Veritext Ignores Fraud Allegations, Goes After Reporter for Facebook Post

Today it was revealed on the Protect Your Record Project Facebook page that someone’s post was screenshotted and given to Veritext. The company then tried to “cause trouble” for one of our fellow reporters.

Partial Statement by Kimberly D’Urso, Protect Your Record Project

Needless to say, the rules of etiquette were reviewed. Sharing posts without permission is not allowed in the group. I got permission to share the basic points of this story and my comment.

Christopher Day (Stenonymous) takes another shot at Veritext, a company accused of perpetuating the court reporter shortage fraud.

I must remark again on the hilarity of Veritext’s silence.

Truth be told, this too is part of my strategy. It is my belief that court reporters are smart. Eventually, even people that haven’t read my work will realize that my fraud allegations hit a home run. They can’t sue because it’s true. They watched the statute of limitations on defamation come and go without a care in the world because they are spineless cowards that couldn’t bear to be confronted with what they do to the women and men of this profession and the lie that they spun to kill the profession itself. When court reporters realize that the STTI Bloc is a direct threat to their income, that NCRA is more or less legally barred from doing anything to stop them, that Christopher Day is ready to fight for them in a way that this profession hasn’t ever seen before, and that the multimillion dollar corporations have to pretend Christopher Day doesn’t exist thanks to the Streisand Effect, there’s a chance they’ll find the funding for Stenonymous. We fund the NCRA to the tune of about $3 million a year. To put that kind of money into perspective, it’s enough for me to retire and spend the rest of my life fighting for working reporters and against corruption in our field. I won’t ask for that. But I will ask those that have not contributed to contribute something using the front page of Stenonymous.com, my PayPal at ChristopherDay227@gmail.com, or my Venmo @Stenonymous.

I don’t just take your money and do nothing with it while waiting for some magic number. I run ad campaigns and have media commissioned. I run a pretty good internet campaign that stretches across many Google searches and social media accounts. But I’m at the point where I’ve spent a considerable amount of my own money to keep things going. I genuinely need some help. If you can’t contribute monetarily, I have been considering the merits of a letter writing campaign. Perhaps some of you would join that when announced, or at the very least encourage others to join that. As I see it, if we want to continue to have this culture and society, if we want the speed contests and camaraderie to continue, we need to get serious about pushing back. We need to push back so hard that not one person in this whole field will even consider corruption and lying to make a buck.

Easiest way to lose a game is to forfeit. We’re a profession that has fought over comma placement. Can’t we join together and fight this?

Support The Fruits of Discovery and Evidence Depositions Are the Testimony They Produce with Catherine Rajcan!

Catherine Rajcan made a nine-part series of posts through LinkedIn and other social media, titled The Fruits of Discovery and Evidence Depositions Are the Testimony They Produce, that I’d like to memorialize and share with everyone.

This is 1/9. This introduced the series and revealed that some legal service companies attempt to trick lawyers into believing digital court reporting is comparable to stenography.

Activism and information dispersal by Catherine Rajcan, titled The Fruits of Discovery and Evidence Depositions Are the Testimony They Produce 1/9

This is 2/9. This listed a series of distinctions stenographers have from digital court reporting, including the ability to instantaneously read back questions and testimony.

This is 3/9. This post explored failings of digital recording and times when stenographers must clarify to protect the record. The obvious implication is that this same level of quality is not guaranteed by digital.

This is 4/9. This post explained the problems with chain of custody and linked my audio editing video. It makes it clear that by relying on audio, problems arise in the security of the record.

This is 5/9. This dove into Illinois law and described how, though notaries are allowed to swear witnesses by law, it is not a replacement for certified shorthand reporters.

The Fruits of Discovery and Evidence Depositions Are the Testimony They Produce 5/9 (NCRA Strong shield)

This is 6/9. This post gave an explanation of shorthand reporting under Illinois law and the penalties for holding oneself out as a certified shorthand reporter when they are not one.

This is 7/9. This revealed Illinois Supreme Court rules on audio-visual recording and the use sound-recording devices for proceedings such as depositions.

This is 8/9. This post mentions the lack of regulation regarding digital court reporting and notes that using digital court reporting carries significant risk.

This is 9/9. This post went into the NCRA’s efforts to warn attorneys about digital expansion.

Activism and information dispersal by Catherine Rajcan related to The Fruits of Discovery and Evidence Depositions Are the Testimony They Produce, a 9-part series of posts.

Looking over all of this brings a lot of inspiration. Just look at the incredible effort put into keeping attorneys informed. If you’ve ever wondered how you can help, here’s a chance. Head over to these posts, like and share or show them off to an attorney in casual conversation. Start spreading the message so that attorneys equate stenographers with service and good standards. It’s arguments like this that will advance us, but we need participation from our colleagues. You can make a difference today!

New York Courts Test Opens First Time in Nearly Half a Decade

Filing has opened for the New York State Unified Court System Court Reporter and Senior Court Reporter civil service exam! This is a monumental event that happens about once every 4 years due to civil service law. If you’ve ever wanted a career in the New York State Unified Court System, the time has come! Listen to prominent New York reporters like ASSCR President Eric Allen, secure your and your family’s future!

The most important tip that anyone can give you is to read through ALL of the examination materials. Do not skimp on it. For example, there’s an FAQ. You should read it. The exam application is linked here.

For the court reporter test, there’s an exam announcement. Read that too. A copy is archived below so that future court reporters will be able to see what it looks like when it’s taken down. Court website link.

2023-Court-Reporter-45-821-Announcement Download

For the court reporter exam, there’s a subject matter guide. You’re going to want to download and read that.

2023-CourtReporter_Exam_SubjectMatter Download

There’s a written examination sample questions page. Make sure you get that. I also generated some tests to simulate what the test was like several years ago. The written examination page is also available for download below or off the court’s website.

There are also a sample transcript. In my view, most of us will be familiar with this, but read it anyway.

2023-Practice-Dictation-Web-Transcripts Download

There’s a sample video. Watch it.

Then there’s an orientation guide. Read the entire guide. Be familiar with the guide. They’ve changed the testing procedures this year from years prior! You cannot go off of tests you’ve taken in the past!

2023-CR_OrientationGuide Download

All of this applies to the Senior Court Reporter exam as well. There’s a subject matter guide.

2023-SeniorCourtReporter_Exam_Subject_Matter Download

There are written component sample questions.

2023-SeniorCourtReporter_Written_Exam_Questions Download

There are the transcript and video. Finally, there’s the orientation guide.

2023-SCR_OrientationGuide Download

Just for completeness, the job announcement for Senior Court Reporter is here.

2023-Senior-Court-Reporter-55-822-Announcement Download

For anybody that came down this far, here’s my take. Politically, we’ve got a lot of forces trying to push us out. New York is relatively stable. But we’ve all seen what they’re doing in California, crying shortage while refusing to use funding earmarked for attracting stenographers. If we get a lot of people filing for this test, I bet it’ll keep New York stable at least another decade. So if anybody knows anybody that might want this wonderful career, now is the time to let them know. You won’t just be helping the individual. You’ll also be benefitting us all as a group.

Again, read all the materials. I cannot stress this enough. Every single time this test is given there are people that fail because they did not read all the instructions and were not ready. I personally failed so badly once that I had to withdraw from the test. So give yourself the best chance to succeed, read all the materials, practice hard, and prepare yourself. You’ll do great.

Congressman George Santos Weighs in on Court Reporting*

George Santos, nobel-prize winning congressperson who surpassed Elon Musk as the richest person in the world last Tuesday, has teamed up with Veritext to promote digital reporting. “The cure for cancer will come from digital reporting. I bet all of Veritext’s money on it.” Mr. Santos also says that the inaudibles are a necessary part of any transcript because most people don’t know what anyone is saying half the time anyway.

The Veritext CEO spoke to the Congressman about the shortage in the industry. Representative Santos replied, “don’t worry, people won’t look into it. Look at my resume.” While he advocates for digital reporting, he says “I understand the importance of digital and I can speak to it because I’m also a stenographer who’s won the National Court Reporters Association award for Fastest Fingers seven times in a row.”

Santos was later declared the new NCRA Spokesperson, and attended a masonic order dinner, trying to build a bridge between NCRA and the Illuminati.

*None of this is true. It is a satire on the lies occurring in the court reporting industry, political lies, and poking a bit of fun at how people often use or misuse NCRA’s name and cred for their own agenda. It also satirizes modern journalism. It makes fun of me too, but that’s much more subtle.

In other news, Staten Island man dressed in a peanut butter-covered raincoat was arrested. Reportedly stated to arresting officers: “I was just celebrating court reporting and captioning week!”

ENJOY YOUR WEEKEND!

Deaf Redditor: Why Are We Treated like a Nuisance?

On Reddit, I spotted a thread that talked about the H3 podcast and how upon requesting captions other members of the audience insisted auto captions were adequate. The podcast itself apparently stated it was too difficult to do the captioning for hours of content.

My audience is mostly stenographers that support good captions on all content. I’ll be preaching to the choir here. The only thing between us and that dream are the greedy corps and individuals that have no problem being rewarded for their success — they’ll take every dime you’ll give — but they have a lot of problems making simple provisions for the disabled.

Redditor discusses the failure of the H3 podcast to provide adequate captions for the deaf.

It’s my position that we need to be firm about this and keep pushing for the expansion of stenographic writers in captioning. No method is perfect, but auto captions and crowdsourcing are failing some of the most vulnerable people in our society. Do we accept that or do we speak out about it?

We need a significant increase in our numbers to be able to cover all the content out there. Hopefully investors see things like this and realize there’s a genuine need for a lot more stenographers. Pump students up with stenographic and business education and set them loose on the market. It’d give this field the tools it needs to fight for the disabled. I believe so strongly in this that I myself might look into school funding.

If anybody from H3 Podcast stumbles across this, your rep is going to take a hit if you keep letting this situation go unresolved. Don’t let it get to that point and just spend the piddly $100 or $200 it would take you to caption your content per hour. If stenographer prices are really a problem for whatever level of revenue you have, you could at the very least turn to transcribers, who are often taken advantage of and underpaid.

How can we spread this message beyond our social circles?

Stenonymous Satire Weekends

Generally the blog’s a source of information that readers can count on to present my honest findings on whatever topic I’m writing about. As news rolls in, I report it. But what to do when that news dries up for a bit? That’s a question I’ve had for a long time. After all, in my view, anything that drives up eyes on our profession is going to eventually bring opportunities. So, to capture those opportunities, I’m willing to put on this loud persona and reach out into the world. Part of that is creating engaging content that might pop into real world searches and get people wondering “what the heck is this?”

So the perfect idea was born. Satire weekends. Once a week I can put out fake headlines or blurbs that the audience will get a laugh at and the search engines will hopefully capture. It’s a no-cost way of reaching more people that’s worth exploring. It’s also a low-risk way of poking the bear, since if the STTI Bloc didn’t sue or threaten to sue over allegations of fraud, they’re definitely not going to do anything over a little humor.

U.S. Government declares a state of emergency, digital court reporting big box corporations not making enough profit. Government intervention is needed to help control a market of 30,000 rabid stenographers, says Veritext CEO*, award-winning pen shorthand writer and congressperson, George Santos.

*Satire comparing the bold lies of George Santos with the lies of the Veritext company.

That’s a good peek at what I want to do. I believe that humor might be a real winning ticket.

Local stenographic cult leader arrested during educational webinar while telling followers “when in doubt, stroke it out.”

Speech-to-Text Institute experts that have never court reported speak out on the future of court reporting.

Truckload of stenotypes stolen by Staten Island man, police investigation ongoing.

Tips for Submitting to Stenonymous

It seems like a good time to reveal how I view Stenonymous in our little “ecosystem.” Yes, there’s news, entertainment, commentary, opinion, and creative writing thrown in there. It’s an information relay, bulletin board, and search engine activism machine. I want to use it to help everybody, but it’ll only be as useful as people allow it to be. So here are some pointers for people that want to self-promote or get an article in.

1. Self-promotion is easiest through the Stenonymous Facebook Group or the newly created Stenonymous subreddit. I do not censor self-promotion, I welcome it. I envision a future where associations, nonprofits, and businesses use these spaces to get word out about their events and deals. I feel so strongly about it that I’d probably even let members of the STTI Bloc post to it. If I’m going to parade around as court reporting’s “shock jock” and free speech champion, you bet I’m going to invite others. The only rule I have is please don’t spam my spaces. Once or twice a week, feel free to come in and promote, but if we’re getting blasted with the same thing day after day, people won’t feel informed, they’ll just leave, and I want them to feel informed.

2. Information. A lot of people pass me information or documents. Please let me know if you want them to be shared. Believe it or not, a lot of people pass me stuff they don’t want shared, and I generally honor their request. The only thing I’d say is if you pass me something that strongly supports my fraud claim against STTI Bloc, expect that to be shared. Also, if you email me, let me know if you want the email deleted after our exchange.

3. Stories. When passing me information, if you want a story or an article done on it, tell me. Explain to me the who, what, when, where, why, how. Let me know if you want to be named or anonymous. Give me the information I need to actually write something. If you just pass me something with no or very little explanation / no leads, I’m not going to write about it, because let’s face it, I have a full-time job and I just don’t have the time to chase shadows of stories. I apologize for the times when people DO give me adequate information and I still can’t come up with something, but I have an answer for that too.

4. Self-publishing. I can actually connect people as contributors to this blog. All I need is an email address. If I connect you as a contributor, you could write your own story and I can publish it on Stenonymous. My only real rule is it has to be something related to court reporting in some way, even if it’s an abstract concept or a new perspective. I welcome opinions contrary to mine. If I’m dragging my feet on something you deem very important, why not help me get it out there? The rule I’ll put on this is try to make whatever it is worth reading or of value. Just remember there are subscribers to the blog and they don’t want garbage in their inboxes.

That’s it. Through information dispersal, I feel we become a stronger community. We will have our disagreements, our personality conflicts, and the problems that come along with a free-information ethos, but human intelligence is on a bell curve, which means we’re all pretty close in intelligence and that given the same information, many of us will come to the same conclusions, hopefully the correct conclusions, whatever they may be.

I’m easy to reach. Just fill out the message box on the front page of Stenonymous.com or write to Chris@stenonymous.com.

Tell Your Business Story with Beginnings by Recollections

Al Betz is a man that’s all about sharing stories. Not long ago, through his amazing work with Stenographers World, he helped me share some of the research I was doing on events in our field of court reporting and captioning. I’ve come to find out that he started helping people preserve their life stories over 30 years ago. This has now led to a company and product devoted to helping business owners of all sizes tell their story and build their brand. This is what he had to tell me about it:

“Whether you are a solo practitioner with a small client base, or an agency with a significant client base, you have a story to tell that everyone in your sphere of influence wants to hear. Recollections is a Division of Outfluence, LLC. Recollections is a personal history/marketing company. Beginnings is a product designed to tell the story of your business. The applications of your story are many, and Recollections will guide you into the marketing of your story literally for years to come. Visit us at www.recollections.store where you can learn more about us and purchase Beginnings. At that point we will contact you to prepare for and conduct our interview.”

Every last one of us has a story to tell, and the Beginnings product is on sale right now. If you’ve ever needed some marketing help, now is the time to reach out and get it.

Of course, my personal thanks to Al for sharing this. A lot of my writing is geared toward getting reporters to think competitively in our modern market. That’s a nice ideal. But it’s businesses like his that help build the skills needed and craft the right message. Your message. Go check it out.

Stenographers, NY Courts Want YOU!

As announced by ASSCR President Eric Allen, the New York State Unified Court System Civil Service exams for court reporters and senior court reporters are going to open their filing period later this month.

ASSCR President Eric Allen announces dates for the NYS senior court reporter and court reporter exams

My advice? Put March 24 in your calendar and use the link above to apply on that date.

Working on an announcement for independent contractors and business owners that want to tell their story. Look out for it this weekend!

JurisQ Seeks Stenographer Brand Ambassadors

I was approached via LinkedIn by an employee of JurisQ. They claim that they have an opportunity for stenographers to gain a side income by recommending JurisQ to lawyers. I asked for something to give my Stenonymous audience more info, and I got this:

“An opportunity for Stenographers to become a JurisQ Brand Ambassador, enhancing income by thousands of dollars a month.

Stenographers work with many different attorneys. JurisQ has an amazing service for them to convert more clients. All you would have to do is recommend us to them and you earn a commission! It is as simple as that!

Our Company, JurisQ, produces Legal Brand Videos and Legal FAQ Videos discussing a legal topic that is relevant to attorney’s practice area.

The Videos are used to enhance law firm’s Website Blog, Social Media and YouTube.

Our Directory of Attorneys with Legal FAQ Videos is here: https://jurisq.com/our-clients/

We also have unique Digital Marketing tools that will drive more traffic to the lawyers’ websites, gaining them more clients.

Please let me JurisQ of a good time to connect so we could go over the process or schedule a meeting with our CEO, Michael Levites, here:

(Calendly) or Michael@JurisQ.com

I look forward to hearing from you!”

Obviously, there are some things my audience should keep aware of. They’re claiming this can become a fairly lucrative side income. But you really want to focus on how that’s going to happen if you reach out to them. Don’t let anybody make promises they don’t keep. Feel free to report back to me if there are unkept promises. But I have no indication they’re anything but above board.

Of course, if other brands have opportunities or discounts for court reporters and stenographers, feel free to reach out to me. It would be a dream for the companies in the field to realize what a boon independent speech is to the industry and offer stuff to my audience. The site draws thousands of visitors each month. In a field of 30,000, it serves as a communication gateway to get important information to stenographers and court reporters. If brands start commingling with the whole loud media personality thing I’ve got going on, it’s a real chance to enhance the economic ecosystem in court reporting & stenotype services and bring passionate individuals into the field.

Stenonymous releases February 2023 view numbers.