Stenograph’s MAXScribe Support Free for U.S. Legal Support Transcribers?

A Stenonymous source claims to have worked for U.S. Legal Support and received this notification regarding MAXScribe.

Let me just put the obvious out there.

1. If this is Stenograph’s doing, then let’s just say stenographers have pretty much never been given a freebie in terms of support.

2. If this is USL’s doing, let’s just say the “there’s nothing we can do about the shortage” crowd is bending over backwards to make sure they can get transcribers in your seats. They never bent over backwards for you. In fact, USL bought and killed Stenotrain and pulled Patricia Falls over to digital land as best I can tell. They literally made sure there’d be fewer of you.

3. I love how they feel the need to remind transcribers they are 1099 transcribers. I cannot wait for more court reporters, digital court reporters, and transcribers to realize the intense corporate fear around us unionizing and how much more money we might all collectively make if that happened. Stenographers have the most to lose by not unionizing, since the corporations are currently working on eliminating their jobs.

Sorry, it’s true. Different jurisdictions are farther on the path than others, though. So if you’re really lucky, I’ll lose my job before you do so that you don’t have to hear about all this nasty stuff and it can just kind of creep up on you suddenly rather than being able to see it several years ahead of time.

………

The bottom line is that court reporter support lets me meddle in these things and buys me a seat at the table. I use that seat at the table to push things your way. If you like that, please take some time to donate on the front page of Stenonymous.com, contribute to PayPal or Zelle at ChristopherDay227@gmail.com or Venmo @Stenonymous.

I also get to push our issues toward millions of people.

Advertising spikes at various points in Stenonymous operations have led to over 1 million impressions.

P.S.

A new Stenonymous writer will be joining us for several future pieces. Please give Cheri Marks a warm welcome tomorrow!

Or else!

Stenograph Town Hall To Be Held on May 31, 2023

In an email received at about 3:11 p.m. today, Stenograph announced the date of its town hall meeting and distributed an invite link. Participants are asked to send their questions to townhall23@stenograph.com by May 30, 2023.

Stenograph May 2023 Town Hall invitation.

I’ll start with something positive. I think this is a step in the right direction. Customers have been asking for a little love and attention for a long time, and this is definitely trying to give them what they asked for. The petition went out last week. Mr. Dutta’s public comments were discovered this weekend, and here we are.

There are some problems with the way this is being done. First, Stenograph being in control of the questions means that some questions may be disregarded. If you send in questions, consider saving evidence that you sent them and then letting me know if any of your questions were ignored afterwards. We can at least create a record of what wasn’t asked if my paranoia over Stenograph’s control of the event turns out to be healthy skepticism. Overlapping with that concern, there are questions about whether any live questions will be taken or whether the town hall will be exclusively limited to questions sent to the email provided by May 30. I have to admit, I believe that Stenograph should take some questions beforehand because it’s a company and it’s hard to answer questions on the fly about a company with no prep as to what those questions will be. But I also believe a healthy town hall would have some live question component.

Another problem that arises is that at 6 pm EST, it’s 3 PM PST. Many stenographers will be working at the time of the event, and if it is not recorded and distributed, they will miss it. Participants could record themselves using Open Broadcast Software or their phones or whatever, but it’s an extra step many won’t take. And again, paranoia strikes. What if low attendance is used to support the shortage narrative pushed by Stenograph, Veritext, US Legal Support, and the Speech-to-Text Institute? In my heart, I hope the company wouldn’t do that, but I’ve learned to stop thinking with my heart and understand that people play games.

If there are questions you want to ask that you don’t feel comfortable sending to Stenograph yourself, please comment them here. I will send them and keep a record of what I send. I will not send anything overtly inappropriate.

I’ve said many times before that if Stenograph admits that the Speech-to-Text Institute was wrong about the stenographer shortage being impossible to solve, it will make court reporting history. That’s what I’ll be looking out for. I have other questions about the percentage of revenue that goes into their R&D budget and what percentage of that is specifically spent on stenographic technology, but other than that, I haven’t yet decided what to ask.

For what it’s worth, if anybody from Stenograph is reading, thanks for doing this, but these are honest concerns court reporters have.

Court reporters, if you fight, you will win. You wanted a town hall and you got one. Make the most of it and remember this moment the next time someone tells you something cannot be done.

Addendum:

I messed up the times in the original post. It’s 6 PM EST, 3 PM PST. May 31, 2023.

Stenograph Customers Start Petition for Town Hall

A petition has been made asking Stenograph to acquiesce to a town hall meeting.

After Stenograph’s actions in Texas and Illinois, as well as the reports of declining service from the past and its questionable partnerships with TransAtlantic and TranscribeMe, Stenograph would ultimately be doing itself a favor to start reuniting with its stenographer base. In my view, all it would take for any of these companies under the Speech-to-Text Institute to sway stenographers back to their side is admitting that the Speech-to-Text Institute got it wrong with regard to the impossibility of solving the stenographer shortage.

Stenographers, now’s the time to make your voice heard. The petition only aims for a thousand signatures, but according to Stenograph’s own numbers, as I recall from the Illinois article, the number of Stenograph customers is much higher, in the 20,000 ballpark. The more we can do to spread the word, the more pressure Stenograph will feel to accept.

There’s a big question about who would moderate, but my money’s on Joshua Edwards. He’s always been fair and professional. He’d ensure no nastiness. Even I’d behave.

I assume they won’t accept. Then again, I’ve learned to never say never. I was told people would never read the blog. Now at least a thousand visit every month. Stenographers have a real chance at being a part of positive change by trying, so go sign today!