Tag: stenographers

Veritext Ignores Fraud Allegations, Goes After Reporter for Facebook Post

Today it was revealed on the Protect Your Record Project Facebook page that someone’s post was screenshotted and given to Veritext. The company then tried to “cause trouble” for one of our fellow reporters.

Partial Statement by Kimberly D’Urso, Protect Your Record Project

Needless to say, the rules of etiquette were reviewed. Sharing posts without permission is not allowed in the group. I got permission to share the basic points of this story and my comment.

Christopher Day (Stenonymous) takes another shot at Veritext, a company accused of perpetuating the court reporter shortage fraud.

I must remark again on the hilarity of Veritext’s silence.

Truth be told, this too is part of my strategy. It is my belief that court reporters are smart. Eventually, even people that haven’t read my work will realize that my fraud allegations hit a home run. They can’t sue because it’s true. They watched the statute of limitations on defamation come and go without a care in the world because they are spineless cowards that couldn’t bear to be confronted with what they do to the women and men of this profession and the lie that they spun to kill the profession itself. When court reporters realize that the STTI Bloc is a direct threat to their income, that NCRA is more or less legally barred from doing anything to stop them, that Christopher Day is ready to fight for them in a way that this profession hasn’t ever seen before, and that the multimillion dollar corporations have to pretend Christopher Day doesn’t exist thanks to the Streisand Effect, there’s a chance they’ll find the funding for Stenonymous. We fund the NCRA to the tune of about $3 million a year. To put that kind of money into perspective, it’s enough for me to retire and spend the rest of my life fighting for working reporters and against corruption in our field. I won’t ask for that. But I will ask those that have not contributed to contribute something using the front page of Stenonymous.com, my PayPal at ChristopherDay227@gmail.com, or my Venmo @Stenonymous.

I don’t just take your money and do nothing with it while waiting for some magic number. I run ad campaigns and have media commissioned. I run a pretty good internet campaign that stretches across many Google searches and social media accounts. But I’m at the point where I’ve spent a considerable amount of my own money to keep things going. I genuinely need some help. If you can’t contribute monetarily, I have been considering the merits of a letter writing campaign. Perhaps some of you would join that when announced, or at the very least encourage others to join that. As I see it, if we want to continue to have this culture and society, if we want the speed contests and camaraderie to continue, we need to get serious about pushing back. We need to push back so hard that not one person in this whole field will even consider corruption and lying to make a buck.

Easiest way to lose a game is to forfeit. We’re a profession that has fought over comma placement. Can’t we join together and fight this?

Support The Fruits of Discovery and Evidence Depositions Are the Testimony They Produce with Catherine Rajcan!

Catherine Rajcan made a nine-part series of posts through LinkedIn and other social media, titled The Fruits of Discovery and Evidence Depositions Are the Testimony They Produce, that I’d like to memorialize and share with everyone.

This is 1/9. This introduced the series and revealed that some legal service companies attempt to trick lawyers into believing digital court reporting is comparable to stenography.

Activism and information dispersal by Catherine Rajcan, titled The Fruits of Discovery and Evidence Depositions Are the Testimony They Produce 1/9

This is 2/9. This listed a series of distinctions stenographers have from digital court reporting, including the ability to instantaneously read back questions and testimony.

This is 3/9. This post explored failings of digital recording and times when stenographers must clarify to protect the record. The obvious implication is that this same level of quality is not guaranteed by digital.

Activism and information dispersal by Catherine Rajcan, titled The Fruits of Discovery and Evidence Depositions Are the Testimony They Produce 3/9

This is 4/9. This post explained the problems with chain of custody and linked my audio editing video. It makes it clear that by relying on audio, problems arise in the security of the record.

Activism and information dispersal by Catherine Rajcan, titled The Fruits of Discovery and Evidence Depositions Are the Testimony They Produce 4/9 (Christopher Day’s “editing audio easy” short video.)

This is 5/9. This dove into Illinois law and described how, though notaries are allowed to swear witnesses by law, it is not a replacement for certified shorthand reporters.

The Fruits of Discovery and Evidence Depositions Are the Testimony They Produce 5/9 (NCRA Strong shield)

This is 6/9. This post gave an explanation of shorthand reporting under Illinois law and the penalties for holding oneself out as a certified shorthand reporter when they are not one.

Activism and information dispersal by Catherine Rajcan, titled The Fruits of Discovery and Evidence Depositions Are the Testimony They Produce 6/9

This is 7/9. This revealed Illinois Supreme Court rules on audio-visual recording and the use sound-recording devices for proceedings such as depositions.

Activism and information dispersal by Catherine Rajcan, titled The Fruits of Discovery and Evidence Depositions Are the Testimony They Produce 7/9

This is 8/9. This post mentions the lack of regulation regarding digital court reporting and notes that using digital court reporting carries significant risk.

Activism and information dispersal by Catherine Rajcan, titled The Fruits of Discovery and Evidence Depositions Are the Testimony They Produce 8/9

This is 9/9. This post went into the NCRA’s efforts to warn attorneys about digital expansion.

Activism and information dispersal by Catherine Rajcan, titled The Fruits of Discovery and Evidence Depositions Are the Testimony They Produce 9/9
Activism and information dispersal by Catherine Rajcan related to The Fruits of Discovery and Evidence Depositions Are the Testimony They Produce, a 9-part series of posts.

Looking over all of this brings a lot of inspiration. Just look at the incredible effort put into keeping attorneys informed. If you’ve ever wondered how you can help, here’s a chance. Head over to these posts, like and share or show them off to an attorney in casual conversation. Start spreading the message so that attorneys equate stenographers with service and good standards. It’s arguments like this that will advance us, but we need participation from our colleagues. You can make a difference today!

New York Courts Test Opens First Time in Nearly Half a Decade

Filing has opened for the New York State Unified Court System Court Reporter and Senior Court Reporter civil service exam! This is a monumental event that happens about once every 4 years due to civil service law. If you’ve ever wanted a career in the New York State Unified Court System, the time has come! Listen to prominent New York reporters like ASSCR President Eric Allen, secure your and your family’s future!

The most important tip that anyone can give you is to read through ALL of the examination materials. Do not skimp on it. For example, there’s an FAQ. You should read it. The exam application is linked here.

For the court reporter test, there’s an exam announcement. Read that too. A copy is archived below so that future court reporters will be able to see what it looks like when it’s taken down. Court website link.

2023-Court-Reporter-45-821-AnnouncementDownload

For the court reporter exam, there’s a subject matter guide. You’re going to want to download and read that.

2023-CourtReporter_Exam_SubjectMatterDownload

There’s a written examination sample questions page. Make sure you get that. I also generated some tests to simulate what the test was like several years ago. The written examination page is also available for download below or off the court’s website.

There are also a sample transcript. In my view, most of us will be familiar with this, but read it anyway.

2023-Practice-Dictation-Web-TranscriptsDownload

There’s a sample video. Watch it.

Then there’s an orientation guide. Read the entire guide. Be familiar with the guide. They’ve changed the testing procedures this year from years prior! You cannot go off of tests you’ve taken in the past!

2023-CR_OrientationGuideDownload

All of this applies to the Senior Court Reporter exam as well. There’s a subject matter guide.

2023-SeniorCourtReporter_Exam_Subject_MatterDownload

There are written component sample questions.

2023-SeniorCourtReporter_Written_Exam_QuestionsDownload

There are the transcript and video. Finally, there’s the orientation guide.

2023-SCR_OrientationGuideDownload

Just for completeness, the job announcement for Senior Court Reporter is here.

2023-Senior-Court-Reporter-55-822-AnnouncementDownload

For anybody that came down this far, here’s my take. Politically, we’ve got a lot of forces trying to push us out. New York is relatively stable. But we’ve all seen what they’re doing in California, crying shortage while refusing to use funding earmarked for attracting stenographers. If we get a lot of people filing for this test, I bet it’ll keep New York stable at least another decade. So if anybody knows anybody that might want this wonderful career, now is the time to let them know. You won’t just be helping the individual. You’ll also be benefitting us all as a group.

Again, read all the materials. I cannot stress this enough. Every single time this test is given there are people that fail because they did not read all the instructions and were not ready. I personally failed so badly once that I had to withdraw from the test. So give yourself the best chance to succeed, read all the materials, practice hard, and prepare yourself. You’ll do great.

Congressman George Santos Weighs in on Court Reporting*

George Santos, nobel-prize winning congressperson who surpassed Elon Musk as the richest person in the world last Tuesday, has teamed up with Veritext to promote digital reporting. “The cure for cancer will come from digital reporting. I bet all of Veritext’s money on it.” Mr. Santos also says that the inaudibles are a necessary part of any transcript because most people don’t know what anyone is saying half the time anyway.

The Veritext CEO spoke to the Congressman about the shortage in the industry. Representative Santos replied, “don’t worry, people won’t look into it. Look at my resume.” While he advocates for digital reporting, he says “I understand the importance of digital and I can speak to it because I’m also a stenographer who’s won the National Court Reporters Association award for Fastest Fingers seven times in a row.”

Santos was later declared the new NCRA Spokesperson, and attended a masonic order dinner, trying to build a bridge between NCRA and the Illuminati.

*None of this is true. It is a satire on the lies occurring in the court reporting industry, political lies, and poking a bit of fun at how people often use or misuse NCRA’s name and cred for their own agenda. It also satirizes modern journalism. It makes fun of me too, but that’s much more subtle.

In other news, Staten Island man dressed in a peanut butter-covered raincoat was arrested. Reportedly stated to arresting officers: “I was just celebrating court reporting and captioning week!”

ENJOY YOUR WEEKEND!

Stenonymous Satire Weekends

Generally the blog’s a source of information that readers can count on to present my honest findings on whatever topic I’m writing about. As news rolls in, I report it. But what to do when that news dries up for a bit? That’s a question I’ve had for a long time. After all, in my view, anything that drives up eyes on our profession is going to eventually bring opportunities. So, to capture those opportunities, I’m willing to put on this loud persona and reach out into the world. Part of that is creating engaging content that might pop into real world searches and get people wondering “what the heck is this?”

So the perfect idea was born. Satire weekends. Once a week I can put out fake headlines or blurbs that the audience will get a laugh at and the search engines will hopefully capture. It’s a no-cost way of reaching more people that’s worth exploring. It’s also a low-risk way of poking the bear, since if the STTI Bloc didn’t sue or threaten to sue over allegations of fraud, they’re definitely not going to do anything over a little humor.

U.S. Government declares a state of emergency, digital court reporting big box corporations not making enough profit. Government intervention is needed to help control a market of 30,000 rabid stenographers, says Veritext CEO*, award-winning pen shorthand writer and congressperson, George Santos.

*Satire comparing the bold lies of George Santos with the lies of the Veritext company.

That’s a good peek at what I want to do. I believe that humor might be a real winning ticket.

Local stenographic cult leader arrested during educational webinar while telling followers “when in doubt, stroke it out.”

Speech-to-Text Institute experts that have never court reported speak out on the future of court reporting.

Truckload of stenotypes stolen by Staten Island man, police investigation ongoing.

Truckload of stenotypes stolen by Staten Island man, police investigation ongoing. (Stenonymous Satire)

Tips for Submitting to Stenonymous

It seems like a good time to reveal how I view Stenonymous in our little “ecosystem.” Yes, there’s news, entertainment, commentary, opinion, and creative writing thrown in there. It’s an information relay, bulletin board, and search engine activism machine. I want to use it to help everybody, but it’ll only be as useful as people allow it to be. So here are some pointers for people that want to self-promote or get an article in.

1. Self-promotion is easiest through the Stenonymous Facebook Group or the newly created Stenonymous subreddit. I do not censor self-promotion, I welcome it. I envision a future where associations, nonprofits, and businesses use these spaces to get word out about their events and deals. I feel so strongly about it that I’d probably even let members of the STTI Bloc post to it. If I’m going to parade around as court reporting’s “shock jock” and free speech champion, you bet I’m going to invite others. The only rule I have is please don’t spam my spaces. Once or twice a week, feel free to come in and promote, but if we’re getting blasted with the same thing day after day, people won’t feel informed, they’ll just leave, and I want them to feel informed.

2. Information. A lot of people pass me information or documents. Please let me know if you want them to be shared. Believe it or not, a lot of people pass me stuff they don’t want shared, and I generally honor their request. The only thing I’d say is if you pass me something that strongly supports my fraud claim against STTI Bloc, expect that to be shared. Also, if you email me, let me know if you want the email deleted after our exchange.

3. Stories. When passing me information, if you want a story or an article done on it, tell me. Explain to me the who, what, when, where, why, how. Let me know if you want to be named or anonymous. Give me the information I need to actually write something. If you just pass me something with no or very little explanation / no leads, I’m not going to write about it, because let’s face it, I have a full-time job and I just don’t have the time to chase shadows of stories. I apologize for the times when people DO give me adequate information and I still can’t come up with something, but I have an answer for that too.

4. Self-publishing. I can actually connect people as contributors to this blog. All I need is an email address. If I connect you as a contributor, you could write your own story and I can publish it on Stenonymous. My only real rule is it has to be something related to court reporting in some way, even if it’s an abstract concept or a new perspective. I welcome opinions contrary to mine. If I’m dragging my feet on something you deem very important, why not help me get it out there? The rule I’ll put on this is try to make whatever it is worth reading or of value. Just remember there are subscribers to the blog and they don’t want garbage in their inboxes.

That’s it. Through information dispersal, I feel we become a stronger community. We will have our disagreements, our personality conflicts, and the problems that come along with a free-information ethos, but human intelligence is on a bell curve, which means we’re all pretty close in intelligence and that given the same information, many of us will come to the same conclusions, hopefully the correct conclusions, whatever they may be.

I’m easy to reach. Just fill out the message box on the front page of Stenonymous.com or write to Chris@stenonymous.com.

Tell Your Business Story with Beginnings by Recollections

Al Betz is a man that’s all about sharing stories. Not long ago, through his amazing work with Stenographers World, he helped me share some of the research I was doing on events in our field of court reporting and captioning. I’ve come to find out that he started helping people preserve their life stories over 30 years ago. This has now led to a company and product devoted to helping business owners of all sizes tell their story and build their brand. This is what he had to tell me about it:

“Whether you are a solo practitioner with a small client base, or an agency with a significant client base, you have a story to tell that everyone in your sphere of influence wants to hear. Recollections is a Division of Outfluence, LLC. Recollections is a personal history/marketing company. Beginnings is a product designed to tell the story of your business. The applications of your story are many, and Recollections will guide you into the marketing of your story literally for years to come. Visit us at www.recollections.store where you can learn more about us and purchase Beginnings. At that point we will contact you to prepare for and conduct our interview.”

Every last one of us has a story to tell, and the Beginnings product is on sale right now. If you’ve ever needed some marketing help, now is the time to reach out and get it.

Of course, my personal thanks to Al for sharing this. A lot of my writing is geared toward getting reporters to think competitively in our modern market. That’s a nice ideal. But it’s businesses like his that help build the skills needed and craft the right message. Your message. Go check it out.

JurisQ Seeks Stenographer Brand Ambassadors

I was approached via LinkedIn by an employee of JurisQ. They claim that they have an opportunity for stenographers to gain a side income by recommending JurisQ to lawyers. I asked for something to give my Stenonymous audience more info, and I got this:

“An opportunity for Stenographers to become a JurisQ Brand Ambassador, enhancing income by thousands of dollars a month.

Stenographers work with many different attorneys. JurisQ has an amazing service for them to convert more clients. All you would have to do is recommend us to them and you earn a commission! It is as simple as that!

Our Company, JurisQ, produces Legal Brand Videos and Legal FAQ Videos discussing a legal topic that is relevant to attorney’s practice area.

The Videos are used to enhance law firm’s Website Blog, Social Media and YouTube.

Our Directory of Attorneys with Legal FAQ Videos is here: https://jurisq.com/our-clients/

We also have unique Digital Marketing tools that will drive more traffic to the lawyers’ websites, gaining them more clients.

Please let me JurisQ of a good time to connect so we could go over the process or schedule a meeting with our CEO, Michael Levites, here:

(Calendly) or Michael@JurisQ.com

I look forward to hearing from you!”

Obviously, there are some things my audience should keep aware of. They’re claiming this can become a fairly lucrative side income. But you really want to focus on how that’s going to happen if you reach out to them. Don’t let anybody make promises they don’t keep. Feel free to report back to me if there are unkept promises. But I have no indication they’re anything but above board.

Of course, if other brands have opportunities or discounts for court reporters and stenographers, feel free to reach out to me. It would be a dream for the companies in the field to realize what a boon independent speech is to the industry and offer stuff to my audience. The site draws thousands of visitors each month. In a field of 30,000, it serves as a communication gateway to get important information to stenographers and court reporters. If brands start commingling with the whole loud media personality thing I’ve got going on, it’s a real chance to enhance the economic ecosystem in court reporting & stenotype services and bring passionate individuals into the field.

Stenonymous releases February 2023 view numbers.

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-2023Download

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.