulate. In no particular order, we have:
- Same day.
- Overnight.
- Next day (daily).
- Two-day.
- Three-day.
- General turnaround time expectations.
- Deposition O&1.
- Arbitration O&1.
- Certified copy.
- No copy surcharge (O&1)
- Rough draft.
- Rough draft or expedite with “free copy.”
- Excerpt only surcharge.
- Expert surcharge.
- Technical testimony surcharge.
- Medical testimony surcharge.
- Video surcharge. (proceeding videotaped)
- Interpreter surcharge.
- Heavy accent/uncontrolled room surcharge.
- Teleconference/video conference surcharge. (Held over video/phone)
- Meeting/symposium/board surcharge.
- Transcript not ordered fee.
- Tape transcription with down payment.
- Confidential/nonconfidential surcharge.
- Appearance fee.
- Holiday/weekend appearance surcharges.
- Waiting time fee.
- Night job surcharge.
- Cancellation at or after 5 p.m.
- Cancellation before arriving to job.
- Cancellation after arriving before setting up.
- Cancellation after arriving after setting up.
- Statement on the record fee.
- Bust fee.
- Printing and shipping of exhibits.
- Adding an agreement to pay to rush/special orders and/or terms.
- Adding an agreement to pay according to the fee schedule.
- Mileage/travel surcharges
- Hotels/accommodations surcharges.
- Sale of audio fee.
- Notary-only appearance.
- Space/room fee.
- Witness review coordination fee.
As anyone can see there are innumerable ideas and guidelines for what might go on a rate sheet. It is down to us to see to it that our time and skill is adequately compensated, and a big part of that is ensuring our agreements contemplate as many of the little what ifs as possible.