Hi, Amy,

Thanks for writing. I am a transcriptionist, scopist and proofreader, not a court reporter, but glad to have you as my friend anyway. :-) I work for Owen & Associates here in Ocala, the official court reporting firm. They keep me very busy with transcription jobs from the ECRs, Electronic Court Reporters. Since court reporters only cover death penalty cases now, it seems everything has gone digital so the reporters and myself get the disks to transcribe from all of the felony, misdemeanors and dependency hearings that are held. The reporters don't like that very much because what they do is they have to rewrite the disks and then edit them, but hey, in these economic times, nobody is complaining. They also have civil and other criminal work at the office, depos and such, but most of our work right now comes in the form of CDs.

I also do work for CAB Reporting, along with scoping for other reporters in the US, one in Idaho, one in Miami and one in West Palm Beach, so I keep pretty busy.

I do know Belinda, who you worked for. I bet you know Kaye Myers. She used to be Kaye Polzin. She worked for Belinda also. She is a court reporter and I proofread for her and have for years. Small world, huh? Do you know Kaye?

Anyway, I totally understand the homesick thing. All of my family, with the exception of one brother and my dad (who live in Georgia) are here in Ocala so I'm right at home. I'm originally a conch, born and raised in Key West, so I miss island living once in awhile, but I'm not too far from the beach here in Ocala, if I choose to go. And then the big city of Orlando if I get a notion for shopping. :-)

Well, take care. Glad to meet you. And if you ever need a scopist, let me know. I'd be glad to help out.

Lorna