Rough drafts

[Allison Garrett, CSR, RPR]

I've come across many schools of thought when it comes to how much cleaning up to do on a rough draft before sending it out to attorneys.  I've met many reporters who simply send it as is, untranslates and all, and I've met reporters who practically finalize it before sending it out because they feel embarrassed if their clients see steno or misstrokes.  Where do you stand?

[Amanda Leigh]

Hey, that's great--I would be the same way, if I could see process like that.  I really like that idea, though, especially now that so many agencies, from what I understand, start your turn-in time for pay the day it gets invoiced (o_O).  It is also a great way to see if the job is moving upon turn-in.  If it sits there, I'd be very irritated (like I'm irritated right now that a client of mine just HAD to have an expert doctor's depo by Friday--no one's downloaded it....grrrrrrrrr).

What is this online reporter portal called?

[Allison Garrett, CSR, RPR]

I guess I have to start a new margin since it's not letting me reply to your last reply.  The one I'm most familiar with is called RBweb.  It's an awesome tool for larger agencies, although I don't know what the cost of it is so it could be that it's not realistic for smaller firms.  Who knows?  But as the reporter, you can log in and you have your calendar there with your job assignments on it.  You can click on the job and see all the information, including any notes by the scheduling or production such as **make sure you're always AT LEAST 30 minutes early to this client!!** and you can print the job worksheet also with all the information on it.  Next to each job on your calendar is an icon indicating what phase it's currently in, scheduled, received, sent out, billed.  Then there's an invoices tab where you can see and review all the invoices from billing.  There's an exhibits tab where you can access all the scanned exhibits if you need to look up spellings.  You can also look up what your next paycheck is going to be and access all of your past pay statements.  It's really awesome from the reporter's perspective, and for me it lets me be somewhat involved with production and billing without actually doing the job of production and billing.

[Amanda Leigh]

Very cool--and thanks for the explanation.  That's great for the agency and the reporter.  I looked into RB years back and it wasn't too bad for the subscription.  

Tnx! ;)

[Kelli Combs (admin)]

What I don't like about RBweb is the worksheets when you turn in your job.  Maybe it's because I don't use it enough, but it takes me literally at least 30 minutes to fill that thing out.  I always struggle putting in what the attorneys have ordered.  I only fill it out for one agency I work with and I take less than 10 jobs a year with them, so I never really get used to it.  Their explanation that goes with the worksheet is not all that clear or user friendly I don't think.

[Allison Garrett, CSR, RPR]

The firm I had that used it actually didn't use the turn-in jobs feature.  We turned our jobs in through RealLegal with our electronic signature on it and attached the reporter worksheet as a PDF to the RealLegal file.  When I first got my reporter account I did play around with it and I do agree that turning in through RBweb seems unnecessarily complicated.

[Kelli Combs (admin)]

I'm glad you agree, Allison.  I was feeling a bit retarded every time I have to turn in a job.  LOL!

[Mary Ann Payonk]

FWIW, I absolutely hate RBWeb.  I feel like the reporter is being made to do the work that the production/billing folks should be doing, and I refuse to submit over the RBWeb.  I just don't do it.  AFA rough drafts and agencies demanding that they be sent in within a few hours, I'm all for it, even if the client says days later is okay.  There are a few reporting agencies out there who pride themselves on providing topnotch realtime reporters, and everything related to that, including readable realtime, pristine rough drafts, and immediate delivery of that rough draft.  Sometimes, and becoming more and more frequent, clients will ask for a rough draft to be sent at lunchtime and at the end of the day.  Bring it on!  In these cases, my client is not the atty, it's the reporting agency, and it's my job to make those agencies shine.  To answer the original question that was posed, I send the rough draft from the deposition room before I leave.

M.A.

[Allison Garrett, CSR, RPR]

There were reporters who said they never logged on to their RBweb account.  You certainly don't have to do it.  But if you're like me or Amanda and compulsive about being aware of every phase of your work from beginning to end, it was very helpful in keeping up to date on exactly what's happening.  It could also depend on the agency, too.  I guess if the agency used it as a means to lay more responsibility on the reporter, it would be more stressful.  I didn't have that issue.  All the information on RB was just there for my convenience..... it was probably less convenient for them, though, with me bugging them about stuff.  They probably liked the reporters who never looked at RB better ;)