Page Rates vs. Audio Minute Rates

[Jennie Ann]

When I first embarked on the industry of court reporting working as a reporter, the payment was always by the page. Then I discovered that page rates could vary depending on the TAT (turnaround time), whether it be standard, expedited, daily copy, or same-day rush deliveries.

When I read inquiries about page rates today, I am always quick to point out that it is difficult to evaluate whether a page rate is sufficient unless you know the transcript FORMAT.

For some companies, the format is 28 lines per page, with wide margins of an inch all the way around, and 65 characters per line. In other companies, the format may be 21 lines per page, with a 2-inch margin on the left and a 1-inch margin on the right and 1.2 character spacing, allowing 45 characters per line. If you were paid the same page rate for each format, there would be quite a difference in how much you would actually make.

In my area, the court reporting companies do still charge the traditional page rates. I think that the page rate originates from the days of the typewriter, a typewritten page. In a way, because of the variety of transcript page formats, I wonder if the page rate is still a good measure of cost.

Fast forward to today. Gone are the typewriters from yesteryear. The advent of the CAT systems for stenotypy changed the way stenotypists produce transcripts. Reading notes on the computer using the Eclipse system sure seems more desirable than the old days of reading the paper notes and banging out the pages, one by one, with carbon paper or onion skin on a typewriter.

Would paying per audio minute be a good thing for the court reporting industry to consider for charging clients, or should it stay just the way it is with charging page rates?

I have thought long and hard about this topic for a few years now. I would love to hear what you professionals think about this, the pros and cons of page rates.

[Kyung]

This would depend on if you have a slow speaker or a fast speaker.

If you have a slow speaker, say around 30 pages an hour. And if your rate was $3.00/page, then you would be making $90.00/hour.

If your speakers speak at some a faster pace, and you get more pages per hour, say 45 pages per hour, then you would get $3/page, which would $135/hr.

If you charge per minute audio rate, then no matter how fast they talk, then you would be getting paid the same amount no matter how many pages you produced.

If I'm understanding you correctly.

Here is in California, deposition formats are all standard, we pretty much must adhere to the requirements put out by the California Board.

[Jennie Ann]

Kyung, do all the court reporting companies in California use the same transcript format?

Here in my area (Washington, D.C.), each court reporting company seems to have a different transcript format. There is no "norm."

If you were to read depositions, as an example, produced by five different court reporting companies in my area, I can guarantee you that each one would have a different format.

I understand what you mean about fast colloquy (how fast they talk). I'm working on a medical job right now, and the speaker is a neurosurgeon from New York. There is no doubt in my mind that he is speaking well over 300 WPM. LOL

[Janet]

Jennie,

I don't think it would work changing from the page rate for us. I agree with what Kyung wrote. Every deposition is different. With the seven-hour limitation for depositions, there are days that I have 400 pages in seven hours. They try to squeeze everything possible into seven hours by speaking as fast as possible. I want to be paid for 400 pages, not a seven-hour rate. Also, I think it would be confusing when there are multiple parties ordering copies of the transcript to change the pay structure.

I know one of the national companies is trying to change the pay structure away from per page. I think it will only benefit them, and certainly not us.

Janet

[Jennie Ann]

Thanks for the reply, Janet. :)

What you are saying is that the page rate structure benefits a court reporter's pay if there is a fast speaker, though I know a fast speaker can be a pain in the you-know-what.

For the independent court reporter, those who do not work inside a court, those who work for a variety of court reporting companies doing depositions, et cetera, does the transcript page format come into play when discussing page rates?

[Quyen]

Jennie, I'm not sure exactly what you mean by transcript page format, but if I think I'm understanding you correctly, the California Court Reporters Board dictates strict minimum transcript formats that ALL reporters must abide by, which includes the CR firms. The MINIMUM is 25 lines per page, 56 characters per line (52 characters if the transcript is time-stamped).

The only variations permitted from CR firm to CR firm or reporter to reporter would the the setup of the title, appearance, index, cert. pages, etc.

HTH
~Q

[Jennie Ann]

Thank you, Quyen, for that great explanation. I did not know that California had strict minimum transcript formats that all reporters must abide by.

Here in my neck of the woods, it's every man/woman for themselves, and the sky is the limit on what the transcript format is.

For congressional committee transcripts, it is always 25 lines per page, and the format is a little funky with odd codes that need to be inserted, but when it comes to transcripts of depositions, there is no standard format.

Some court reporting companies in Virginia use 23 lines per page, and I know of one court reporting company in Baltimore that uses 21 lines per page. Most in D.C. are using 22 lines per page, with the exception of some courts which, thankfully, still follow the guidelines set up by the Administrative Courts of the U.S.

The transcript format is a bugaboo when it comes to page rates in my area. If I were reporting, getting a page rate, the very first thing out of my mouth would be wanting to know what the format of the transcript page is. That would be the ONLY way I would be able to determine if the page rate is commensurate with the time I invested in reporting and thereafter producing the transcript.

I wonder if any other States have strict guidelines on transcript format. I think that would be a good idea.

[Rosalie DeLeonardis]

This might be a little off the topic, but I just did a depo for a new firm and asked for their formatting. I set all my pages up like they wanted, the only thing I didn't change was the font size. Had I changed the font size, it would have made my transcript 6 pages less.

[Mary Ann Payonk]

Hi, Jennie. There's definitely lots of discussion going on in various forums about changing the way we charge for what we do. I can't think of a better way to charge for a transcript. Transcription rates generally are nowhere near court reporters' page rates, let alone the fact that most of the world outside the beltway has an appearance fee for reporters.

But speaking of transcription, here's something that came out just today: Merrill Corporation Enhances Audio Recording Transcription Services.

M.A.

[Quyen]

Lovely. Just ... #|_|{#ing lovely article. Didn't realize they're still even a viable company.

[Jennie Ann]

Thank you for your reply to the thread, Mary Ann.

I had never heard of Merrill Corporation before, but the article is interesting. I went to their website and was not too impressed. It was difficult to navigate, and I can't figure out what service(s) they are trying to sell.

I have always been a page rate kind of gal for my client-provided transcription jobs, until recently. I have had to reconsider my costing structure because the "general" TRANSCRIPTION industry outside of the Beltway do not seem to charge page rates anymore.

They not only charge per audio minute, but the so-called "norm" in the "general" transcription industry today is to add on extra charges for more than two speakers, technical subject matter, accented speech, crappy audio, et cetera.

The medical transcription industry transcribes doctor reports, et cetera. They charge by the word or by the line -- no page rates, no audio minute, no audio hour -- and it is a completely different format than the traditional transcript format of court reporting.

One advantage of charging by audio minute is that the colloquy, whether it is fast or slow, would not matter. The transcript format would not matter. Though California has a strict guideline for transcript format, I have noticed there seems to be no format inside the Beltway.

It is true that fast colloquy will generate more pages, but it also works the other way, i.e., an interpreter present. Instead of 50 pages generated per audio hour, you'd be lucky to get 25 or 30 in some proceedings where an interpreter is present. This is one advantage of charging by the audio minute as opposed to a page rate.

I only mention the above-referenced as food for thought. This is the direction the "general" transcription industry of client-provided audio has gone. The page rate method of charging originated from the days of typewriters, and I do wonder if other methods of payment would be beneficial to those in the court reporting industry.