Last week word spread that a ruling had been made that the Judicial Branch Certification Commission (JBCC) in Texas should investigate StoryCloud. From my outsider point of view StoryCloud was or is one of those companies obsessed with cutting corners and/or cutting the stenographer/court reporter out of the deal. That business model is flawed not only because stenography is the most technologically advanced method of taking and transcribing the spoken word, but also from a legal standpoint. In some states, pretending to be a court reporter is simply illegal.
A great big thank you to Jo Ann Byles Holmgren, who initiated the lawsuit that led to this moment. She tells it better than I ever could. In short, the JBCC refused to investigate alleged violations of law. A writ of mandamus was filed to make the government do its job. A judge ruled the JBCC should investigate. StoryCloud more or less deleted its website. Perhaps this will be a roadmap for California, where the California licensing board refuses to protect court reporting consumers and regulate digital court reporting.
Click here for that raffle.
For anyone that wants the JBCC’s answer and plea, it’s here:
The response to the plea is here:
I’ll be adding a transcript of the hearing as soon as it’s available.
Following the ruling, most of the StoryCloud site was trashed in favor of a little blurb.
StoryCloud’s demise is not the only good news out of Texas. Mark Kislingbury claimed the new world record at Shaunise Day’s Fearless Stenographers Conference with 370 words per minute (WPM) for one minute at 95.4% accuracy.
I am always saying that if stenographers fight, they will win. Look no further than Jo Ann Byles Holmgren telling the government they’re wrong and winning. Look no further than Shaunise Day’s masterfully done and widely-acclaimed conference — a feat rarely pulled off by an individual unless it’s an industry veteran like Marc Greenberg (StenoFest) or MaryAnn Payonk (Empowerment). Look no further than Mark Kislingbury’s own personal triumph, defeating his former world record of 360 WPM. True failure is making no attempt to meet your goals. Until one is a true failure, one has a real shot at success.
I just lost my job with StoryCloud as did about 200 others. I don’t see the good news here. I feel bad for all those who depended on this job to feed their families.
I’m sorry you lost your job! Perhaps you can apply to be scheduling or production at an existing court reporting firm and/or pick up legal videography (CLVS – NCRA) or stenography (NCRA A to Z, Project Steno, Open Steno.)
You see, what we are experiencing is these large firms come in and bait investors into burning money on “the future.” In actuality what they’re doing is attempting to consolidate our market at the expense of the players already in that market. They do this without regard to whether their model is legal or sustainable.
I have no animus to you all as people and workers. I am forever on the side of the working person. From an outsider view, the company knew it was not doing things the right way and it didn’t have any plan to do things the right way. They didn’t even care enough to plan for a severance for all of you. In the short term, I know this hurts. In the long term, the industry will likely be better off — as will the people that remain a part of it.
You are not a real certified court reporter. You are doing something illegal by pretending you are. Go to court reporting school and become certified and then you can work legally (at least in Texas)!!
Workers for this company are leaches off the backs of others who have worked for years to maintain their court reporting license. Go to school and learn something. If you didn’t know this was cheating, c’est la vie. After 40 years of reporting and all the ups and downs and changes and all-nighters I and others have endured, good riddance to this company and others following their path.
If there wasn’t an “us against them” mentality and stenographers actually took the time to learn the technology and incorporate it into their work, which would make their lives easier, as well as the state boards putting regulations like minimum education requirements, there wouldn’t be this mess with no compromise to the integrity of court reporting. See it from a technological perspective that would make YOUR life easier. The advancements with the technology are amazing. Also, it would not make school so grueling to get through, where students can focus on their academics and how to put a transcript together, instead of paying these schools thousands of dollars trying to get through the speeds with no end in sight for many of them. There’s many ways to take down the record and digital reporting is just one of them. Learn to use it to your advantage so everyone wins in the end.
I appreciate your perspective. Perhaps you will be able to appreciate mine. Technology can be viewed as a tool. There is no doubt. And many in our field do view certain technology as a tool. Consider AudioSync. Everyone has it. Most of us utilize it. But I do not buy into the idea that this technology automatically improves us. In fact, I have personally seen incredible drops in productivity (or accuracy) when picking through audio.
Similarly, this is the problem digital faces. You are trading getting it in text right then and there with recording it and figuring it out later. Transcribers are then in the background suffering through it — unless that audio is perfect, something drops, productivity or accuracy. So stenography remains one of the best ways to do this. Voice writing is acceptable because it’s utilizing someone’s specific voice profile to “re-transcribe” what’s being said.
I do take the comments about the difficulty steno students face seriously. And I don’t wish any lack of success on digital reporters. But I continue to take umbrage with the larger corporations growing this digital industry at our expense. When I ask agency owners what percentage of their jobs go uncovered, I’m told 0 to 5 percent. The statistics put out there by the larger corporations would point to some 16% of the work going uncovered, which means they are likely being dishonest.
So as I have seen it, there is a shortage being exaggerated for the purpose of selling the digital reporting service. Once that’s sold and reliably seen as equivalent, companies can use digital reporters to bump stenographers. This is the same game that was played on my generation of reporters. We were told if we didn’t take XYZ job some other stenographer would. Ultimately it was a tactic to get us to do the same work for less.
This is why when I choose to educate digitals, I do it in a very specific way.
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTd4M3L2C/
I do appreciate your perspective, but the technology is there now. The realtime is there and the same software companies that stenos use have developed software that work just like it would with a steno machine; only difference is you use a regular keyboard and realtime transcription. It’s amazing and the only thing needed would be to scope the work after.
I do agree that the major corporations like Esquire, USLS, Veritext, etc. are killing the industry. Most big box companies eventually try to and most succeed, and that’s where we need to come together and make the changes necessary to keep the integrity of the record. Stop vilification of digital reporters and any other means of taking down the record, and let’s impose the same standards that stenos are held to for all methods and not destroy it before giving it a real chance because these companies are using it to their advantage — and IT’S WORKING. And as far as having to “figure it out later,” that goes for any way of taking down the record when one doesn’t get trained properly or isn’t suited for the job. Again, it’s the big companies that are to blame for that, not the people who actually respect the industry. I feel lucky to have been trained in steno, but I’m now a digital. I have yet to have any problems because I was trained right and do my own transcripts with both methods of taking down the record. Now is the time to work together before the corruption of the corporations get what they want.
I do appreciate your perspective, but the technology is there now. The realtime is there and the same software companies that stenos use have developed software that work just like it would with a steno machine; only difference is you use a regular keyboard and realtime transcription. It’s amazing and the only thing needed would be to scope the work after.
I do agree that the major corporations like Esquire, USLS, Veritext, etc. are killing the industry. Most big box companies eventually try to and most succeed, and that’s where we need to come together and make the changes necessary to keep the integrity of the record. Stop vilification of digital reporters and any other means of taking down the record, and let’s impose the same standards that stenos are held to for digitals and not destroy it before giving it a real chance because these companies are using it to their advantage — and IT’S WORKING. And as far as having to “figure it out later,” that goes for any way of taking down the record when one doesn’t get trained properly or isn’t suited for the job. Again, it’s the big companies that are to blame for that, not the people who actually respect the industry. I feel lucky to have been trained in steno, but I’m now a digital. I have yet to have any problems because I was trained right and do my own transcripts with both methods of taking down the record. Now is the time to work together before the corruption of the corporations get what they want.
I am against the vilification of individual digital reporters. I place the blame on the corporate structure.
I’ve published some things alerting digitals to the corporate abuse. Personally I think some digital market is fine, it’s a great pool of people who might give steno a shot.
StoryCloud was a good company that delivered what it promised. Quick inexpensive video and transcripts for depositions. It was an option that people could use especially if it would help their case but they couldn’t afford the Rolls Royce of depositions. I now do traditional Video depositions and the amount of equipment I have to lug around is ridiculous. My StoryCloud setup fit in a carryon bag. I now have to cart around large bags and crates to do the same job with less efficiency. My video uploaded directly to the cloud in real-time but now I have to download and convert files afterward. I had and was sometimes a monitor myself that made sure everything looked and sounded good. Now I don’t know for sure if everything came out all right until the depo is over. I was also a “digital reporter” (we never claimed to be certified court reporters). As far as I know Digital Reporters still exist with other companies. Attorneys had the “option” of using a company like StoryCloud if it fit their needs and budget. I enjoyed my time with StoryCloud and as far as I know the attorneys that used StoryCloud were satisfied with the product. In a few more years A LOT of people’s jobs will be replaced with AI because it is less expensive. I have nothing against traditional Court Reporters but I’m an American and I believe in freedom of choice. The only thing this lawsuit did was put a good company out of business because it was still new and they didn’t have the power to fight. All you did was delay the inevitable and put a lot of hard-working people out of a job in the middle of the pandemic because you were scared. And anyone who complains about severance doesn’t understand the concept of being a contractor. Taking jobs or not taking jobs were my choice and I enjoyed that freedom.
I’m sorry about your job but StoryCloud had the freedom to follow the law and they apparently weren’t.
I understand being a contractor. I also understand that some contractors are labeled common law employees.
There are problems with AI as it pertains to court reporting. Check out the racial disparities in automatic speech recognition study. Yes, they might perfect it. The amount of time it’ll take to do that is indeterminate and has been indeterminate for decades. People have lived and died with society saying they’re going to take our jobs with technology.
I do empathize with high costs. One of the problems we are having is traditional CR companies are playing games with the invoicing. That’s causing a lot of price inflation imo. I’m one of the people speaking out against that. It’s horrific.
I have to stand firm. We did not put anyone out of a job. The company that was apparently not following the law in this beautiful nation of laws we call America cost you a job. They took that away because of their carelessness and desire to put profit above all else. That’s not freedom, that’s trickery, plain and simple. They likely had you doing something illegal and they knew it. Why else would they close when the regulatory authority was forced to investigate?
I appreciate the time you took to write this comment. I appreciate your perspective. I just can’t adopt it.
I’m not scared. I embrace the future. I’ve been a part of shaping it. And if something should come along that destroys my progress, so be it. But this was not my lawsuit, I just publicized it.
Be well. Reach out any time you want to talk. I’m not completely immovable.