Lawsuit: Huseby Charged Us $8 a Page for a Copy

Before I start, I should be honest, the truth is a bit more technical than the headline. So here’s the truth: A May 18, 2023 complaint was filed in South Carolina, Stephenson & Murphy LLC, versus Huseby, LLC d/b/a Huseby Global Litigation.

I’m going to post the complaint. I reached out to Stephenson & Murphy LLC, but didn’t receive any communication back.

“…Effectively, firms like Huseby violate South Carolina law by reallocating costs without consent or court order. This case also involves the practice of national court reporting firms charging excessive fees and costs to parties that did not hire them and never agreed to pay such amounts.” – Stephenson & Murphy LLC v Huseby LLC

Originally I was going to post some commentary, but I’ll let this speak for itself. I have not looked for an update on this filing since I was first sent the complaint in May 2023, so take it for what it is.

Extreme Court Reporting Simulator 2023 (Game)

I’ve been experimenting with creating text-based choices games. I’ve thrown together a joke game for court reporters everywhere that accurately captures the experience of being a court reporter. It should be playable on any browser. I have not tested it on mobile yet.

There is actually a real-world component that you can teach students using this game. Mathematically, the rate impacts your earnings more than the appearance fee (unless your appearance fee is crazy high.) This is likely why agencies favor bonuses instead of raising rates. If you play the game without cheating, though it’s very exaggerated, you’ll quickly find that the rate matters a lot more than the number of pages you do. This is true in the real world also based on math I’ve done in the past.

I may create other small projects, especially if people have interesting ideas. For those of you that want to become creators, I’m using Twine. I’m working on a much larger fiction game based around a sci-fi version of court reporting that will test the audience’s decision making and present uncomfortable scenarios, so I’m hopeful that when that’s done it becomes another piece of media we have out there in the world.

I also am considering exploring utilizing this technology for creating practice written knowledge tests. As some of you know, I created a computer program that generated practice tests for New York’s civil service exam, but that goes underutilized because it requires people to install Python 3 to use it. This requires no installation. It would be easier to create such a thing with some help, so if you’re someone that wants to see that dream realized, hit me up, or whatever the kids say these days. Chris@Stenonymous.com

Please feel free to spread this around or send me ideas. I’m a one-man team, currently trying to expand to a two-man team, so I can’t make too many promises. But I think the possibilities are endless. I planned and wrote this game in about 2 hours. I’m sure that with enough time and attention, much higher quality stuff is doable.

Extreme-Court-Reporting-Simulator-2023 Download

Addendum:

My attempts to test this on mobile have failed. If anybody is able to get it working on mobile, please let me know. It displays fine on my laptop.

One reader was able to make it work on a Samsung Galaxy Note 9. Android phone. No one has gotten it to work on iPhone yet.

Historic Rate Data: A First Look

Some time ago, an intrepid, benign reporter posted documents revealing historic rate data from the west coast. One document showed that in 1995, on PI cases, the rate was $2.81 per page. Also revealed from 1995, $3.60. In 1998, a document showed $3.55. Almost a decade later, 2005, $3.55 a page. 2006, $3.65 a page. 2018, $3.80. Why is it important for us to learn about and publish historic rate data? Education. Every reporter is probably aware that it is now the tail end of 2019. Though I don’t have a fancy document to show it off, I can tell everyone that there are freelance reporters working for less than those 1995 rates today.

Why is this important? Inflation. Every year, the government prints more money and it enters circulation. Higher supply of money means lower value of every dollar that exists. Buying power decreases. You’ve seen this in action. Maybe your groceries seem a little bit more expensive as the years pass. Maybe a membership fee has increased. Prices can be impacted by all sorts of things. One factor is inflation.

As a matter of fact, if you use the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator, it shows that that $2.81 PI page in 1995 had the buying power of 2019’s $4.69. What does this mean? Someone making $2.81 a page in 1995 was making the 2019 buying power of $4.69 a page. To have the same buying power and no raise, a 1995 reporter making $2.81 a page needs to be making $4.69 a page in 2019. As someone that was convinced to take my first jobs at $2.80 a page in 2010, I feel there is a great deal of value in investigating rates geographically and over time. If we do not mobilize and keep each other informed, we will continue to churn out students who know no better and accept deals that are largely skewed against them.

I am happy to take and report more historic rate data. If you choose to send me documents, anecdotal or memory-based rate data, or anything helpful in that regard, please take the time to tell me the location, rate, type of job or upcharge, and perhaps input on whether such rates are high, average, or low for your market.

ChristopherDay227@gmail.com

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.

Workers Rights

Here on Stenonymous we have explored many different things related to freelancing and stenographic employment. As a quick recap for those that have trouble navigating the site, we’ve discussed turnaround times and how they have gone from 30 days to 5 with no extra money involved. We’ve discussed the Beginner’s Trap and freelance loyalty, which is all about how you must be loyal to yourself to earn a better income. We’ve brought out the need to build skills that make you marketable. We have admitted the power of a contract and thought about what should go into a rate sheet. We’ve gotten into billing, antic o ntracting, form SS8, and what it means to be an independent contractor. We have explained why we can’t discuss rates, and then we have discussed rates. We even put out other people’s rates.

Now it’s time for something a little different. I would like people to seriously consider a dilemma the field finds itself in. As independent contractors, we are consistently in a bind of being afraid to discuss rates thanks to antitrust concerns. This fear is probably at times a little overblown, but it causes us to be silent and to act very content even when things are not going well. Indeed, our biggest organizations, our NCRAs and NYSCRAs are trapped in the position of being unable to serve as forums for rate discussions due to liability concerns. All this is happening while some of our biggest purchasers are making a push from stenographic reporting to digital recording. I think it is time to ask ourselves what we actually get out of the independent contractor label. It’s out there that employers can save up to 30 percent by labeling employees as independent contractors. It’s out there that about 20 percent of employees are misclassified. Succinctly, the gig economy is bad for workers. Employers are doing their best to eliminate the cost of workers compensation and unemployment. These are serious benefits, worth thousands of dollars, that independent contractors do not get. Independent contractors have little to no federal protection from otherwise illegal discrimination and need to go to small claims instead of Department of Labor if we go unpaid. Employees are also entitled to FMLA leave, and in New York, family leave laws. Employees have the right to unionize and the employer is forced to enter good-faith negotiation with the employee union. Under today’s law in New York, the only way to take any of these benefits, if you are a commission employee misclassified as an independent contractor, is to dispute the issue on a case-by-case basis. How many people have the guts to do that?

We’re not even getting the benefits of being independent contractors, which would be the write-offs, the ability to hire other workers, and the ability to set our own hours. Think about it. How many of us in the freelance sector print our own transcripts or have consistent business write-offs? Yes, it is nice to write-off the occasional mailing fee, but the agencies have largely taken up any function that gets a write-off except for your starting equipment fee. Ironically, I have more write-offs as an employee with the state, thanks to my 1099 income, than I ever did as a freelancer. The ability to hire other workers? Go ahead and try sending someone who isn’t you to a deposition. See how many times you can do that before they stop sending you work. When I call my plumber, I don’t get to choose who he or she sends. Setting your own hours? Don’t know about everyone else, but I know that I got deposition forms that said please arrive early and gave me a start time. My hours were more or less set by the work, which really isn’t that much different from your boss telling you I need you at 10 tomorrow. We live in America, and people are entitled to refuse work any day they feel like, it’s not something we need the mantle of independent contractor for.

From New York to California independent contractors are beginning to challenge their status or realize the raw deal. California came out with a simplified three-part test for independent contractors. Maybe we should have a serious discussion about whether the title is worth keeping for most of us. Maybe we should talk about new laws and enforcement for independent contractors in New York.

It’s absolutely ludicrous to me that we box ourselves into a position where “freelancers” who are meted work, have deadlines dictated to them, are told when to arrive, what to bring, and disciplined via withholding work when deadlines are slipped, defend this model. The numbers don’t lie. Turnaround times are six times faster. Rates haven’t risen with inflation. Independent contractors save employers 30 percent. What could you do with a 30 percent raise? Hell, what could you do with a 10 percent raise? I mean, I have to go back to the article where I calculated out 1000 different rates. If you’re the breadwinner, unless you’re making at least $5.50 a page average, you’re working nights and weekends to make ends meet. The pricing structure doesn’t even need to change. The only thing that would have to change is agencies would have to pay minimum wage if your page rate didn’t give you at least minimum wage. Guess what? That’ll basically never happen. Imagine a world where you go take a deposition for an hour and only make 20 pages. Now imagine you transcribe for one hour. Your page rate is $3.25. $65 for two hours. Not a great rate but realistically what my generation was lowballed with. Way above minimum wage. We’re specialized workers, we deserve it.

Ultimately, I am of the opinion that in this market and under these circumstances the losers are the independent contractors. There are no substantial gains to being independent contractors, and anyone with private clients could just continue their private clients as a separate business entity. My opinion is malleable and I’m open to debate, but beyond the shallow arguments of we have always been independent contractors and we buy our own equipment, I’ve heard precious little that impresses me. You know who else buys their own equipment? Teachers.

Maybe it’s time for a swap. Maybe it’s time for our trade organizations to shift to labor unions. At the very least, it’s time to talk about these issues in public and consider what can be better.

EDIT. On February 11, 2019, I discovered this JCR article which appears to have a different viewpoint than my own but also talks about the issue. I feel it is important, when possible, to give as much information as possible, so please feel free to review that and join the discussion.