The vTestify Lie

I’ve often worried we too often buy into hype from voice recognition sellers. Dragon represents itself as being 99 percent accurate, but only has about a 3-star rating. Opened up to scrutiny, VR and digital recording companies don’t make the cut.

So we had a company mentioned on Facebook called vTestify. They brag about all the money they can save people on depositions. Just knowing what I’ve reported in the past, other voice recognition companies have raised a lot of money. Verbit raised $20 million. Trint raised something like $160 million. As far as I can tell, vTestify raised $3 million. Either they’re 50 times more efficient than everybody else or they’re woefully underfunded and their investors are set to lose while the company lurches along burning capital. Let that sink in for the next time somebody is trying to sell you the future, investors!

I would’ve left it there, but then another reporter brought up that they have a calculator. The claims there are laughable. They claim that they can save attorneys $3,198 per deposition. I don’t know what reporters in North Carolina are charging, but I know here in New York I could get somewhere around $4.00 a page, and maybe on a great day a $100 appearance fee. A pretty thick day is about 200 pages, only ever getting to that 300 or 400 page count occasionally. So take 200 pages multiplied by 4. 800. Add on that sweet appearance fee, and maybe it comes to 900 bucks. Even real-time reporters only charge a buck or two a hookup, so even with 6 hookups, we’re still only talking maybe a $2,000 day. We can all acknowledge that these glamorous multi-thousand dollar days exist, but the bottom line is that’s not the norm and vTestify isn’t actually saving anybody a dime. Their calculator doesn’t even make any sense. When I added the numbers they gave, I got $3,646. Somehow their calculator comes up with $4,329.

It gets better — or worse — you decide! Then we have this snippet about the court reporter shortage. Using their numbers and assuming it’s totally true, they say there are 23,000 reporters to cover 3 million depositions. What a crisis! Except when you take three million and divide that by 23,000, you get 130 and change. If every reporter took 131 depositions a year, using vTestify’s own numbers, we’d be just fine. There are about 260 weekdays in a year. Succinctly, if every reporter worked half the weekdays in a year, by vTestify’s own argument, there’d be no shortage. Let’s not forget all of the steno-centric initiatives like Open Steno, A to Z, Stenotrain, and Project Steno, that have taken place since the Ducker Report to bring people into this field. Are we really expected to believe there was zero impact and things went exactly as predicted? I don’t, and you shouldn’t either. Let’s put this another way. If the median salary of a reporter is about 57,000, reporters are only taking home, on average, 5,000 a month gross. So how can vTestify be saving anyone 3k or 4k per deposition when the average reporter is only grossing 5k per month? They can’t. But that doesn’t stop them from saying they can.

We have one decision to make in this field. Are we going to get out there and educate the consumer, or are we going to lay down and let these irresponsible companies fake it until they make it? There’s zero compunction with lying to make a buck, and customers need to know. Smart purchasers have already seen through this BS and stuck with stenographers through thick and thin, and they’ve done better for it. Tried, tested, efficient; stenographic reporters are the way to go. Maybe vTestify will figure that out and make the switch themselves!

Remember all this next time you see somebody peddling a similar product. And next time you’re making a sales pitch, ask your buyer what their monthly budget for depositions looks like. If it’s more than $5,000 a month, I have a few numbers above that say they can save a whole lot by switching to stenography.

Can’t Outspend? Outsell.

When many of us were in school we were given a line, steno sells itself. Many of us can probably relate to that. Most steno companies, upon hearing you’re a professional stenographer, will give you a shot. Many of us in New York came out during a big slump (2010) where steno wasn’t selling itself, but even then, it was trivial to get work. All we had to do was say we’d been working three months, and “they’d” go from sorry no work for you to “oh, here are the keys to the kingdom.” Not all of us knew it, but that’s how it was. Agency owners are good at reading confidence, and what we’re offered is often linked directly to our confidence level.

Of course, the following may be an incorrect assumption on my part, but bear with me: We have entered an era where steno is not selling itself. Company owners are being pulled into the mindset that the voice recognition is “good enough,” and some of the major players, like Veritext, have been pushing recording.

I should note, in full disclosure, that I have not been able to corroborate what I’m about to say with documents or pictures as I usually do. It’s pulled from the social media sphere, so consider it anecdotal for now, and do not be surprised if agencies start railing against social media. Even as some claim that Veritext sent an email stating they were not using recording in states like New Jersey, others have come forward across social media to say yes, this is being done behind our backs. Many of us are reportedly asking lawyers what they’re seeing, and they are seeing digital getting peddled to them relentlessly.

So what do we do when we have major players putting their resources into our replacement? Who here thinks they have more money that Veritext or their owners? Hopeless, some would say. But there is something that many reporters are realizing: This alleged shortage is a great time get private clients and begin new businesses. If Veritext or some entity swears they can’t get a stenographer, some lawyers have allegedly called their insurers and gotten authorization to use a local stenographer or stenographic firm. All their marketing moves and salespeople count for nothing if a stenographer finds themselves in the right place at the right time.

We’re the boots on the ground. We have more contact with law office staff and employees. We have the keys to the kingdom. But the people at the top have made it very clear that they’ll do whatever is convenient for them. It’s time we do the same for the survival of our industry. We don’t work for them? Try it. It might just give us access to their clients. We work for them? Guess who already has access.

Even if we don’t want to handle private clients, we could always network with an existing firm owner out there and get them clients in exchange for the work or a share. If we’re even moderately successful, big companies will be offering to buy back their business from us in a few years, and the field will be a lot healthier once the market share is spread out. Our actions determine the future. The conversation today is steno or digital. Tomorrow it just might be stay steno or slam sand.

Can Verbit Replace Verbatim?

I had had some thoughts with regard to AI and stenography. I stand by what I said there. Verbit has been, according to online commentators, soliciting people’s business and offering to assist with their workload. There are even some who have said — though I have not seen documentary proof of this — that Veritext is using Verbit or a similar process for their digital reporters. Succinctly, running the audio through a computer program and having a human fix up what the computer spits out. Oddly enough, sounds a lot like what we do when we are taking down every word on a stenotype these days.

The bottom line is these companies are hungry for money. They need revenue to prove to their investors that they are a good investment. Verbit reportedly raised $23 million. Trint reportedly raised at least 150 million euros, or 168 million dollars. That should give you an idea of just how big of an expense it is — in their estimation — to create a program to do what we already do.

When we talk about solving problems, and specifically solving problems with AI and computers, two of the largest jumps in technology are machine learning and modeling the human brain. Modeling the human brain seems an arduous task that is difficult to do on modern hardware. Machine learning is giving the computer training data, and then having the computer make “educated” guesses based on the training data.

So why bring this up again? Well, to caution all of us. The simple truth is the more training data that you give these folks, meaning the more audio files they have that show the computer what we do, the more they’ll be able to sculpt the program. If you make the business decision to help them in that way, that’s fine. But you know what? Demand a premium! There are hundreds of millions of dollars involved in developing these computer programs right now. They should probably be paying YOU to transcribe YOUR work, because quite frankly, if they perfect the program, you might be out of business. If they haven’t yet perfected the program, you’re helping them perfect it! Sounds like a premium service to me.

So make sure everybody out there knows: They don’t want your business, they need it, and they should probably be paying you.

*This page is no longer updated and has been moved to here.

Articles or posts that I believe have no more value are omitted from this page but may be found via the search box.

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This post describes a 2019 report by Kentley Insights, explains what zombie companies are, and goes on to suggest that the unprofitable companies in the field are the ones using digital reporting.

Does Stenonymous Spend More On Steno Ads Than US Legal? 5/27/21
In this post US Legal’s LinkedIn campaign to recruit digital court reporters is exposed. The post also shows how Stenonymous has been used to expose thousands of people to stenographic court reporting and contrasts that with US Legal’s apparent lack of a stenographic recruitment strategy.

Vote Yes! NCRA 2021 Proposed Bylaw Amendments 5/25/21
This post advertises the 2021 proposed bylaw amendments and gives my opinion of each.

Court Reporters Speak Up For The Record On Future Trials 6/2/21
This post explores the April 2021 report by the Future Trials Working Group to the New York State Unified Court System. It also showcases association and union response to the report and the reply received by the court system.

MGR Interviewed on the Treatment of Reporters 5/18/21
This post shares my interview with Marc Russo, owner of MGR Reporting, on the treatment of reporters.

CART v Autocraption, A Strategic Overview For Captioners 5/13/21
This post gives information to CART providers to help them cope with the hype and lies surrounding automatic speech recognition (ASR) and sentiments by some that they are replaceable. It talks about how captioners can protect consumers and why consumers need that protection.

Literal v Readable, A Primer on Transcribing What We Hear 5/10/21
This post describes several issues stenographers may run into on the job, including whether to edit something that is spoken or leave it completely verbatim. It explains how context matters in our work.

Paying It Forward with Allie Hall 5/4/21
This post mentions Allie Hall’s efforts with regard to Paying It Forward and how reporters can contribute.

A Primer on ASR and Machine Learning For Stenographers 4/22/21
This post explains some of the technology behind automatic speech recognition and machine learning in simple terms so that stenographers can understand it and educate their clients.

How We Discuss Errors and Automatic Speech Recognition 4/12/21
This post explains automatic speech recognition’s word error rate metric and compares it to how court reporters measure errors.

For Digital Court Reporters and Transcribers, Check Out Steno! 3/1/21
This post was used in an ad campaign to expose digital court reporters and transcribers to stenography and express to them in simple terms why it is better to learn the skill of and work in the field of stenographic court reporting.

Facebook Boosting 101 2/26/21
This post explored the power of paid advertising and showed stenographers how they can multiply their reach by 20.

For Students Saddled With Unpayable Student Loan Debt 2/24/21
This post presents links and resources relating to options students in debt have.

Aggressive Marketing — Growth or Flailing? 2/22/21
This article dives into Fyre Festival and describes how sometimes companies talk a good game even when their product or idea is unprofitable or poorly executed. It also takes a look at VIQ Solutions, parent of Net Transcripts, Inc., and how despite making millions in revenue, VIQ reported over $300,000 in losses.

Help Chris DeGrazio Celebrate International Women’s Day! 2/19/21
Court reporter Chris DeGrazio sought to celebrate International Women’s Day by creating a collage. This post helped advertise it.

Court Reporter Humor – Stenoholics & Andy Bajaña 2/15/21
Stenoholics and Andy Bajana have some hilarious videos related to court reporting. You can get links to them through this post.

Finding Time 2/12/21
This article talks about time management, the importance of scheduling, and using common tools such as calendars and schedulers. It also cautions against taking too much time trying to find the “perfect” tool.

Scholarships & Contests For Students February 2021 2/11/21
This post provides information with regard to 2021 scholarships and contests for stenography students.

You Need 2FA Now 2/10/21
This post talks about two-factor authentication (2FA) and why court reporters need to use it wherever it is available.

Veritext “Provides More Work To Stenographers Than Any Other Firm In The Country” 2/9/21
After reaching out to Veritext for comment regarding what I perceived as a nonsensical and incongruent recruitment strategy, I reached out to Veritext for comment.

Need Continuing Education? Consider CCR Seminars. 2/8/21
This post breaks down the value of one private court reporting education company, CCR Seminars.

List of New York Agencies 2/5/21
This post provides a list of New York agencies in spreadsheet format.

The Ultimate Guide To Officialship (NY) 2/4/21
An anonymous person had been harassing me for several years. One of their “gibes” or implications was that I was an official reporter that posts a lot about freelance and I should post more about officialship. So I did.

Collective Power of Stenographers 2/3/21
This post is a mathematical demonstration of the power of stenographers. Often, stenographers share posts from companies or electronic recording companies as gospel. This post notes that reporters collectively have more money and power than any organization.

For The Record Documentary Goes Free 2/2/21
This post reported Marc Greenberg’s announcement that the For The Record documentary would become free.

NYSCRA’s CRCW 2021 & My Thoughts On The Future 2/1/21
This post announced several NYSCRA plans for Court Reporting & Captioning Week 2021 and explained why reporters must stand by their associations.

Can Freelancers Apply For Workers Compensation Benefits? (NY) 1/29/21
This post explored under what circumstances an “independent contractor” could attempt to claim workers comp benefits in New York.

GGU Presentation & Why You Matter 1/28/21
This post talked about Ana Fatima Costa’s presentation for Golden Gate University, Court Reporter Tips Every Lawyer Needs To Make the Best Record. It also went on to describe how any reporter can make an impact.

Beware Commercial Leasing Agreements for Equipment 12/27/20
This post explains commercial leasing agreements and how they can be very costly traps for reporters if reporters do not fully understand the agreement.

Can You Hear Me Now? Computer Parts For Steno Made Simple 12/22/20
This post explains to court reporters what they’re looking at when buying computers. It gives simple descriptions of components and how to make good purchasing decisions. It also provides simple troubleshooting tips or ideas.

What Law Offices Need To Know About A Court Reporter Shortage 12/15/20
This post was used in an ad campaign to explain the court reporting shortage to law offices. It focused heavily on combatting misinformation about our shortage and explained where stenographers could be found.

Remote Notarial Acts Executive Orders (NY 2020) 11/5/20
During the pandemic the governor of New York issued an executive order which allowed remote notarial acts. This post tracked the orders and extensions for court reporters.

Trolls and You 10/17/20
This post explored trolls-for-hire and exposed how cheap it could be to organize a misinformation campaign. The post also noted examples of likely trolls. It also counseled against the advice “don’t feed the trolls” and explained the importance of not allowing trolls to dictate the conversation.

The Question To Ask Yourself When Viewing An ASR Demo 10/10/20
This post compared several high-profile technology buys to automatic speech recognition technology and its dearth of such purchases. It also showed that ASR technology by the biggest players in the business was inadequate for court reporting.

Turning Omissions Into Opportunity 9/19/20
This post explored several omissions in the media regarding court reporting and demonstrated how court reporters can use these omissions to inform journalists.

What Verbit Leadership Needs To Know 9/12/20
This post appealed to Verbit leadership and pointed out how exaggerated claims could make the company look bad.

How To Spot More Better Marketing 8/25/20
A short guide on seeing through puffery.

Common Scams 8/18/20
A guide to spotting scams that may be adaptable to our industry.

August Asterisks 2020 (Jobs) 8/13/20
An August 2020 post about jobs that were available.

StenoKey, Stenographic Education Innovation? 7/1/20
A post about StenoKey, an educational program by Katiana Walton.

Stenonymous on VICE News Tonight 6/18/20
A post covering my TV appearance regarding the Testifying While Black Study by Taylor Jones, et al.

June Jettisons 2020 (Jobs Post) 6/16/20
A June 2020 post about jobs that were available.

Expedite Legal, Enhancing Coverage Nationwide? 6/15/20
A post covering Expedite Legal, an app service connecting lawyers to legal service providers like court reporters.

Check Out 225 and Beyond (Beware of Busywork) 6/14/20
A post promoting the work of Euan Williams.

How Organizations & Associations Work 6/13/20
A post that explains how associations work and the volunteer structure of them.

May Machinations 2020 (Jobs Post) 5/12/20
A May 2020 post that described available jobs.

NYSCRA Student Webinar May 2020 5/5/20
A post advertising the May 2020 NYSCRA student webinar.

Stenopalooza was POWerful 5/3/20
A post summarizing Stenopalooza 2020 and NCRA STRONG

Pricing Pages In A Market of Fear 4/6/20
A post that discussed supply and demand and the dearth of work in our field at the start of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

April Applications 2020 (Jobs Post) 4/1/20
An April 2020 post about jobs that were available.

Steno Shortage Stats March 2020 3/14/2020
This post gave fast facts reporters could keep in mind when discussing the stenographer shortage.

What Verbit Investors Need To Know 3/4/20
This post investigated Verbit’s series A funding claims and compared them with series B funding claims. It also explained how a cost savings estimate by STTI was pathetic.

Trust Issues, Brought To You By Veritext 2/25/20
A post that examines the actions of Veritext versus statements made by the company.

Eastern District NY Hiring! 2/13/20 2/13/20
A post outlining a job opening in February 2020 for the Eastern District of New York federal court.

Stenonymous on Facebook 2/3/20
A post that announces the beginning of the Stenonymous discussion group on Facebook.

Fantastic February 2020 2/1/20
A post that lists jobs that were available in February 2020.

The Savior Chimera 1/29/20
A post that examines NCRA v AAERT and their relative abilities to combat the court reporter shortage.

Copyright and Stenography 1/24/20
A post that dives into the lack of copyright protection for stenographic court reporting.

Shortage Solutions 12: Stenography 1/23/20
A post that gives mathematical reasons on why it is smarter to address the court reporter shortage with stenographers than transcribers.

Shortage Solutions 11: Logistics 1/22/20
This post discusses the possibility of getting clients to space out depositions instead of starting everything at 10:00 a.m. in order to improve the logistical difficulty in getting a stenographic court reporter at every deposition.

A Night In Brooklyn, PYRP 78 1/21/20
A post that details an initiative by Protect Your Record Project and gives examples of how every reporter can advocate.

Why & When Leaders Stay Silent 1/15/20
A post about why leaders do not always address or acknowledge adversarial organizations and/or detractors.

NYSCRA 2020 Survey, Lobbying 1/9/20
A post about NYSCRA’s 2020 survey as well as some ideas I wrote to the association.

January 2020, Just Apply! 1/6/20
A post regarding jobs available in January 2020.

Stenographers, Planet Depos Is Not Your Friend 12/10/19
A post documenting attempts by Planet Depos to attract digital court reporters.

The Economics of Caring 12/6/19
A musing about apathy and how it can cost you your job.

Pricing Yourself Out of the Market 12/4/19
A post that briefly talks about the potential of pricing oneself out of the market and then launches into a defense of why rates in certain markets could be higher.

December Dirigibles 2019 12/2/19
A post describing jobs available in December 2019.

The Impossible Institute 11/23/19
A post examining the Speech-to-Text Institute and why claims that the stenographer shortage is impossible to solve are false.

The Original and What? 11/7/19
A discussion about copies, happiness, and altruism.

Government v Gig Economy 11/6/19
This post explored the possibility of the government reclassifying stenographers and what could be done if that occurred.

November Niches 2019 11/4/19
A November 2019 job post.

Stenonymous Suite: Early Version 10/29/19
My early coding experiments resulted in the Stenonymous Suite, released in the hopes people brighter than me do better.

Historic Rate Data: New York 1990s 10/25/19
A review of court reporter rates that showed we were making less value in 2010 than in 1991.

MAPEC 2019 10/21/19
A review of the reporter Empowerment Conference in 2019.

Raise Your Rates 2019 10/4/19
A call to get reporters to raise their rates in accordance with supply and demand.

Loans, School, & You 10/2/19
An explanation of debt to assist students.

October Occupations 2019 10/1/19
An October 2019 job post.

Outfluence by Al Betz 9/23/19
This program presents a professionalism and communication program called Outfluence.

NCRA Virtual Town Hall, September 21, 2019 9/22/19
This post described a 9/21/19 NCRA Town Hall session.

Historic Rate Data: A First Look 9/21/19
This post took historic rate data from the west coast and adjusted it for inflation to show court reporters were behind inflation.

How To Create Timed Dictation 9/21/19
This post describes how to create timed dictation.

Buying Hype 9/17/19
This post described the dangers of buying hype instead of thinking critically.

Keep Enemies Closer 9/16/19
A caution against oversharing.

Forgiving Your Impostor Syndrome 9/13/19
A post regarding letting go of feelings of inadequacy.

Pattern Writing 9/12/19
This post describes how using patterns or groups of briefs can help you remember and use them.

Shortage Solutions 10: Contract or Employment 9/9/19
This post proposed employment structure changes to help with shortage.

September Submissions 2019 9/1/19
A September 2019 post talking about available jobs in 2019.

The Disappointment Paradigm 8/30/19
This post describes the importance of setting boundaries.

State Associations With Mentoring 8/23/19
This post released a spreadsheet of nearly every stenographic court reporting association in the United States and whether it had mentoring.

Achieve Your Dream Salary Using Retrograde Extrapolation 8/19/19
This post describes how one can meet goals by setting the goal and working backwards to see how that goal might be accomplished.

The Resurgence 8/16/19
This post remarked on the resurgence of American stenography.

Do You Log Your Practice? 8/13/19
This post described how tracking practice could enhance progress.

Shortage Solutions 9: Independent Listings 8/12/19
This post explored how available directories of court reporters could end the shortage.

Recording Grand Jury (NY) 8/11/19
This post documented an instance where grand jury proceedings were audio recorded and related New York laws.

Library of Congress Seeks Volunteer Transcribers 8/10/19
This post urged stenographers to assist in transcription for the Library of Congress.

Guarding the Record Against Misinformation 8/9/19
This post points out misinformation in the court reporting industry and the importance of speaking against it.

Global Alliance Founding 8/8/19
This post documented the founding of Global Alliance.

Combination Banking 8/7/19
This post discusses combination banking, a better way to do Q&A.

How Many Errors Allowed? 8/6/19
This post presents a spreadsheet to calculate how many erors are allowed on a steno test and points out that a student did this better than me.

The vTestify Lie 8/5/19
This post pointed out that vTestify’s claim that it could save $3,000 per deposition was false.

August Applications 2019 8/2/19
An August 2019 jobs post.

Steno Speed and the Youtube Angle 7/27/19
This post documented my effort to preserve the old stenospeed dot com audio files.

Can’t Outspend? Outsell. 7/25/19
This post provided anecdotal evidence on how stenographers were being outmarketed rather than outmatched.

Stenovate, Workspace Consolidation 7/22/19
This post highlighted Stenovate, a transcript management software.

Shortage Solutions 8: Retirement 7/19/19
This post discussed how retirees could stop the stenographer shortage.

Cert Shaming 7/17/19
This post discussed the importance of certified and uncertified reporters not fighting each other.

Review: A Court Reporter’s Guide to Leadership and Team Building, by Colin Yorke 7/15/19
A review of a very short book about leadership by Colin Yorke and a giveaway to get his writing out there.

New Speed Students, Learn To Let Go 7/10/19
This post details the importance of avoiding the asterisk key on test day.

Practice, Finger Drill, WKT, Dictation Marker Update 7/6/19
This post documented by attempts at coding computer scripts that could help create finger drills, NY Civil Service WKT practice, and automatically mark dictation.

Shortage Solutions 7: Recruitment 7/5/19
This post described how important recruitment for stenography was and gave mathematical examples for how court reporters could increase the number of graduates just by talking about the field.

July Jobs Jubilee (2019) 6/28/19
A post for July 2019 jobs available.

RE: Remote Judicial Reporting, WUNCRA 6/26/19
A post that pointed to the danger of remote judicial reporting, as well as offered both praise and criticism for the Wake Up NCRA blog.

Can Verbit Replace Verbatim? 6/21/19
This post described difficulties that I anticipated Verbit was going to have with perfecting automatic speech recognition technology.

Stenonymous Suite and Q&A Generator (Concept) 6/20/19
This post revealed a computer programming script I was working on called the Stenonymous Suite.

Shortage Solutions 6: Pay the Piper 6/17/19
A post where I explained one way to end the shortage would be to pay stenographers better.

Sexual Harassment for Stenos 6/11/19
A post describing sexual harassment in our field, and specifically New York law.

Law For Stenographers (US) (FRCP) 6/10/19
Federal procedural laws I feel stenographers should know of.

June 9 Burngirl CaseCAT Tips (2019) 6/7/19
A post promoting a CaseCAT tip event by Burngirl.

Shortage Solutions 5: Public Perception 6/6/19
A post that described the importance of public perception to stenography’s survival as an industry.

NCRA Bylaw Amendment Proposals 2019 6/5/19
A post memorializing the 2019 NCRA bylaws amendment proposals.

Be Smart With Social Media 6/5/19
A post with various cautions about social media and how to use it in a way that builds your brand instead of destroying it.

The Cost of Doing Business 6/4/19
A post giving general advice about expenses that revealed an old retainer I signed where $14.95 per page was in the contract for depositions.

Table of Contents 6/3/19
This is the table of contents you are currently reading. 6/3/19 is the day it went live.

To Our Litigators 5/31/19
A post to lawyers about our stenographer shortage.

NCRA 2.0 May 2019 Survey 5/28/19
A post memorializing the NCRA 2.0 survey as well as my response.

A Word on AI and Stenography 5/24/19
A post discussing AI in relation to stenography and comparing technological claims to reality from other industries.

Veritext Scholarships 5/22/19
A post memorializing Veritext scholarships.

Easy E-Signature in CaseCAT 5/21/19
A post on drawing an e-signature in CaseCAT, an alternative to creating a blank PDF and signing.

Finger Drill Generator 5/20/19
A post describing a finger drill generator I made.

Written Knowledge Test Randomizer 5/16/19
A post describing a WKT test making program I wrote for the New York courts test.

The Pitchfork Culture 5/7/19
A response to a message I got from a reader.

Us and Them 5/3/19
A post that cautions against infighting.

New York: May Jobs Bring Lifelong Careers (2019) 5/2/19
May 2019 jobs post.

The Audio Sink 5/1/19
A post about how reliance on audio drags us down.

NYSCRA Test Prep Opens To All 4/25/19
A bulletin about NYSCRA test prep.

Value Gradients for the Stenographer in Training (180+ WPM) 4/19/19
A piece describing value for students.

Tips for the Stenographer in Training 4/11/19
General tips for students.

Persuasive Writing Tips For The Stenographic Legion 4/5/19
Writing tips.

Language Study and Service Revisited 4/2/19
A post where I revisit the Testifying While Black 2020 study.

Big Box Reporters: We Are On The Same Side 3/28/19
A note about how reporters that work for big box are not blind to harmful big box practices.

Stenographers, NY Courts Want You! (2019) 3/22/19
An announcement for the New York Unified Court System test.

NCRA: Our Money’s On Stenographers 3/8/19
A post that shared communication from the NCRA board.

The Empty City Strategy 3/7/19
A post explaining that big claims about digital reporting were not necessarily indicative of a “garrisoned fort.”

Shortage Solutions 4: Direct Market Apps 3/6/19
A post describing how Direct Market Apps like Expedite Legal could be a shortage game changer.

Shortage Solutions 3: Private Labeling 3/5/19
A solution explaining that where coverage is in danger due to squabbling over whose job it is, new agreements can be struck.

March Madness 2019 Job Postings 3/4/19
March 2019 job post.

Shortage Solutions 2: Coverage Area & Marketability 3/4/19
A post pointing out things that make stenographers and steno look good.

Veritext Update, March 2019 3/2/19
A post that documented the alleged firing of a Veritext VP.

Shortage Solutions 1: Remote Proceedings 3/1/19
A post that brought up how remote proceedings could help alleviate the shortage.

Interview with Esquire GC 3/1/19
An interview with Esquire’s General Counsel

Legal Terms Refresher For Test Takers 2/28/19
Legal terminology help for test takers.

Court Reporter, Meet Stenographer 2/27/19
A post describing how court reporters started to abandon the title for stenographer.

Medical Terms Refresher For Test Takers 2/23/19
Medical terminology help for test takers.

NYSCRA Bagels and Lox February 2019 2/22/19
A post summarizing the February 2019 New York State Court Reporters Association meeting.

Stenonymous Goes (Mostly) Ad Free! 2/21/19
A post where I announced Stenonymous would no longer have ads.

Getting Involved: As Simple As A Like 2/20/19
A post that explained that support in all its forms is important.

MA Payonk: Steno First. 2/19/19
A post about Mary Ann Payonk.

WUNCRA, Knowledge Is Power, Spitballing Is Weak 2/18/19
A post disagreeing with “Wake Up, NCRA.”

There Is No Rebel Alliance 2/17/19
A post discussing another blog post and how it is important for us to work together.

Associations and Why You Matter 2/16/19
The math on how association participation can change outcomes.

Stenotrain 2/15/19
A post that talks about Stenotrain, a court reporting training program.

Mistaken For The Court Reporter 2/14/19
A post that talks about discrimination in law. Female lawyers typically do not appreciate being mistaken for a court reporter, and Sharon Velazco wrote an awesome piece on why it’s great to be a court reporter.

StenoFest 2019 2/13/19
A post remembering Marc Greenberg’s online StenoFest.

Silence is Deafening 2/12/19
A post that talked about the importance of speaking up/speaking out.

NCRA and NYSCRA: For Stenographers 2/11/19
A promotion of two associations that support our profession.

Steno V Digital (Archive Post) 2/10/19
A post that noted technological growth was no longer exponential.

Holding Companies Explanation 2/8/19
An explanation of the concept of holding companies.

Learn About Stenography at Plaza – February 2019 2/8/19
A notice about the February 11 event at Plaza College.

NYSCRA Social – You’re Invited! 2/7/19
An announcement for the New York State Court Reporters Association February 2019 social.

Workers Rights 2/7/19

Stenographers, Veritext is Not Your Friend 2/6/19

What Rate Should Freelance Reporters Charge? 2/5/19

Language Study and Service 2/5/19

The Magic of Marketing 2/4/19

Creating a Degree-Granting Institution in New York 1/23/19

Direction and Control 1/9/19

Why Can’t We Discuss Rates? 1/4/19

The Power of No 1/2/19

Contracting with Public Entities: Diamond’s 2010 Renewal With City 12/23/18

To Our Agency Owners 12/20/18

New Year New Rates Movement (NY Freelancers) 12/19/18

Knowledge Preserved Is Power 12/18/18

Stenographers, US Legal Is Not Your Friend 12/17/18

NYSCRA Certs Waive Provisional Assessment for NY Courts 12/14/18

Competing For Contracts 12/14/18

Of Strategy and Commitment 12/13/18

Live Steno 4U Review by Joshua Edwards 12/12/18

The Positive Reporting Challenge 12/12/18

To E Court Reporters and Transcribers 12/10/18

Fun History: License Plates 12/4/18

Veritext Buys A Diamond 12/3/18

The Good Reporter Fallacy 11/23/18

Learn To Caption – Real Realtime by Anissa 11/15/18

The Frank N Sense Monster 11/14/18

Law For Stenographers (NY) 11/13/18

The Price of Perfection 11/13/18

The Limitations of Institution 11/8/18

The Truths of Employability 11/7/18

Open Steno by Professional Writer Claire Williams 11/2/18

Typey Type Introduction 10/29/18

Dictation Marking Program 10/24/18

Aloft Steno Streaming – Good News from Open Steno 10/24/18

Good News About NCRA’s Retention Policy 10/22/18

Transcript Marker 10/10/18

A Satirical Response To Getting Paid 9/28/18

A Word On Raises 8/9/18

State Associations write an open letter to NCRA about Corporate Partners 7/27/18

The Unsubtle Policy of Open Gates 7/25/18

NCRA Amendment Proposals 7/18/18

NCRA Test Retention Policy 5/16/18

On Educational Inadequacy 3/28/18

Stips or Stipulations 3/19/18

Interpreted Testimony In The Third Person 3/17/18

For The Entrepreneur 3/16/18

When An Agency Won’t Collect 3/15/18

Fall of Constantinople 3/14/18

An Explanation of Anticontracting 3/13/18

Form SS8 and Independent Contractors 3/12/18

The Case for Higher Rates 3/5/18

Colors and Stripes 3/1/18

What’s In A Rate Sheet? 1/29/18

The Importance of Friends and Allies 1/29/18

The Power of a Contract 1/20/18

Handling Rejection 1/18/18

2018: Start Strong, Stay Strong 1/13/18

Our Greatest Mistake Is Not Making Mistakes 1/13/18

Interpreted Jobs and You 1/12/18

Speech and Years: 2’18 1/12/18

Specifically Pacific 1/12/18

Dave Wenhold and Lobbying 1/8/18

Writing Elected Officials 1/4/18

Computer Lagging? Check This 1/2/18

Rights and Your Wallet 12/19/17

What’s A Taxes? 12/13/17

My Writer Is Not Writing Realtime (Drivers) 12/5/17

F Keys Not Working 12/5/17

Practice Does Not Make Perfect 12/4/17

How Briefed Is Too Briefed? 11/29/17

Unionization of Deposition Reporters 11/26/17

Audio Transcription, Pricing, And You 11/22/17

State or Federal Case? 11/21/17

Remote Swearing of Witnesses (NY) 11/15/17

Supreme Court Test Tip 11/13/17

Reporter Sharing 10/30/17

CaseCAT: Characters per line using characters per inch. 10/26/17

Passing the Supreme Court Test 2017 10/23/17

Value of Associations 10/21/17

Judiciary Foil Requests 10/19/17

NY Constitutional Convention 10/19/17

Keep It Simple, Silly 10/19/17

Elapsed Timestamps (CaseCAT) 10/16/17

Tips on Traps and Dirty Tricks 10/11/17

Passive Learning versus Instant Gratification 10/11/17

A Message From My Sister 10/10/17

NYSCRA Offering Test Prep 9/19/17

E-mails and Communication 9/13/17

Freelance Loyalty 9/11/17

Audio and You 9/10/17

Turnaround Topsy Turvy 9/8/17

Cultural Literacy – 9/7/17

Where / What Parenthetical?! 9/5/17

How Are Reporters Paid? 9/4/17

Why Are We “We?” 9/2/17

Public Records 9/1/17

Take It Out or Verbatim? 8/31/17

Interrupting When/Why/How? 8/30/17

Off The Record 8/30/17

Title or Caption (E-Filing) 8/29/17

Strike That! Withdrawn! 8/28/17

Billing Simplified 8/27/17

The Copy Conundrum 8/19/17

Beginner’s Trap 8/19/17

Art of the Deal 8/15/17

Write Stenonymously 8/12/17

Learn Stenography! 8/12/17

Resource Page 8/12/17

Open Steno Project 8/6/17

Employee v. Independent Contractor 7/24/17

Get A Real Job! 7/3/17

Diplomacy 6/27/17

To Our Litigators

RE: Stenographic Reporters

If you’re reading, I’m going to hope you’re the kind of lawyer that we all look up to. You’re responsive to clients, you’re honest with potential clients about what you can do for them, and you’re ready when it comes to filings, motions, discovery, or trial. Maybe you’re the one at your firm tailoring your service to your client’s budget, or maybe you oversee someone doing that for you. But the end is the same, giving the consumer the best value for the budget.

That’s what urges me to write today. There has been a lot said about “AI” transcription and digital recording versus stenographic reporting. There has been a lot said in my field about the Ducker Report and a forecasted shortage of court reporters. Some brave companies are turning to remote reporting, where legal, to allow a stenographer to appear remotely. Other courageous reporters are doubling their workload to meet your demand.

There is one solution that’s come out known as digital reporting. The main idea is that someone will record the proceedings, run it through a computer program, and then someone will fix up what the computer does. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this is what we stenographers actually do. The major difference is we are stenographically recording (typing!) every word, and the computer is accepting that stenographic word and turning it into your English transcript.

The bottom line is: It simply ends up being more efficient to do it our way. One person, perhaps two, can stenographically record and transcribe an entire proceeding and have it to you that night or the next morning. For your dollar, there’s just not better value. Stenographers type four to five times faster than your average typist, so to finish the same proceeding, we are talking about four or five times the usual turnaround time for transcribers, or four or five times the staffing. Take the number of stenographers you have today, and multiply that number by 3, 4, or 5. If you think there’s a shortage and/or workflow issues now, imagine a world where you need five court reporters to put together your one proceeding. Imagine a world where the transcript is questioned and you need to bring those people in to testify instead of one stenographer.

Trust me when I say the firms switching to digital reporting or demanding you change your deposition notices to allow digital reporters are not saving you or your clients any money. Ever notice how there are almost never prices posted online for services? That’s because most of these companies act as middlemen. They make an agreement with you or the insurer, and then they make an agreement with us, the stenographers or transcribers, and they keep what’s in the middle. It’s really that simple. I would not be surprised, as a stenographer, to learn that I only made $3.25 a page on some of my old depositions with 25 cents per copy while the agency I worked with charged whatever they charged. 5? 6? 7? I don’t know. I only know that when I consulted a lawyer, the lawyer wanted almost 15 dollars a page if my case went to depositions.

I’ve been a stenographer for a long time, and I see two roads that you, the litigators, may take. You can let the sellers decide the market, and eventually stenographers won’t be an option, or you can make a sustained demand for a stenographic reporter at every dep. When lawyers start turning to direct market apps like Appear Me, Expedite Legal, and NexDep to get stenographers, those agencies pushing the digital and AI will jump on board and do whatever it takes to increase your supply of stenographers and get your business back.

Stenographers have been serving the legal community for decades. There’s been a push in recent years to do away with us because of a public perception that our methods are antiquated. Ironically, the people leading this charge are the companies we trusted with selling our services. So to our litigators: You now know all I know, and the customer is always right. Which will you choose?

Veritext Update, March 2019

Introduction & History.

First and foremost: This post is going to get into past history and then go into more recent history. In the more recent history, in order to prove that what we’re saying is true, there are screen shots of a person’s LinkedIn social media. We’re free to discuss that and we’re free to say how we feel, but any reader that comes here should be aware that harassment, bullying, menacing, stalking, and defamation are all amoral and illegal. Those things may all open you up to criminal and civil action. If you use our steno news as a gateway for antisocial behavior, do not be surprised if you get police at your door.

Now onto history. Veritext was a leader in working to bolster stenography. A quick Google search will show you that assuming all the media out there to be true or partially true, they are a partner to NCRA and do or did, on some level, and sometimes on an astounding level, support the stenographic methodology for taking the record. It is hard to tell if what follows is a case of Yes, Prime Minister’s advice on backstabbing or a case of the principle of hedging. Veritext proceeded to buy out a lot of stenographic or court reporting companies, including Diamond Reporting here in New York. Next, we caught wind that Veritext was advertising to attorneys that they should change their deposition notices to add language of “stenographic or other means”, presumably so that Veritext could choose to send digital reporters to jobs.

This all ended up culminating in a post where we mirrored SoCalReporter’s ideas and said: We need to stop beating each other up about where we work and start talking solutions. Guess what happened? People started coming up with solutions, and content, and even going so far as to create watchdog groups. We have said this before, but we are seeing a memetic shift. The reporting zeitgeist of silence is over. There are hundreds of voices blogging, talking, and working together to come up with new ideas.

Today & Tomorrow.

So that brings us to the end of February 2019. A woman named Gina Hardin, purportedly a VP of Sales at Veritext, wrote or posted an article about digital reporting being the changing landscape of reporting. There was a great deal of chatter about this, culminating in the post being taken down the night it was posted, and an immediate declaration from Veritext that the post was posted by a former employee and that they had nothing to do with it, honest. This doesn’t pass the colloquial “sniff test” or SMELL test for being true. Why would a former employee try to drum up business for a past employer? In this country, with so few rights for workers, what employee would ever go out on a limb and post something like that without their employer’s explicit permission? Unless you work for the government or have a contract saying otherwise, you can be fired for any reason or no reason, even a made up reason, just not an illegal reason, of which there are very few. The whole thing just doesn’t make sense. And if she’s a former employee, apparently nobody told her, because as of March 2, 2019, she was still listed as working at Veritext, but under the name Gina H. It’s all but undeniable that Veritext is pushing digital, including hiring via their website.

Now, here’s the deal: Some people went online and talked about the typos in the article, or even had personal attacks. It’s not about her. As best we can tell, she’s an employee doing a job, and probably doing it damn well. We make a thousand typos a day unless we’re Super Stenographer. Stenographers, and the entrepreneurs among us, should really be looking at teaming up with salespeople like that who’re dedicated to their job and willing to put themselves out there. Though we have not yet gotten a chance to interview Eve Barrett of Expedite Legal, one of the things she’s alluded to online is there’s an amazing power in human-to-human marketing because of this digital, faceless world. Who is going to be better at human-to-human marketing than someone who is willing to attach their face to the product and pitch? We wouldn’t be surprised if there are stenographic companies looking to poach Gina H. or salespeople like her right now! There’s huge money in this field. Nearly every big agency has a satellite office in every borough of New York City and a cadre of dedicated employees — in other words, there is money to be made in this field, and we shouldn’t be afraid to hire talent when it means a bigger return. Success is often a matter of intelligent delegation. As stenographers, we often let our penchant for perfectionism stand in the way of hiring help and building our brand, perhaps to a fault.

But where does that leave us? Well, we need to recognize that Veritext is apparently willing to lie. Freelancers need to recognize that group boycotts by competitors may fall under antitrust violations. Reporters everywhere need to start acknowledging that the best way to beat ’em might be to just start grabbing clients. It’s time for us to get serious about funding our associations and demanding marketing and entrepreneurial courses. These companies all exist because they got clients off of somebody else. Individually, they may seem bigger or stronger than us because they can outspend us one-on-one, but there’s an inherent power in the fact that if thousands of reporters were to compete directly with them and start poaching clients — which is perfectly legal unless you signed a contract saying you wouldn’t do that or stole a trade secret — they’d be SOL.

For the most ambitious, start looking at fundraising. Start considering all the ways companies come into existence. You very well could be the next nationwide conglomerate. As a matter of fact, if you’re in Illinois, New York, California, or Texas, you are in one of the largest court reporting states in the country, and you have a real shot at seizing the market. Companies rise and fall — but your career is in your hands.

We look forward to the day Veritext sees it’s on the losing side and starts throwing its weight behind stenography again. We look forward to dutifully reporting that right here on this blog. But until that day comes, we encourage fierce competition in this market. Don’t be complacent. Maybe someday we’ll get SLAPP’d for standing up for our profession, but we’re happy to take the heat so that you don’t have to. Be involved. Encourage others to get involved and start building their brand. Know that you are making a difference in how the market and our day-to-day jobs develop.

Court Reporter, Meet Stenographer

To share some quick history, stenographer became seen by some as a term akin to secretary. Court reporter is the term that ended up in almost all of our associations even though those associations were almost entirely dedicated to stenography and machine shorthand. Court reporter became the dominant term for us.

To explain what’s happened, digital reporters, people who record the record electronically and ship it off to be transcribed, hijacked the court reporter title and started billing what they do as the same as what we do. I don’t have hostility or contempt for people making a living. I openly invite digital recorders to join the stenographic legion. I encourage stenographers to reach out to these people and tell them there is a better way. I do think stenography has a rich history of providing for the legal community and should continue to grow and thrive. I’m a serious case of steno first!

With the Ducker Report, some agencies began to push digital reporting as a way to close the gap on the shortage. With the average stenographer being able to do the work of a recorder and a transcriber, this is a horrible move for the field, and to see us all relegated to recorder would mean a cut in pay and bargaining power, as well as potential problems with the quality of the legal record. People’s lives and fortunes are at stake, very much including our own!

So what’s next? We are actually seeing people answer the call to keep leading. CalDRA is creating materials and stickers plastered with the term stenographer and stenography, and leading the charge in creating a distinction from the generic court reporter term stolen from us. They’ve even announced a war chest.

Then on the front of the working, regular reporter, we are seeing the spread of these materials. Realtime reporters like Rich Germosen are posting up these stickers on their laptops and equipment. Court reporting companies like the famous Migliore & Associates are taking a stand and putting out their own materials differentiating stenography from alternatives (Archive). In related news, reporters like Abby Guerra and Dana Srebrenik (LinkedIn) also got out there and talked about why it was so offensive to have folks move in and set up shop on our court reporting title. These people are real. Their choice to stand up and start saying no is real. This wave is so powerful that there are entire groups springing up to share steno materials.

A quick note to the agencies that are pushing digital: Here’s your sign. Stenographers are here to stay. If you’re not focusing on us, you’re going to lose clients to stenographers. Companies collapse, careers go on. Pick the winning side. Pick steno. Think about why organizations like STAR cowered in fear and Stenograph immediately distanced itself as a separate entity when a STAR flyer showed a course that would purportedly teach videographers to make the record. Though this is a small field, there are enough of us that your businesses require our tacit consent to thrive. If even a fraction of the 10,000 or so estimated freelance stenographers competed directly against your businesses, you’d be looking at half the profits you have today. You don’t want that. We don’t want that. But we do want you to focus your energy on promoting steno. Push meet pushback. Check meet checkmate.

The bottom line for all readers is getting involved is becoming easier every day. We get it. Companies and individual reporters don’t always have a huge budget for pro-steno materials. If you don’t have the time to create your own bandwagon, hop aboard, and join the wave of people getting out there and educating attorneys on steno. The solution may not come from one movement, but the collective efforts of many movements. From Project Steno to the Open Steno Project, we all have the ability to take control of the future of this industry. I can only hope all associations are taking note and preparing to launch campaigns like CalDRA in every state. But even if not, individual reporters just like you make all the difference. How do I know that? It’s happening today.

MA Payonk: Steno First.

Mary Ann Payonk is an exceptional person. She has been hosting yearly reporter empowerment conferences. She had sponsored me to go to an Anita Paul seminar when I was much younger and when Anita was still with us. In turn, I can say I’ve sponsored students and student contests to try to encourage people to be the best they can be. I’ve spent nearly my entire working career helping people either publicly or in PMs. I attribute at least some of that good nature to the fact that I was treated exceptionally well as a newbie reporter by her and other elites. We’re all in this together.

Some will have seen the occasional disagreement I’ve had with Mary Ann on technology and new people entering the field. While those disagreements stand on their merit or in their moment, there is a great deal that Mary Ann and I agree on.

Best I can tell, she’s the verbarian that coined the phrase real realtime, and that described what I saw as a very unfortunate movement where people who were not really ready to be realtimers were stating they were realtime so that they could make some money. Of course, this has the adverse effect of increasing the supply of realtime writers, and decreasing the price that realtime writers can command. If I get 20 percent of what someone is saying, she gets 200 percent, so seriously, people like me should not offer realtime in a service or freelance setting. We need to make sure realtime is a premium service and that when lawyers pay for it, they get what they pay for.

She’s been a true ally in that she has, like me, advocated for the working reporter to go out and get clients. She wants people to be resourceful. Even more than that, she wants companies to put steno first. There’s just a wealth of knowledge there that needs to be tapped and paid attention to by anyone who hasn’t gotten to meet MA personally, but particularly new reporters. She’s got class, sass, and fingers too fast for me. If you’re somebody who’s new to this field, you want to talk to her, you want to get some perspective. As a matter of fact, you want as many perspectives as possible because it will help you make informed decisions.

One of the big takeaways from the blog post linked above was the meme. If you think hiring a professional is expensive, just wait until you hire an amateur. Don’t be an amateur. Keep building the skills you need to be successful. Keep marketing yourself as the premier choice in speech-to-text. And realize that there are very simple skills that can automatically make you more marketable. There are reporters out there who have bad time management. I’m guilty. It hurts our marketability when deadlines are slipped. It hurts our marketability when our coverage radius is only a mile or two. It hurts our marketability when our coverage days are only the third Wednesday of an odd month. Yes, you can go out there right now and build a national business: But you can also do simple things that me, and Mary Ann, and half the steno world can’t say enough: Be reliable. Know your worth. Network. Learn your market.

Steno V Digital (Archive Post)

Consider this a gentle touch on an important topic. There’s been a true memetic shift in the way stenographers are interacting and spreading ideas. Content is honestly popping up faster than we can even really digest it, so let this post serve as a staging point for some of what’s happening this Court Reporting and Captioning Week 2019. This weekend I’ve had the pleasure of reading a flyer from the DRA in California (Photo Archive). Read about Idaho’s need for reporters (Photo Archive). Finally, got to see Cleveland Reporting Partners’ whole take on digital v steno (Photo Archive).

In very brief summary we are seeing many people put into writing what I have opined over Facebook. Yes, technology is amazing. But right now it struggles with certain things. It can transcribe one speaker quite well, but if you throw in some stray sounds or a second speaker, it can have a hard time. This makes the market for captioners and legal reporters a little more promising because we have the skill and training to give them what they need now and train others to do it. Make no mistake, there’s a big market in that, so if a company is having you train a digital, make sure you’re getting at least the next ten years of your annual income upfront.

Technological growth is no longer exponential. Don’t get me wrong, it’s impressive. But until Quantum Computing is cheap and accessible there are probably things we won’t see, like a JARVIS-like AI. We will see imitation AI, that’s for sure, but there is an indeterminate clock on when we will see quantum tech. The running idea and current study that’ll probably lead to true ideas is machine learning. This takes data training sets, like pictures, or recordings, or text — whatever it is programmed to take — and it takes that information and uses it as a basis for its decisions. Sometimes this is entertaining. Sometimes this goes horribly wrong. The bottom line is it is limited by the speed at which it can process its training data and the speed at which it can retrieve that information for later.

I imagine that the training data set for an AI to “do depositions” would look something like recorded depositions paired with their transcripts. There are three big hurdles there, building the training set, processing the training set, and retrieving the right data when it’s time to “do deposition.” In a classic computer we have, in very laypeople terms, little transistors firing on and off to tell the computer what’s going on. Tech is running into a problem where it can’t get these little nanotubes much smaller, and making bigger processors absorbs more electricity. For example, I wrote a Fibonacci-generating program. The basic concept is every number adds itself to the number that would come after it. The computer is happy to make these calculations, but very quickly, the processing power needed to calculate these numbers begins to run dry, and the files we store these numbers in become too large to be opened on a weak laptop. The simplest algorithm in existence busts up a classic computer. This is probably the trouble they have making something that can seamlessly listen to people and transcribe, the computer just doesn’t have the power to process it quickly. Look how long it takes videographers to burn disks or Go To Meeting to process audio. Now imagine adding another layer where the machine is transcribing everything perfectly. In Quantum Computing they’re talking about these very small units being able to calculate everything at once, or large batches of things at once. If they crack that, we’re probably back to exponential technological growth.

In the meantime, fight for your jobs. Fight for market share. It’s not a question of whether we’re outdated. Today the answer to that is no. What matters heavily is perception. Perception can change outcomes. One of the most effective tactics in war has been to get the enemy army to rout, and that’s exactly what digital reporting advocates are trying to get you to do: Give up and go home without a fight. Don’t buy into it, make the technology prove itself. Even the worst stenographer puts in words four or five times faster than the average typist, yet there are still typists.

Keep competing. We are well on our way to winning this thing.

Stenographers, Veritext is Not Your Friend

I came across this gem of an advertisement. To keep things short it talks about attracting new court reporters to the profession by using digital recorders and broadening the language of deposition notices to include recording of depositions by “stenographic and other means”.

I pointed out in a prior post that Veritext had allegedly agreed not to cross the picket line in California and how great that was. I don’t take my words back. That was great. But if that was great, then this is awful. Stenographers need to take note: Their response to the court reporter shortage is to move to digitals. What’s the easiest way to stab someone in the back? Seem like you have their back.

It should be dreadfully clear that these corporate entities and sponsors are friends with us for as long as we’re useful to them. We have two very basic choices: Slave away for as long as we’re useful and let ourselves be replaced or start coming up with serious plans to revitalize steno education in the country and start grabbing up more market share. I don’t think it’s a very difficult decision, but I do think we’ve got some work cut out for us. We are seeing this over and over with some of our biggest brands turning to digital recorders.

And a final point. I was immediately met with someone telling me Veritext can’t be blamed, they are only doing what they must to cover their clients. To that I say: Sorry, wrong. They’re pouring money and time into making sure digitals get hired, creating interest in digital reporting, and ensuring deposition notices are tailored to allow digital reporting. They’re making a conscious choice to try to move market share away from stenographers, and that’s only forgivable when they stop doing that.

Some long-term things I think would be great and an open to help and suggestions for:

-Shortening stenographic education programs.

-Gathering and dispersing market data

-Organizing business classes to stenographers.

-Creating a network of stenographers to attend career days at schools.

-Creating a free dictation library or learning materials similar to Open Steno to assist schools.

-Funding any or all of these initiatives.

Looking forward to responses and ideas. Looking forward to growth of the industry. Looking forward to revealing that, stenographers, Veritext is not your friend.

*EDIT February 21, 2019:

Came across an article that states Veritext just four months prior was engaging with and presenting NCRA’s A to Z program, and in the interest of fairness that should be included here. We want more of that!