National Court Reporters Association Blasted for Platforming Insurrectionist Apologist & Failing to Fight for Criminal Court Officialships Protecting the Rights of the Indigent

(NOTE 1: Reading time is extended by the text preserved at the end of this writeup. The writeup is short-ish.)

(NOTE 2: I am told by several readers the first link is not working for them. I am not sure how to fix this. It was working for me last I checked on 2/13/24.)

A public post by Angela Sidener came to my attention. Though the post was made during National Court Reporters Association’s Court Reporting & Captioning Week 2024, the events described therein occurred at the organization’s Legislative Boot Camp 2023 (herein LBC), before my announced resignation from the National Court Reporters Association in August 2023.

In brief, NCRA’s LBC, though I have never attended, is a taste of lobbying and learning about the legislative process, particularly of the federal government. Many, many court reporters are ignorant with regard to how laws are passed, and the education truly is vital to our field.

But something reportedly happened that day. Disgraced Congressman Ed Whitfield was invited to speak, and therein he minimized the events of the January 6th occupation of the capitol by over 2,000 “mostly peaceful” protestors, also known as rioters. The event was referred to as a “demonstration” by Mr. Whitfield.

At this point, I have to say, NCRA has always portrayed itself as non-partisan to a fault. It avoids controversial topics even where the law and science is completely on the side of working court reporters. So to learn that very partisan viewpoints made their way into the Legislative Boot Camp is pretty disheartening. There are also allegations that NCRA Executive Director Dave Wenhold made a comment about Obama being against free speech. Being something of a free speech absolutist myself, I don’t fault him if that’s a genuine belief. But that’s not, in my view, in line with the whole “we are a non-partisan organization” thing if true. Most politicians are against free speech if it brings them closer to a goal.

Sidener goes on to mention NCRA’s freelance lean. And this is unreservedly true. We have been watching officialships get eaten up by Steve Townsend and the digital brigade for years. How interesting is it that for years, and years, and years we repeated the mantra “realtime is the future,” putting all our eggs into a single basket of the high-priced, low volume specialty? The idea of business diversification eluded all of the major players for well over half a decade, and that includes Wenhold, Stenograph, and beyond. In Stenograph’s case, the organization figured out what diversification was as soon as Anir Dutta took the helm and made friends with the STTI Bloc. Or they knew damn well and funneled all the eggs into one basket anyway. Choose one.

The impact of watching those officialships be eaten is palpable. As court reporters in New York fought to bring attention to the impact that the loss of stenographers might have on the indigent, particularly minority speakers, the National Court Reporters Association was mostly silent — though I personally give credit to the org for hooking me up with Vice News so many years ago, something that would not have been done if there was uniform overt hostility to egalitarianism I promote. The NCRA could not have known that Vice would go on to lie by omission.

The ultimate result of failing to fight for officials and leaving it to the state associations to figure out, as Sidener writes, is criminal court reporters crushed under the weight of their dockets. In my view, this will lead to more criminal matters rolling over to audio and digital court reporting, which has turnaround time issues and sometimes results in the record being lost, appeals being denied, or expensive reconstruction hearings. Through its “non-partisan” habitual inaction, NCRA indeed chooses a side. It chooses to allow the indigent to be plagued by subpar record quality and serious privacy issues rather than stand up and shout that every person appearing in a legal proceeding in this country deserves the gold standard of stenographic court reporting. Because THAT would be political! This is an organization devoted to stenographers, by the way. It shouldn’t be a hard choice.

Perhaps it is time for the NCRA Board to consider a change in leadership. As I mentioned in my corruption post, we do not have to keep using people from the association management industry. We can send stenographers to association management training. It’s become painfully clear to me that we need an executive director that has done what we do. We can no longer afford to have the staff wag the dog and glide by on pure charisma. We need results. And if the NCRA can’t deliver, it needs to dissolve.

National Court Reporters Association, the Association for Court Reporters and Captioners

———

Text preserved:

National Con Reporters & Captioners[sic] Week 2024

TLDR; I finally gave up my RPR and professional association. 😊

Many of my colleagues and friends are celebrating the court reporting profession this week. Unfortunately, this year I’m not joining in the festivities, even though the last two years I was responsible for getting Gov. Inslee to declare Court Reporting and Captioning Week statewide in an official proclamation.

A few things last year opened my eyes wide. I’m grateful and truly thankful for this experience and for those who have supported me. We organize for a better future.

In February 2023, I went to Washington, D.C., as vice president of my state court reporters association for a national legislative boot camp. I was excited for the mentorship opportunity, networking with colleagues, and meeting with legislators again. I caught a red-eye Friday night, Washington state to Washington, D.C., because, as an official reporter in superior court, I had a docket to cover. I work a full-time+ job in addition to all my volunteer activities, so my schedule was tight, but I was excited.

As a preface, I’m experienced in the nuances of politics, pay attention to current events, and have butted heads with the national organization on a few occasions over the years, but I was a loyal member. I disagreed with their anti-worker agenda that urged members to advocate against the PRO Act, various other pieces of independent contractor legislation they’ve opposed in the past, so I’m always weary of their politicking and pay close attention.

What I experienced at boot camp, and the aftermath, shook my world, both personally and professionally. There’s probably 60 people in attendance. Reading the room, I knew this wasn’t the most politically active crowd when they were impressed with the School House Rocks video on how to pass a bill. I noticed no one batted an eye when the national executive director was bragging about his role in suing the government, Citizens United, the most destructive ruling regarding money in politics in our Supreme Court history, telling the crowd President Obama was against free speech. Cringe.

To spare more details, I’m jumping right to the line crossed. Monday morning, a supposed impromptu speaker was introduced. Never mind the brag his sidekick quipped while introducing him about being from the home of Kevin McCarthy, fist pump, (cringe), they brought disgraced former Congressman Ed Whitfield, Republican from Kentucky that was forced to resign over ethics violations, to the mic to gaslight the crowd about January 6th and Democrats stealing elections. That’s all he talked about. He had nothing to add to our agenda, nothing to say about court reporting. This was a violation of our professional Code of Ethics, clearly extreme right-wing politicking at a nonpartisan organization’s event.

I was livid, but I sat in silence, only offering the word “insurrection” twice when Mr. Whitfield was stuttering around, trying to find what to call an attempted coup we all watched on TV. He settled on calling it a demonstration. I was texting my sister in shock. She advised I get up and leave, but I was there representing my state and I was fearful to make a scene. As he finished gaslighting, the entire room applauded, but me. Leadership gathered around him to shake hands and were all smiles and pictures. I looked around, still in shock, and said to my table, “I cannot believe NCRA gave that nazzzi a platform.”

A few in my group said, “Shhhh, you can’t be political here.” My eyes popped as I realized they must not have understood a word he was saying. (In full disclosure, I lived in Richmond when the nazzzi’s marched in Charlottesville in 2017, killed Heather Heyer, and they are politically active on the east coast as well as here in Spokane and Idaho, but maybe I should have said fascist? Big diff?)

I said, “I didn’t bring it up. He just gaslit this entire crowd. January 6th was an attack on our sitting government, not a demonstration. A confederate flag was flown in our Capitol building for the first time, and there’s African-Americans here,” like, “What?” End of discussion, I get up and walk out for the break.

I immediately meet up with a colleague and expressed my shock, disgust, and feelings of leaving immediately. She said she was surprised too and that someone from California at her table shared the same WTF comments, but they still all clapped along at the end. This was the last day before Hill Day, so I decided to stick with my group and keep my mouth shut about the incident. We all got along fine in our skits, discussion afterwards, and there wasn’t any drama. We also all chatted in group texts. There was no scene.

Hill Day comes and it’s an amazing day. My colleague and I scrap the 12-hour schedule given to us and just visit our reps and take in the experience. I had to fly back early to get back to work Wednesday, but we were able to catch some amazing events going on around The Hill. There was a large demonstration outside SCOTUS for student debt relief, Equal Rights Amendment demonstrations were happening, and we were able to listen in as other lobbyists met with our legislators. I have stories, but I won’t digress here. It was an amazing day brushing elbows in one of my favorite places.

I get home and try to process this experience after I’d gotten rest and wasn’t jetlagged. I’d been in communication with two members of the national association back in my state and shared what happened. They were shocked and expressed outrage they were told there was no room for them to speak, the NCRA STRONG committee, but they gave time to Mr. Whitfield. One was on our state legislative committee and the other was serving on the national board of directors. The director took my concerns to a meeting where it was discussed and decided no action would be taken to apologize to attendees for the lapse in ethical judgement that allowed such a presentation, nor would they make a statement in firm support of democracy, free and fair elections, just basic non-partisan American values.

On top of my full-time+ job and board service, committee assignments, I was also in the middle of teaching a national Intro to Steno A to Z program with active participants I’d recruited and mentored. I didn’t want to let them down with an immediate resignation, so I swept my personal feelings aside to get through this 6-week program. After it ended, I emailed the national board myself, as a dues-paying member, and asked for them to recognize Mr. Whitfield did not speak for the association, nor our values. I also asked how much of national’s money was paid to his lobbying firm, Farragut Group, to make these phone calls to set up our meetings. Simple requests, I thought.

The president of the association wrote me back. Nobody else on the board responded. The president’s response was a pathetic attempt at acknowledging the damage done and covering for the association, saying they were all shocked by his speech, and their executive director did bring it up and got an apology for Mr. Whitfield’s comments; it certainly won’t happen again, but . . . they wouldn’t be passing that apology along to those in attendance. It’s best if we just shhhh. I’ll attach my correspondence with the national president in the comments here for full disclosure.

After long and hard consideration, conversations with people I respect, I gave up my membership. It was hard!!! I gave up the initials I’d paid for, tested out, and earned because I’m ashamed and embarrassed to belong to such an organization. My friends and I joke about what those initials really stand for: National Corporate Reporters Association? National Con Reporters Association? National Clueless Reporters Association? If you attend their meetings, they’re actively anti-union and like to book venues for conventions without union representation for their events.

I’ve worked in the courts and covered the criminal docket. It’s THE most important work done on a daily basis, bar none. It’s the record on which appeals happen, laws are affirmed, challenged, and reviewed. It’s a court reporter’s job to make sure that record is preserved. I hope none of you ever find yourself in a seat as a victim or defendant in a courtroom with a clerk pushing a recording button, outsourcing transcribing to noncertified court reporters in a certification-required state. The joke is national and state organizations have let digital recorders come into the courts, and it’s okay with them if a digital recorder replaces an official reporter.

Out of 39 counties in Washington, only 13 jurisdictions have official reporters left, and they’re mostly understaffed, many retiring. This is a certification required state! I pay for a state license to do my job here. King County, which is Seattle, has only 3 to 4 official reporters for their entire superior court bench. Look up how many judges they have. Those officials left are struggling with the weight of their dockets. Many court admins keep reporters in trial/on the record M-F and mandate we do all our transcript work on nights, weekends, and vacations. Fact. I have that in writing from Spokane County court administration.

National, and many state organizations by proxy, are “fighting” to keep the digital recorders out of their deposition rooms and freelance field only. That’s where the money is made. Criminal indigent work is the lowest pay, and they don’t want to do it. But people’s liberty interests are at stake! No bigger threat in life than your loss of liberty. We’re “court” reporters, not “deposition” reporters, but national and state associations never seem to be able to organize to benefit working reporters and keep courts staffed to have an impartial, skilled guardian of the record writing and filing that transcript.

In my experience volunteering, outside of testing, which seems to be their loss-leader to maintain membership dues, national’s priority is big-box firm owners either chomping at the bit to or actively abusing the independent contractor laws. I witnessed it for years and pushed back, made many friends doing so. Hours of meetings and hundreds of emails voicing frustration at their misinformation and fear-mongering, the organization purposefully keeping reporters ignorant of their rights, advancements in technology, and current laws being made that affect our industry.

I resigned my membership after losing all trust and respect for the association. This machine fights fascism.

RIP RPR

#CRCW2024 #RIPRPR961249

Images attached:

Letter to the National Court Reporters Association from Angela Sidener over platforming of insurrection apologist and disgraced former congressman Ed Whitfield.

Response from then-NCRA President Jason Meadors to Angela Sidener over the platforming of insurrection apologist and disgraced former congressman Ed Whitfield

Reply to the then-NCRA President from Angela Sidener over the platforming of insurrection apologist and disgraced former congressman Ed Whitfield

Local Court Reporter Takes His Own Arraignment*

On Thursday the Onondaga Criminal Court arraignments had a surprise visit from the embattled z-list court reporting personality, X, formerly known as George Santos. Santos, having been charged with being too compliant with police officers, was discovered to be a stenographer just shortly into the proceeding.

Stenonymous publishes “real” court transcript for creative writing exercise.

After the reveal, Mr. Santos was asked by the Court to relieve the official court reporter taking the proceedings. Mr. Santos allegedly turned to her, smiled, and said, “don’t worry, I got this. I’m the NCRA Fastest Fingers Award Winner of 2023. Elon Musk is going to buy you a horse for your trouble.”

Once Santos was behind the keys of the stenotype, the rest of it went well for him. In the transcript obtained by Court Tee Vee, an unprecedented situation unfolded.

THE COURT: Well, Mr. Santos, it seems there’s been a mistake. Your lawyer, Mr. Richards, has pointed out that the accusatory instrument has a fatal defect. The case is dismissed and sealed.

THE PROSECUTOR: Oh, Mr. Santos, we are so, so sorry for our malicious prosecution. Please don’t use the transcript of this proceeding to sue us.

MR. RICHARDS: My client is a benevolent and understanding person. In addition to being the first man to the moon and the only person to single handedly save an entire school bus of children with his left pinky, he donated enough to charity to end world hunger and eliminated unemployment worldwide. There’s no reason for him to sue you, and your apology is humbly accepted.

THE COURT: By the way, Mr. Santos, thank you for ending the court reporter shortage fraud by creating a controversy so obnoxious that there isn’t a single person that hasn’t heard of stenography. That was a bold move, and it really paid off for your profession, they should be proud.

THE DEFENDANT: Your Honor, it was no trouble. The court reporters living here and working every day to make this county shine, they’re the real heroes.

(Whereupon, court officers and court clerks all broke into tears as the sun shone through an open window and a beam of light cast a spotlight on X, formerly known as George Santos. As he exited the courtroom, a flock of doves carrying the mice from Cinderella fluttered through the window and dropped their furry friends, and everyone left the courtroom while singing We All Lift Together from the worldwide critically acclaimed MMORPG Warframe. Yes, including the mice and doves.)

Critics question the parenthetical at the end. Court officers, known for their professionalism, helpfulness, and dedication to the safety of courthouses, and clerks, also known for their professionalism and dedication to the just and fair operation of courthouses, simply don’t do that kind of thing. A source speaking on the condition of anonymity stated that in reality, the relieved stenographer was actually 1,567% more qualified than Santos, so we’re not really sure what occurred that day.

Breaking news. Check back for more updates.

*None of this is real. It’s part of Stenonymous Whatever I Want Weekends, a thing I just made up for when I want to do something different like this parody of so many flavors. According to a source that wishes to remain anonymous, in the incident this was based on, the erroneously-charged case was dismissed and sealed 14 days after arraignment. The source believes that a small percentage of our field does not understand the gravity of our work and how it can impact people’s lives, and that by making this excerpt and attached writing exercise public, we can all be reminded that anyone can be charged with anything, and that treating all lawyers, litigants, and the public equally is imperative. “It could be any of us one day,” he said.

Thanks again, Anonymous. I share these beliefs, but even if I didn’t, I’d probably have published anyway for the literary and conceptual value.

From Anonymous and myself, thank you for making this profession shine every day with your hard work and dedication.

NCRA Releases STRONG White Paper November 2023

The National Court Reporters Association released a white paper, Emerging Ethical and Legal Issues Related to the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Voice Cloning, and Digital Audio Recording of Legal Proceedings.

There was a past blog post complaining about how I felt my work on this white paper was mothballed. I suppose I have to retract that now that it’s been released.

Thank you to everyone that took part in drafting the white paper. It’s something I submitted quite a lot to during my time in STRONG and was very important to me.

Contributors to the NCRA November 2023 White Paper

P.S. for anyone that follows the social media antics, I lost way worse than I thought I was going to, so I’m going to keep this one brief 😂.

Bulletin: NCRA Ends Live Proctors for Online Testing

The National Court Reporters Association announced that testing procedures will now be a self-launched/self-authenticated process. I suspect this is a good thing. From my talks with people over the years and even slightly from my own experience I could see the pitfalls of the old way. Proctors were people given general training to administer general tests, and our testing process was reportedly facing problems because proctors were disconnecting or making unreasonable demands.

This doesn’t give you license to cheat though. Security issues are still going to be flagged and sent to NCRA for review.

I’m happy the NCRA’s responsiveness to members is going up. I wonder what “precipitated” that…

NCRA & The Elimination of the Tennessee Board of Court Reporting…

A Stenonymous source came through for me on something the National Court Reporters Association is doing to prevent the sunset of the Tennessee Board of Court Reporting. Advocacy Center link went out. Sample letter and phone call templates were released for those that want to spend the time standing up for standards in court reporting. Get ‘em from your state leaders.

National Court Reporters Association responds to the attempted sunset of the Tennessee Board of Court Reporting.

There were also posts on social media about organizing.

Just for the sake of completeness, the sample letter in my possession is available for download.

Opposition-of-the-Proposed-Sunset-of-the-Tennessee-Board-of-Court-Reporting-Member-Letter Download

I don’t always have good things to say about the National Court Reporters Association, but I will say that their responsiveness to state issues has been much better than it was once rumored to be. One New York source, for example, said that many years ago, the source called about New York cutting Workers Comp reporters, and that person was reportedly told that it was a state issue and that they’re federal. That basically meant “not our problem, deal with it.”

Let’s just say that if that line of logic existed in the NCRA ethos, it doesn’t seem to anymore. The organization has taken steps to become more supportive of state issues. Indiana was one example I can recall off the top of my head as of writing. I’ve said it online before, we need to decide if we want a profession or a club. If NCRA keeps on this path of responsiveness and communication, it’s a good sign we want to be a profession. It’s a good chance we’ll succeed.

My only real gripe is it took a couple of hours for this information to be leaked to me despite having so many Stenonymous sources…

Have a wonderful day, all.

Addendum:

NCRA Launches First Members Matter Meeting August 2023

Likely due to member pressure for a more transparent National Court Reporters Association and internet backlash, the NCRA’s holding a meeting on August 29th. Interested members can attend by using the Learning Center link.

I do point to the little jab at social media negativity at the bottom though. I would agree that it’s unfortunate that we have to start trashing the organization for it to pay attention, but here we are. Please don’t treat us like we’re the problem. We’re a symptom of something past administrations were ignorant about or willfully ignored. Again, that is not Kristin Anderson’s fault. Stenonymous sources report high hopes for this presidency. I have high hopes too. But please understand it’s simple math, the more deaf the organization, the less likely we’ll be shamed into silence because of our ostensibly improper “negativity.”

I also genuinely agree with the part about respecting the space. Don’t disrespect people at their own meetings. Though I won’t be in attendance, I’m happy to publish members’ statements about it. In my view, meetings like this are a time to open dialogue and connection. Try your best at that. You can always media bash later if something is really eating at you. After all, you have the stenographic free press on your side.

National Court Reporters Association to hold first Members Matter Meeting August 2023

In a world where regular journalists are afraid to cover actual news, I suspect citizen journalists are going to fill the gaps. Don’t let anyone mislead you into believing our field’s news is not important. Court officials in some parts of the country have said outright that we’re integral to democracy. The largest threat to guardians of the record and the accuracy of court records was a corporate play that the government and pretty much anybody with power to help sat back and watched happen.

Don’t let anyone fool you into believing we do not need a media arm for this profession. Have you ever noticed that anything that wants to remain relevant has a media arm? The various sports, Congress, movies & Hollywood, music, video gaming, celebrities, milk. For years court reporter culture was about being quiet about who we are and what we make because people were scared the public would turn around and do away with us. Then the science came out that we were better than alternatives and still we can’t be bothered to muster up the courage to advertise this nationwide and bring back demand for stenographic jobs. There’s something very wrong there.

If you want to support budding free press for the court reporting industry, consider donating $5 today on the front page of Stenonymous.com for the 5+ years I’ve been publishing for our community. If you’re enjoying Stenonymous, you are not alone.

Stenonymous readership up after trend of declining views.

For Self-Learners: How To Grade Your Steno Test

I came across this Reddit post by someone teaching themselves steno. They did not understand the grading process. Of course, everyone, including me, pointed them to the NCRA’s PDF about what constitutes an error. But I got deep into the math and I would like to share it here so that people might be able to use it in the future if they get confused:

What constitutes an error: (NCRA Link Again)

So then you take your words per minute, and figure out 5% of that (95% is passing for most places.)

(Words per minute * .05.) * dictation time in minutes.

5 min 225 WPM take.

(225 * . 05) * 5

(11.25) * 5

56.25 errors allowed. Some places allow 57.

I hope this helps.

You can also do total words * the number of errors allowed.

(225 * 5) = total words

(total words) * .05

from the above example:

(1,125) * .05 = 56.25.

If you need accuracy of 96%, use .04 instead.

If you need accuracy of 97%, use .03 instead.

If you need accuracy of 97.5%, use .025 instead.

If you need accuracy of 98%, use .02 instead.

If you need accuracy of 99%, use .01 instead.

As they say in fairytales, the end.

Addendum:

This originally posted with an error where it said 97.5% should use 0.035. This is false. It should have been 0.025 and was corrected.

NCRA: Please Don’t Talk About Us On Social Media, It Might Force Us To Address Your Concerns…

National Court Reporters Association:

Message from Kristin Anderson, new President of the NCRA 2023-2024

I’ll start with an admission: The headline is not entirely fair. It’s my belief that the individuals involved with NCRA care very much individually. Especially STRONG. But the organization itself has problems, and I’m ready to write about what I’ve experienced and largely why I no longer have confidence in the association.

I do take umbrage with the whole concept of “don’t use social media to discuss the issues.” It restricts effective communication? As a guy who runs the equivalent of a stenographic spy network, I would say the communication’s pretty poor no matter what we do. In the time that it took to systematically dismantle the corporate campaign against stenographers, I’m hard pressed to name anything NCRA has done besides conventions and business as usual. Telling us not to discuss the issues is basically saying “we do not want you to participate.” I have found in my dealings with NCRA that the association doesn’t do anything unless you have an army at your back, and social media is exactly how that army organizes. The army wouldn’t need to organize in the first place if the association was proactive instead of always playing damage control. That’s not Kristin Anderson’s fault. She’s doing what she has to do as president of the association. But there is a real deafness in NCRA’s organization culture and core.

Let me put out there that I was not, historically, an NCRA hater. In my early years I disagreed with some stuff, but overall, I saw the benefit of a large national association for stenographers. I used the power of media to change minds when Frank N Sense was harping on NCRA. I joined NCRA STRONG and put in a lot of effort to try to make a difference, including preparation of a draft white paper and video to help get the message out there that there were issues with recording versus stenography. My efforts were mothballed without explanation. See that from my perspective: Took the time to volunteer, attend discussions, work on materials, and then had hours of time deleted for a reason I was never given. It’s amazing I didn’t call them out right then and there. Then I proposed a series of amendments in 2021 and one of them was so popular that the NCRA made up a reason it couldn’t be voted on. That’s right, this organization that’s always whining for people to take part didn’t even allow members to vote on what I proposed.

Then I had my medical incident, and I wrote some stuff about Dave Wenhold, the Executive Director, that I didn’t have the evidence for, and that was wrong of me. And I genuinely understand if people in the NCRA felt unsure about me at that point, but I was still trying to be a team player and alerted the organization to the fact that its name was being used to spread lies. I also became a National Court Reporters Foundation Angel in 2022. Next thing I know, it’s two or three months after the incident, and I’ve got then-president Dibble calling me to write something retracting what I said about Dave. At first, because I was still recovering from what I had been through, I was genuinely hesitant. I didn’t know what to believe, and I said something along the lines of “I get that you guys want what you want, but don’t discard the information I sent you.” It was only at THAT point that the lie about NCRA got scrubbed from the internet, presumably thanks to action taken by them. But I felt heard, and my recovery progressed to the point where I knew what to believe, so I did what I had been asked to do.

Next thing that happened was I tried to put together an advertising campaign for the Journal of Court Reporting to the tune of thousands of dollars. The idea behind the scenes was that our antitrust training was incomplete, and I was going to make connections and start building interest in re-imagining it. For example, the NCRA says you can’t discuss rates. That’s a lie. Right on the FTC site it says trade associations can collect and distribute aggregated rate data. The ad didn’t talk about any of that, it just gave the name of the project. You can see the ad image here. That got rejected. So here’s an organization that’s resistant to telling the truth. Why? Do you think stenographers are too stupid to understand the nuance that the association doesn’t entertain rates discussions because it can lead to a lawsuit? And if you do think that way about us, why are we paying dues?

There was also a point where I nominated a stenographer from New York that has done amazing things for the field to be a FAPR. Not only was he not made a FAPR, but the rules were subsequently changed so that he would no longer be eligible. And, I, moron that I am, continued to give the NCRA a pass, and even promote them where I could.

But now the silence is broken. There have been a number of things that have come to my attention over the past week. A lot of the small stuff, I still give a pass. It’s hard to run an organization like NCRA. But the continued alienation of the organization’s strongest supporters is disgusting. I have watched with my own eyes a die-hard supporter that had just about every idea she ever had struck down. I’ve heard that a certain educator — one that has gotten graduation times down to a year in some cases and set the wheels in motion to sponsor lots of students for the convention — wasn’t acknowledged. I’ve heard that someone with a real talent for putting together events was looked at as competition and not potential collaboration. I’ve heard the qualifiers weren’t fully acknowledged. I’ve heard that a student got escorted off premises at the convention. Again and again, stories of people giving what they can and getting shit on for it. And that’s just this year. If any of you are reading, here’s a question: Why does an organization begging for talent shit on all its potential talent?

Well, I’m here to tell all of you: You are not alone. They did this shit to me too, and I tried the whole grin and bear it thing for the greater good. It’s not worth it. They don’t change direction. They just cycle to the next president and we all hope it’ll work out better this year. It doesn’t matter who’s in leadership, the organizational inertia just comes up with reasons why we can’t do whatever the members, volunteers, or probably even board members want to do.

It’s become clear to me that the direction that the NCRA is headed is going to continue alienating members, the membership is going to dwindle, eventually the digital-friendly stenographers will have enough votes to pass digital membership, and then the corporations I’ve been blogging about are going to co-opt the organization, its resources, and the brand recognition. And even if they don’t go that way — and it would be dumb for them not to — the dwindling membership is going to let all our enemies point and say “look, all their members are retiring, it must be the shortage. Guess we just have to use digital.”

At this point, the NCRA as an organization is a liability. People believe in it as a vehicle for change and they waste their time pushing for incremental changes that never really amount to anything as we continue to slide back in wages adjusted for inflation and lose jobs to other methods. The myopic tunnel vision of “sticking to what works” isn’t working in this decade. These people can all make a real difference. They’re being held back. They’re not being given the institutional support necessary to foster a healthy profession. And if that support isn’t forthcoming, then what’s the point in donating any amount of time? We’d be better off privatizing our efforts a la the Project Steno thing.

There’s a quote out there, “hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.” Maybe that’s what happened. The golden era of stenography made us top of the food chain. By the time I got here, the bulk of us had no idea how to compete. So when competition came calling, Steve Townsend basically ran circles around everybody, because he’s damn smart. This is not to say the amazing women of this profession are weak or stupid. They are this profession. But many were not set up to succeed. After all, their 100-year-old associations had made no institutional ties to help safeguard against the propaganda campaign that was sprung on them.

What more is there to say? If there’s interest in starting a new national stenographic association with safeguards against institutional inertia, then I’d be happy to put that together and seek pledges. One idea I’ve had in the past is a grand assembly type structure that can petition or even force the board / organization to act as long as it’s not a violation of law. Maybe the mere threat of more competition arising will encourage organizational change. Every person alienated will become another potential ally for me. Good luck, NCRA. I suppose this is my very public resignation from an association I held in the highest regard. I’m sorry it has to be this way, but I am a slave to my moral compass as much as anyone. I will always do my best to be fair. But what was done to me was not fair. What’s done to others isn’t fair. Silencing ourselves for some greater good that never comes isn’t right. And if any of you are feeling that, remember that this blog exists for your

Addendum:

The white paper I was upset about in this post was released in November 2023.

The Court Reporter Shortage Fraud Timeline as told by Stenonymous

This is a timeline of events I wrote out for another project. It presents a snapshot of what I have documented over the years and links many blog posts to form what I feel is the bulk of the story.

Perhaps it will help supporters to have a single document like this. Perhaps it’ll help those who get lost trying to navigate the site and understand the issues. Perhaps it’ll sit on the internet collecting internet dust. Whatever the case, just know that I appreciate every single one of you for spreading the word and sending me information. It has made all of this possible.

Summary of Fraud:

The basic idea is that these multimillion dollar corps (Veritext, US Legal, etc) got together under the nonprofit Speech-to-Text Institute to claim the stenographer shortage was impossible to solve and artificially increase digital demand, which they all then benefit from. Stenograph was also a part of STTI, as its president, Anir Dutta, was vice president of the STTI. While making these claims through STTI, many of the companies were representing to attorneys and the public that they couldn’t find stenographers. Meanwhile, they weren’t using basic methods to find stenographers, like Sourcebook / PRO Link, a national directory of stenographers. Jim Cudahy is instrumental in getting the shortage forecasted via NCRA, then he turns around and weaponizes it against us years later before I declare him a fraud and he runs off to another association about a year before the STTI gets sued and takes down its site.

Timeline of Documentation:

2013 – The Court Reporting Industry Outlook 2013-2014 is created by Ducker Worldwide for the National Court Reporters Association. Jim Cudahy is Executive Director of NCRA at this point and instrumental in getting the shortage forecasted. Notably, California’s shortage is forecasted to be 5x to 20x worse than any other state.

2014-2018 – Initiatives such as NCRA A to Z, Project Steno, and Open Steno boost stenographic recruitment and public awareness of steno. Jim Cudahy is replaced as Executive Director during this time period and goes on to do whatever he does (7 MARCOM, I think). All of the companies in question were incredibly quiet, considering there was allegedly an impending shortage of doom.

2018 – At this point, the field didn’t even believe the larger companies were using digital court reporting. I know this because it surprised people when I published about it. Around this time, companies also began advertising huge bonuses with jobs to get court reporters to cover in California, lending some credibility to shortage concerns.

2019 – Veritext begins propagandizing lawyers to get them to change their deposition notices and allow for digital court reporting. US Legal Support buys and later kills StenoTrain, which was run by Patricia Falls (court reporting educator that is now all about digital.) At this point in history, companies were trying to get digital court reporters seen as just court reporters. We began differentiating ourselves as stenographers. Remote reporting comes up as a potential fix for shortage woes.

Veritext VP Gina Hardin writes a piece about digital reporting changing the landscape of reporting. After big social media buzz, she’s allegedly fired. Veritext makes it out like she did this of her own choice rather than following the direction of the company. Veritext makes the public statement that stenography is the life-blood of our industry and that of Veritext.

Companies begin popping up making outrageous claims. For example, vTestify had a calculator on its site that said it could save attorneys $3,000 per deposition.

Stenographers are often insulted as “expensive,” but in 2019 I learned we were working for rates 30 years behind inflation. (NY)

Jim Cudahy reappears under the Speech-to-Text Institute making the claim that the stenographer shortage is impossible to solve.

At this point, the bait and switch tactics of sending digital court reporters instead of stenographers are known. A nonprofit called Protect Your Record Project is formed to warn consumers.

Open letter released from Veritext about the shortage.

2021 – Veritext makes a statement to Stenonymous that technology will not take the place of the reporter. I begin to realize the Ducker Report was flawed. I get my hands on an email from US Legal Rep Peter Giammanco where he puts IN WRITING “does it really matter if done legally and ethically…[if both products are the same.]” I document some of the materials that companies are using to promote digital and note the scarcity of pro-stenographer material. I note that BLS statistics appear inaccurate and don’t match up with NCRA’s statistics. STTI, U.S. Legal, and Veritext all use a flimsy game of numbers to continue to push the propaganda the shortage is impossible to solve.

At this point the switch is flipped and I start poking holes in STTI materials.

A website using stenography images to lure people into digital court reporting is found. When I alert ESYOH to the fraud, they take parts of it down.

BlueLedge Digital Court Reporter training is linked to Veritext – the full extent of the relationship is unknown. And Stenograph is definitely in on making money off of digital court reporting and part of STTI. Interestingly, a Veritext company appeared to share an office with BlueLedge. Stenograph’s stenographer support also took a massive dip during this time period. Even NCRA notes there may be illegal conduct coming from digital land.

It’s also noted that Veritext ran a training for NYPTI prosecutors (prosecutors often go into civil lit, Veritext’s domain). They made it seem like stenography was old and outdated despite modern computerization. Basically eliminating us in attorneys’ minds through education.

At this point in history, I declared Jim Cudahy a fraud for his part in advancing STTI’s agenda.

2022 – A couple of hit pieces are put out on me. I actually got one of them taken down. A lie is published to the internet that the NCRA predicts a need for 30,000 digital court reporters, which we later get taken down. We launch a campaign to tell the FTC what’s happening. STTI continues to publish garbage. Jim Cudahy leaves to the Alliance of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Science Societies. I note that according to BLS statistics, our median pay is falling, which is not something that occurs if there is a shortage of something (supply down, price go up.) We have a campaign to tell the FTC what’s going on. FTC makes the claim it will crack down on companies taking advantage of gig workers. I publish and advertise the fraud some more. I document STTI has -$100,000 net assets according to a tax return. NCRA Strong finally points out that the Ducker Report is outdated.

2023 – Veritext subsidiary is discovered to have purged popular stenographer anecdote. Indiana proposes a ban on stenography in its courts. A lawsuit emerges claiming USL stole commissionable income from one of its executives, in my view strengthening the case that they’d commit illegal acts. Veritext goes after a court reporter for something they wrote on Facebook after ignoring my claims for over a year (well beyond the statute of limitations for defamation at this point.)

A lawsuit is filed against the Speech-to-Text Institute for anticompetitive behavior and the STTI takes its site off the web.

[REDACTED] calls me [REDACTED], and when this is discovered, he apologizes. The situation causes an uproar in its customer base that results in a Town Hall Meeting with customers where Mr. Dutta stated he was no longer affiliated with the STTI organization.

That’s the story so far. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions. But I beg you to look at the inertia of the companies for half a decade prior to the shortage compared to their aggressive expansion of digital thereafter, as well as the flip flopping by Veritext that points to a very real intent to deceive.

Addendum:

As of July 2023:

1. Lawsuit update.

2. Correction to the original article which accidentally said Jim Cudahy changed associations months before STTI took down its site. In fact it was more like a year. This confusion was a 2022/2023 typo in my notes.

As of August 2023:

I scraped the old STTI leadership off the Wayback Machine so that people can see what I’m saying when I talk about the STTI Bloc or the companies behind the organization.

Then leadership of the Speech-to-Text Institute, as preserved by Stenonymous.com and the Wayback Machine

As of November 2023:

I was alerted to the dismissal of many of Trey’s claims, but as of writing, nothing to indicate that the claim against the Speech-to-Text Institute has been dismissed.

As of March 2024:

I was alerted to the apparent default of the Speech-to-Text Institute. The cowards would rather default than defend themselves in court.

As of April 2024:

I redacted some information on this page pursuant to a discussion I had on April 24, 2024. I also wrote out a quick “legal theory” on why the fraud claims can be legally substantiated even though the FTC and other law enforcement agencies have apparently decided not to pursue. Anir Dutta stepped down from Stenograph.

As of May 2024:

The Coalition to Capture the Record, clearly a digital court reporting front, would not disclose its backers to Law360.

I am now uploading the art that’s been used to communicate our position.

I’m starting to think that the reason this hasn’t been picked up by the ALM brands or Law360 is because ALM is big business’s bitch and Law360 is a B2B scam that doesn’t have any interest in actually informing people. Smaller news shops probably figure “eh, the legal news world hasn’t picked this up, so it must be fake.” Nope. Here it is. Christopher Day, court reporter extraordinaire, has been accusing the largest court reporting provider of fraud for years. It’s the industry’s biggest open secret. And it’s only secret because American media is a corporate consolidated hellhole that will readily mislead the public for a dime.

This shit really happens, bro. Same way the media cut the news about the pilot studies in Testifying While Black.

As of September 2024:

California Court Reporters Association said the shortage conditions were manufactured by the court system to justify digital reporting.

PSA: The NCRA Does Not Sell The Convention Attendees List. Ignore That Email You Got!

There’s an email that goes out to many NCRA members about letting them acquire the attendance list of the NCRA convention. I first came across this maybe two years ago, and when I asked the NCRA at the time, they said they don’t sell that information.

The email is making rounds again, and it’s been confirmed on social media by various court reporters that this is a frequent occurrence and that NCRA does not sell the data.

The safest thing you can do with regard to any email about the attendees list is delete it!

Addendum:

I later came across this post by NCRA President Jason Meadors.

NCRA President Jason Meadors warns court reporters about the member data scam.

A court reporter later shared the text of a communication they received from NCRA regarding this issue: