Tag: New York State Court Reporters Association

Dave Wenhold’s Company Sabotaged NYSCRA. What Happened Next Will Shock You…

Sorry for the clickbait.

For those that don’t know, Dave Wenhold is the current executive director of the National Court Reporters Association and his management company manages or has managed many state associations. This post is going to dive into why I believe this consolidation of power is likely very bad for the profession as a whole. Though I may have mentioned this on this blog at some point, I can’t quite remember, and it’s time for me to be very explicit about it, because everyone in power has failed this profession.

Understand that I’m sharing what I’m sharing because a lot of the people in power are old guard. They don’t have to deal with the consequences of their decisions. They’re selling their agencies to the big boxes and heading out ✌️. I am in a very different position. I have to deal with the consequences of their decisions for possibly three more decades. The students I mentor for much longer.

I’d also like to point out that when the women of this field say the things like what I am about to write, they’re met with silencing words like “defamation”, “libel”, “slander.” Nobody threatens me. Why? Because their threats get blasted to hundreds or thousands of court reporters and I show the world what paper tigers they are just like I did to Naegeli. This behavior is so prevalent that when mentioning Keith Lemon’s name and making factual statements at yesterday’s business meeting, the word defamation was used. How disgustingly sexist this field is, that a man could run the field’s largest blog, systematically outing fraudsters and cheats, and then when a woman dares to raise her voice to “authority”, she be met with silencing language.

Excerpt from the business meeting:

While making factual statements about incoming NCRA President Keith Lemons during the 2024 NCRA annual business meeting, a member was accused of defamation and personal attacks by outgoing NCRA President Kristin Anderson.

Also stated at the meeting was “shut your mouths, people in the cyber world.” But no, I don’t think I will.

Until our voices are heard they will grow into a deafening cacophony. And now:

When I was a New York State Court Reporters Association board member, it came to light that when Dave Wenhold’s company, which I believe to be the Kautter Wenhold Management Group (KWM or KWMG), had mismanaged our records. We were told by Tim Bower, the new management company, that we had no records from the time of Dave’s management. This is particularly egregious because NYSCRA is an organization older than the National Court Reporters Association. But to be frank, it is a shell of whatever it once was. No records, a stagnant or shedding membership, and no money to effect change in New York State. In my view, New York State’s last hope is my current union, ASSCR. It is, as best as I can tell, the most financially stable organization dedicated exclusively to court reporters, and its current leadership under Eric Allen makes it indomitable.

It is also a fact that I’ve had others from other states tell me they have similar feelings about Dave, his company, and mismanagement of their state association. They are scared into the silence of whisper networks. I write for all of them today. Though thanks to my disability, I cannot remember everyone individually.

As you can imagine, I did not keep this information to myself. I shared it with then-NCRA President Jason Meadors. I have come to suspect and believe that Dave is influenced by outside interests. Or, in the alternative, simply manages too many organizations to be an effective leader. Jason, as best I can tell, swept this information under the rug, or, in the aftermath of my mental health crisis, chose to discriminate against me for my health issues and discard what I had told him as just crazy Chris. Certainly he did nothing of import. Perhaps I cannot fault him. There was a time I doubted my own beliefs. But those beliefs have grown stronger with the passing of time to the point where I can no longer ignore them. I believe the looting I’m writing about has been going on a long time across multiple executives’ “administration.” I reflect on all I know about the organization’s history. It sold the land it once owned so that it could rent, a move that holding companies used to bankrupt (loot) Red Lobster. Much news media would have you believe it was the free shrimp. The point is that it is not uncommon for organizations to be subverted and used to benefit organizations with competing interests. And our board of directors let it happen to NCRA.

In the end, we must look at results. We have an organization that couldn’t compete with the Speech-to-Text Institute on media and government attention. We have a falling NCRA membership and participation. We have our STRONGest volunteers turning on the organization. We have increasing division, and though it is blamed on people like me, it is undoubtedly the fault of those in leadership that claim to hear us and then discard our every concern. It is the fault of Dave Wenhold. It is the fault of inaction king Jason Meadors. It is the fault of likely sellout Christine Phipps. It is the fault of chief dismantler Keith Lemons. We watch presidents cycle in, do their damage, cycle out, and cry “we’re only volunteers.” The National Court Reporters Association and its prestige is being openly looted. Whether my fellow colleagues and contemporaries continue to allow that following this post is no longer something I will lose sleep over, as I lost more than enough sleep deciding whether to write this.

Let’s be honest with ourselves. NCRA’s net assets dwarf everyone else in the field. It’s beat out only by the for-profit interests that can afford to bribe people. For-profit interests that seem to have a propensity towards wrongdoing. For-profit interests that literally created a nonprofit dedicated to fooling consumers and jobseekers. There is no reason the organization should be so cash starved beyond mismanagement, be it intentional or due to incompetence. As a comparison, the National Verbatim Reporters Association has a $200 membership fee, and they’ll actually give you a discount on that under certain circumstances. Just ask their President Patrick Stephens about it. When was the last time you heard the NCRA was handing out membership discounts?

But I digress. Some time ago, I made an entire post about how easy it would be to bribe court reporter leadership. The median bribe in this country is something like $60,000, hundreds of millions of dollars flow through organizations like Veritext, billions of dollars run through Veritext holding company Leonard Green (loots hospitals for poor people), and we live in an environment where such corruption would likely go undetected, and even if detected, unaddressed by people just like Jason Meadors. My life experience tells me that this is not some conspiracy theory. This stuff really happens. I was once a minutes reporter for a nonprofit that helps underprivileged children here in New York City. As best I can tell, though I was not privy to the details, the executive director and chief financial officer worked together to embezzle funds right out from under the nose of the board of directors, a board that included ostensibly powerful people from finance and even a lawyer from a big-name firm. The organization was put into financial peril because of their actions coupled with the funding cycle of nonprofits in New York City. If those people can be tricked, surely we court reporters, who often have no financial training, can be taken for a long, long ride. And even if I’m wrong about all that, it’s happened elsewhere.

Now it is plain to see why I have such rage, such vitriol, and why I am willing to use the dirtbag left performative media style to get my point across. We are in an environment where our century-old institutions are being destroyed by sellouts, spineless cowards, and mismanagement. I am in an environment where the well-being and financial future of my growing family is dependent on the actions of people who do not have to suffer the consequences of their action or inaction — and in fact in some cases benefit from the obfuscation of truth and the mismanagement of our institutions. In my view, this is “emblematic” of the issues facing America itself. Our American leaders, so enthralled by outside interests and empowered to use their office for self-enrichment, fail in their duty to achieve the aims of their office. There is no longer a doubt in my mind that people are human, and that these human tendencies to bend circumstances toward self-interest have leaked into “robotic” court reporting. Our ethics culture is a facade. The foxes are guarding the henhouse.

I’ll end with this:

If you see what I see,

the forest and its trees,

please share this missive,

until it reaches the dismissive.

I am not a man known to pray.

God, help us all.

Addendum:

Following this post a Stenonymous source gave me a list of some of the companies Dave Wenhold leads or is a part of.

Source writes:

Miller Wenhold Association Management https://www.mwassociation.com/our-people


Miller Wenhold Capitol Strategies https://www.mwcapitol.com/capitol-pursuits


Dave Wenhold, Dave Wenhold – Contact Us | Dave Wenhold CAE PLC, Dave Wenhold, CEO


Kautter Wenhold Management Group, https://kmgnet.com/who-we-are/dave-wenhold/, Dave
Wenhold, CEO


California Society for Respiratory Care, https://www.csrc.org/board-of-directors, Dave Wenhold
Executive Director and the new lobbyist he hired for NCRA, Wil Kreiger (Farragut Partners), is
listed as “executive staff.”


NCRA, Dave Wenhold, Executive Director https://www.thejcr.com/2024/06/17/ncra-governmentrelations-update-regarding-ongoing-federal-lobbying-efforts/ Farragut Partners, a Washington,
D.C.-based lobbying firm, as well as Executive Director Dave Wenhold, CAE, PLC, NCRA’s
Government Relations … In collaboration with the National Court Reporters Association’s
contracted lobbyist Will Krieger, junior partner at Farragut Partners, a Washington, D.C.-based
lobbying firm, as well as Executive Director Dave Wenhold, CAE, PLC, NCRA’s Government
Relations Department is pleased to offer the following update regarding proposed legislation


Missouri Academy of Physician Assistants, Missouri Academy of Physician Assistants – Board &
Committees (moapa.org), Dave Wenhold, Executive Director


Federation of Manufactured Homes of America, Management Team Kautter Wenhold
https://www.fmo.org/assets/docs/FMO_MAGAZINE_YEAR_END_2022.pdf, Dave Wenhold,
Management Team


Illinois Court Reporters Association, https://www.ilcra.org/executive-board. Dave
Wenhold, Executive Director


Spill Control Association of America, https://www.scaa-spill.org/contact-us, Dave Wenhold,
SCAA Staff


Association of Teleservices International, https://atsi.org/page/capitol-hill, Dave Wenhold,
Washington Legislative Counsel


Genesis Hockey Club, https://www.genesishockeyclub.com/bod, Dave Wenhold, Director

This list is only partial as the true number of other associations Dave is directly or indirectly acting as an executive director for is unknown

Court Reporting is Now a Side Hustle

How court reporting companies are getting away with charging top-shelf prices for undervalued work…

The overpriced court reporter page is something that comes up occasionally in legal circles. All through my early career, law firm owners I worked with mentioned how their firms were stuck with expensive court reporter bills. As a young stenographic court reporter, I was paid very little, and later learned that court reporters in my city were about 30 years behind inflation. This set me down a path of skepticism when it came to what court reporters are told about themselves, their industry, and the public’s perception of them. How could lawyers be paying so much when I was making so little and such a large part of the transcript creation was on me?

Years later, as it turned out, some of the largest court reporting companies would get together using a nonprofit called the Speech-to-Text Institute (STTI). That nonprofit would go on to mislead consumers about the stenographer shortage to artificially increase demand for digital court reporting. Tellingly, while a U.S. Legal Support representative had no problem using the word “libel” on one of the female members of my profession, USL and the other multimillion dollar corporations never dared utter a word about my eventual fraud allegations. The companies wanted to trick consumers into believing stenographers were unavailable due to shortage and force digital court reporting on them, where matters are recorded and transcribed.

This set off alarm bells in the world of court reporting. Stenotype manufacturing giant, Stenograph, also represented in STTI’s leadership, shifted from supporting realtime stenographic reporters to shoddy service, and began to call its MAXScribe technology realtime. Realtime, as many attorneys know, is a highly trained subset of court reporting that often comes with a premium. These bait-and-switch tactics on the digital court reporter side of the industry caused a nonprofit called Protect Your Record Project to spring up and begin educating attorneys on what was happening in our field. But as of today, the nonprofit has not reached a level of funding that would allow it to advertise these issues on a national scale — this blog’s in the same boat.

So as more of the workforce is switched to digital reporters / recorders and transcribers, we’re seeing companies use influencers and other media to lure transcribers in for low pay. In short, digital court reporting is now synonymous with side hustle. These companies are going to take the field of skilled reporters that law firms and courts know and love, replace them with transcribers, and go on charging the same money. For the stenographer shortage, these folks were dead silent for the better part of a decade. Now that they need transcribers to replace us, they’re going all out to recruit.

Shopify talks about transcribing as a side hustle.
Shopify talks about transcribing as a side hustle.

TranscribeMe, by the way, just entered a partnership with Stenograph.

“What do I care?” That’s what a lot of lawyers and paralegals might be asking at this point. Well, I may not write as well as Alex Su, but I’ll do my best here. First, there are egalitarian concerns. In the Testifying While Black study, stenographers only scored 80% accuracy on the African American Vernacular English dialect. This was widely reported in the media, but what was lost by the media was the reveal of pilot study 1, which showed everyday people only transcribe with an accuracy of about 40% (e226). When we’re talking about replacing court reporters with “side hustle technology,” we’re talking about a potential 50% drop in accuracy and a reduction in court record quality for minority speakers, something courts are largely unaware of. According to the Racial Disparities in Automatic Speech Recognition study, automation isn’t coming to save us either. Voice writing is the best bet for the futurists, and it’s being completely ignored by these big companies.

There are also security concerns. When we’re talking about utilizing transcribers, we’re talking about people that have an economic incentive to sell any private data they might gain from the audio or transcript. If transcription is outsourced, a bribe as low as $600 might be enough to get people acting unethically. Digital court reporting companies have already shown they’re not protective of people’s data — in fact, companies represented in the Speech-to-Text Institute. This also leads to questions about remedies for suspected omissions or tampering. Would you rather subpoena one local stenographer or teams of transcribers, some possibly outside of the jurisdiction?

Finally, there’s an efficiency issue with digital court reporting. Turnaround times can be much slower. Self-reported, it can take up to 6 hours to transcribe 1 hour of audio. By comparison, 1 hour of proceedings can take a qualified stenographer 1 to 2 hours to transcribe. That’s 3 to 6 times faster. Everyone here knows stenographers aren’t perfect and that backlogs happen. Now imagine a world where the backlog is 3 to 6 times what it is today. In one case, a transcript took about two months to deliver. If we’re going to hire teams of transcribers to do the work of one stenographic court reporter, aren’t we going backwards?

This is eerily similar to what went on in medical transcription. Competing interests played games to nobody’s benefit.

Consumers are the ones with the power here. They can demand stenographers, utilize companies that aren’t economically incentivized to lie to them, and spread awareness to other consumers. Consumers, lawyers and court administrators, decide the future. Knowing what you do now, do you want a court reporter or a side hustler at your next deposition or criminal case?

—————————-

Written by Christopher Day, a stenographic court reporter in New York City that has been serving the legal community since 2010. He is also a former board member of the New York State Court Reporters Association and a former volunteer for the National Court Reporters Association STRONG Committee. Day also authors the Stenonymous blog, the industry’s leading independent publication on court reporting media, information, data, analyses, satire, and archiving of current events. He also appeared on VICE with regard to the Testifying While Black study and fiercely advocated for more linguistics training for court reporters in and around New York State.

Donations for the blog will help run advertising for this article and others like it, as well as pay for more journalists and investigators. If you would like to donate, you may use the donation box on the front page of Stenonymous.com, PayPal or Zelle ChristopherDay227@gmail.com, or Venmo @Stenonymous. Growing honest media to combat misconceptions in and about our marketplace is the premier path to a stronger profession and ultimately better service to the legal community.

A posse ad esse.

Addendum:

By sheer coincidence, an article on the side hustle was released the same day as my post. NCRA STRONG’s Lisa Migliore Black and Kim Falgiani really hit it out of the park with this one. Apparently FTR and Rev say they have security in place to prevent sensitive data from being shared. But FTR is known for selling “deficit products,” and Rev is known for its massive security breach. So check out the article by Chelsea Simeon linked above and enjoy!

ASSCR President: “Secure Your and Your Family’s Future Today!”

The New York State Court Reporter and Senior Court Reporter Civil Service Exams are likely taking place in January 2023. Members of the public seeking more information can look up NY Courts Exams. NY Courts Careers also has information on positions available, including provisional positions. All test takers must read the available information and study guides found at the bottom of the exams page. Looks like this.

Test takers should read the exam information and study guides for the test they wish to take.

The New York State Court Reporters Association has announced practice dictation sessions. I’ve released a set of practice written tests. Everyone is working together to ensure test takers have a fighting chance.

Perhaps most moving was what the President of the Association for Surrogate’s and Supreme Court Reporters, Eric Allen, stated today.

ASSCR President Eric Allen addresses the benefits of working for the New York State Unified Court System as a court reporter 1/2
ASSCR President Eric Allen addresses the benefits of working for the New York State Unified Court System as a court reporter 2/2

I can personally attest to the benefits of these jobs, particularly for reporters struggling to pull in a decent freelance rate. My income is more or less double what it was as a freelancer after 7 years in the state court system. That’s without factoring in any other benefit. For anybody that wants to ditch self-employment taxes and experience the joy of employee rights and a union contract, Mr. Allen said it best. Click the links above! Secure your and your family’s future!

NYSCRA Offering RPR WKT Test Prep September 2021

The National Court Reporters Association opened registration for written knowledge tests on September 1, 2021. In an effort to help reporters succeed, the New York State Court Reporters Association is holding several review sessions, each corresponding to a different part of the RPR WKT. On September 12, a technology and innovation review will be held. On September 19, an industry practices review will be held. On September 26, a professionalism and ethics review will be held. Registration links below!

  1. September 12 – Technology and Innovation.
  2. September 19 – Industry Practices
  3. September 26 – Professionalism and Ethics

Alternatively, a registration link has been provided for all three.

I am going to be working on a much larger article about certification and my journey from believing certification was worthless to believing that it is necessary. But this can’t wait. In brief, certification is necessary because it forces us to engage with each other in the form of classes and CEUs. That engagement creates a community. That community helps us keep each other informed and avoid being taken advantage of. If you have any doubts about whether you should sign up for your WKT, just remember that the more you know, the more you can share with your fellow reporter, and the better all of us become. I have a feeling that NYSCRA’s illustrious current President, Joshua Edwards, and its indefatigable incoming President, Dominick Tursi, would agree with me on that one.

You can also sign up for NYSCRA’s voluntary RCR test pioneered by the founder of DALCO reporting, Debra Levinson, CSR-RMR-CRR-CRI-RCR. Read more below and register here!

Outreach Webinar by Project Steno – June 6, 2021

The New York State Court Reporters Association is promoting Project Steno’s June 6 outreach webinar, as told by NYSCRA’s Transcript Weekly, posted earlier today by NYSCRA Social Media Committee Chair Marina Dubson. Though stenographers have made great strides in recruitment and introducing people to this field through efforts like NCRA A to Z, Open Steno, and Project Steno, there remains a need to get word out to high school students and staff that court reporting is a viable and vibrant career that young people should give serious consideration. Resources will be provided, and it can all only be seen as a wonderful complement to the resources already published by the National Court Reporters Association. If you’ve got some time to attend at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time this Sunday, definitely consider registering today!

Because this is an image, you cannot click the link.

Court Reporters Speak Up For The Record On Future Trials

The New York State Unified Court System commissioned the Future Trials Working Group to look at many possibilities for use of technology in the courtroom. In April 2021, the Future Trials Working Group released a report with recommendations for the court system. On page 13 of that report, there was a section regarding the possibility of automatic transcription, and specifically automatic trial transcription.

The report had a strange view on the possibility of automatic transcription. In one area, it noted “the most foreseeable endgame in the evolution of trial transcription likely is full automation.” In another part just down the page, it stated there were “…obstacles to the use of such technology on a fully automated or even predominantly automated basis for the foreseeable future”, going on to note “…automated transcription — at least at its current stage — could threaten access to justice if widely employed.” The most foreseeable endgame is automatic, but in the foreseeable future, the technology is unreliable. This is, in my view, a strange view to take. The report goes on to recommend that the court system study outside vendor offerings for automated/remote transcription or translation.

Court reporters and the people that represent them did not sit in silence. A response was prepared by the New York State Court Reporters Association and the Association of Surrogate’s and Supreme Court Reporters. Several unions supported the response, and the full letter and list of supporting unions can be read below. My personal favorite quote? “…use of automated speech technology for trial transcripts, by all available information, would not threaten access to justice, it would implode it.” We have, as a profession, put our foot down and said “we are here to guard the record, we have been guarding the record for over a century, and we will do all we can to educate the system on why other technologies are inadequate.” State and national association membership has never been more important. Union membership has never been more important. When you contribute to these organizations, you give them strength to advocate for you.

In full disclosure, I did contribute to the letter. But without the work of ASSCR President Eric Allen and NYSCRA President Joshua Edwards, this would not have been possible. Again, it all points to the importance of association and union membership. Members empower leaders. Leaders fight for an advocate on the behalf of members. It’s a symbiotic relationship that, if you are not currently a part of, you certainly want to be.

Addendum:

A response was received by the court system and is featured below.

Thank you Eric Allen and Joshua Edwards.