Agency Not Paying Any Copy Money if the Transcript is a Minimum Transcript

[Melanie C. Hines]

I just found out that I an agency I did a job for -- through here -- does not pay anything to the reporter on any copy orders made if the O+1 is considered a minimum transcript. Please be sure to ask that question before you accept any assignment. (I am in the SF Bay Area market.) I have never heard of anything like this before. This is a new low! So what's the motivation for me to ask if anyone wants a copy on something when it's a short depo when the agency is pocketing 100%? This was a 30-page job, and as far as I'm concerned, outright theft. I will NEVER work with this agency again.

If the people running CRS Nation would like to contact me about which agency this is, please feel free to do so.

[Judy]

I say you're damned if you do and damned if you don't on this issue.

Ask the reporter to tell you what his/her rates are and you're accused of trying to get the cheapest rate.

Set the rate and tell the reporter what it is and you're accused of another wrongdoing.

Everywhere you turn on this issue, you've got somebody telling you you're trying to rip off the working stiff.

[Kelli Combs (admin)]

I totally disagree with you, Judy. I give my rates all the time and have never accused anyone of trying to get the cheapest rate. I have even negotiated on rates.

You need to work with each other. I just have a problem when you aggree on rates and then the agency turns around after receiving the transcript and then deciding on an entirely different rate. That is unethical and seriously wrong.

[Heather Coiner]

Could you please e-mail me the name of this firm? I've done a fair amount of work in the S.F. area and don't want to get stuck in that situation:) [e-mail]

[Annette Shepherd]

I'm also in the Bay area. I would like to know which firm it is too please. Thanks. [e-mail]

[Premier Reporting]

I, too, would like to know who the agency is...although I suspect I may already know. Would you email me, please, @ [e-mail]
Thanks!

[Tricia McLaughlin]

I would like to know who it is also, please. [e-mail]

Thanks,
Tricia

[Melanie C. Hines]

I just wanted to let everyone know that today, to my welcomed surprise, the agency PAID me on the copy order!!! I have not had any further discussion with them, either, so I'm assuming that after they thought about it, they realized that I should be paid that money.

Hey, a good outcome, after all.

[Rosalie DeLeonardis]

I'm wondering if they went ahead and paid you since they were banned from this site, and also everyone wanting to know who it was. Glad to hear you got paid!

[Chancey Hope]

Hello can you private message me with the name of that agency. I took two jobs from an agency on here and just paid an attorney to sue them. I checked public record and saw they had been sued last year for not paying a reporter. I wish I had done that search before I took that job. The amount they owe me is over $1,000.00.

[Rosalie DeLeonardis]

Can you e-mail me the firm you're suing at [e-mail].

[Debera Anne Doran]

My experience has been that I always feel like I am in the dark when it comes to what agencies charge attorneys. The agency MIGHT tell me, but can I believe them? And how do I know what other reporters are making with an agency when I rarely see another reporter, given the seclusion of our working habits? I know for a fact that attorneys think reporters make a ton of money, but I suspect they think reporters are getting 80 to 100% of the bill they receive from the agency. And we reporters all know THAT doesn't happen!

[Jennie Ann]

Meanwhile, Debera, those attorneys -- most of them, if not all -- require prospective clients to post money in an escrow account before the attorney does one thing for them. The attorney withdraws money out of the escrow account willy-nilly, and before long, the client gets a message from the attorney that the escrow account has run dry. If the client wants the attorney to continue on the case, they have to desposit more money in the escrow account.

Most times, the client doesn't even know what work the attorney has done, how much it cost, until the well runs dry. Attorneys are the biggest culprits of deep pockets, and they have the NERVE to question a court reporter's wage.

As a caveat, my father was an attorney, general practice, and he would be rolling over in his grave if he knew how attorneys charge their clients today. It should be illegal. Lawyers are worse than credit card companies when it comes to their so-called "services."