Getting Paid

[Kyung]

So really, it's not a matter of keeping busy alone, but also one of getting paid.

I'm noticing a trend of agencies taking longer and longer to pay reporters, which is bad. So what's going on?

I know agencies are having a harder time collecting from their attorney clients, who in turn are having a challenge collecting from their clients. It's all very easy to say, but I'm working for the agency and they need to pay me on the O&1 when they say they're going to pay, which I fully agree with. And then the agency tells the attorney, but you owe me the money, not your litigant client. So where does it all end?

But if the agency doesn't have the money to make the payroll, what do you do? Do you not take any more jobs from them until you are paid up? But then who will they get to cover their jobs? Will they go out of business and never pay you? It's an endless, vicious cycle.

This is where you've got to make the touch decisions. I can't make those decisions for you. I can tell you how I make those decisions.

Do I feel the agency is honest? Do I feel I will eventually get paid, even if it's a couple more months than I was expecting to wait? Can I personally wait that long or will my mortgage end up going unpaid and I end up homeless?

I know an agency that is not paying me but is still returning my phone calls and keeping me in the loop is going to get a lot more slack than an agency who I have to continually chase down.

All the politicians and economists say the economy is getting better. I can't tell if that's wishful thinking or if they believe if they say it enough times, it will be true. All I know that sometimes I feel like I'm at the bottom of the food chain, and I'm getting squashed.

So what can I do? I guess I'll keep taking those jobs from the agencies that I believe and I trust and keep hoping that it will get better.

[Louis Zimmerman]

It's the same for vids. I just don't let myself get strung out too far by anyone.

What I have found frustrating is when the following occurs:

I work directly for plaintiff firm "A." I also work the case as a sub under the name of an agency for defense firm "B." Defense firm "B" has supposedly not paid the agency for six depos after more than eight months, yet they paid me within a couple of weeks for all copy orders of the twenty-two depos taken by the plaintiff. Makes me wonder if I'm being hoodwinked.