Being expelled from RPR status

[Mary Jo Cochran]

It's in this month's magazine.  A reporter lost her RPR status and was expelled permanently from NCRA for violation of testing policies and procedures.

 

Anyone have an idea of what happened?

[Lisa O'Sullivan]

Agree with Rhonda and Cathryn both. I'm keeping all mine. Let them lapse twice b/c I thought I wouldn't need them. Not taking those tests again. :)

[Mary Jo Cochran]

I have started to get a few depo offers in Tampa (Tampa is a tough market).  I need to start marketing myself to get work.

After three years of rebuilding my speed (and getting on CAT), I feel like such a different person.  I am now doing 225 with ten percent untranslates.  (Still need to improve on lit).

[Quyen]

Yeah, I hear Florida is a tough market, let alone Tampa.  If I remember correctly, there is no licensing requirement in FL, so to say that the court reporter market there is saturated would be an understatement. Everybody and their mother is a reporter.  That's why licensure/oversight is so very important; otherwise, the free-for-all destroys the profession.

[Rhonda Hall Breuwet, RDR CRR CLR]

Florida is a tough market, but I know MANY reporters who make six figures, even right here in Tampa.  You just have to take two or three jobs a day, four or five days a week, just in case something doesn't order.  And there have been times I've taken that many jobs in a week and didn't get an order.  The firm I am with now has a higher percentage of write-ups, thank God.

[Rhonda Hall Breuwet, RDR CRR CLR]

Mary Jo, are you doing realtime?

 

By the way, I'm in Tampa, too.  But I'm slowly working on moving to the DC/Baltimore area.

[Janiece Young]

Rhonda,

I'm in the Kansas City area.  

Almost every time I work for a Florida attorney who comes here to take a depo, they don't want it typed up for a year.  Why is that?  Here in KC we type almost everything.  I have approximately one job per year that doesn't get typed and that's usually b/c they settle.  I'm curious as to why they don't have much typed up in Florida.

Also, we have had a terrible problem w/t attorneys from Florida not wanting to pay their bills.  We finally had to insist on deposits from all Florida attorneys.  

[Rhonda Hall Breuwet, RDR CRR CLR]

I don't know how that practice ever got started, but I'd like to slap the person responsible.  Them not ordering and then waiting until the last minute does get us a lot of expedites, though.  LOL

[Mary Jo Cochran]

Florida is not as bad as it used to be.  Schools finally got regulated.  Court reporters were opening their own schools and pumping them out (and charging LOTS of money for their program - student loans).  That got regulated.

 

As for realtime, I am doing realtime - in sorts.  I write connected to my laptop.  I can't get realtime certification until I pass the RPR (which I did back in 1981 and let go).

[Rhonda Hall Breuwet, RDR CRR CLR]

Good luck on getting your certs.  I am presently the test proctor for Tampa.  I don't think your name is on my roster for this Saturday's test.  Perhaps you will sign up for the May test and I will get a chance to meet you!  Are you totally freelancing or working for a firm?

[Mary Jo Cochran]

I did not register for the November test.  I want to pass all three at one time - sit down, write, edit, and get out.  My editing should be very minimal.

 

I got one real depo offer, which got canceled.  At this point I think I need to pass the RPR (which I did back in 1981) to get any real work.