Stupid Question

[Bradley Cook]

Can any of you answer a stupid question for me? I keep seeing the term "full audio" in other scopists' descriptions of the work they do, and this has me worried that the term means something other than what it sounds like. In my roughly two years as a scopist, every job I've had involved an audio recording of the deposition. Is that what's meant by "full audio"? Are there transcripts that don't include audio? Or is there a type of audio that isn't "full"?

[Bradley Cook]

Yep. Makes sense. Thanks, Patricia.

[Kelli Combs (admin)]

I totally agree with Patricia that if you are doing a lot of cleanup, you certainly deserve the 1.25 or maybe more.  No doubt about it.  Sorry if I wasn't clear on that point. 

I do pay 1.25 to 1.30 to my scopists if I have a very difficult witness or a lot of argument, depending what the case may be.  If it takes more time and more difficult, such as an accent, definitely worth more $$$$.

[Bradley Cook]

So if I'm doing lots of cleanup, I should charge $1.25 even though you don't think "a scopist that only has two years' experience should be charging such a high price"?  

I really don't see what the length of time I've been scoping has to do with my rate. After all, all we're talking about is familiarity with the rules of grammar and some software functions.

My scopists have been scoping over 15 years and they don't even charge me that.

Well, what do they charge? And how long will they have to scope before they're allowed to charge $1.25?  Does proficiency with grammar and software really take over 15 years?

[Kelli Combs (admin)]

You're missing my point.  If you give your scopist a clean product to begin with, they don't have to work very hard, maybe a comma here or a period there, they shouldn't have to charge 1.25 a page ever, even if they've been working for 30 years as a scopist.  Where scopists make their money is on expedites, not this piddly extra 25 cents.

My experience with new scopists is when I get the job back, sometimes there are more mistakes than when I gave the job to them; i.e. speakers changed to the wrong speaker, misspellings, typos, etc.  You seem to want to charge 1.25 a page and that's fine, but you have to work harder for it.  That's my only point. 

Maybe you are different and you turn back a perfect quality transcript.  I've been doing this job for 24 years and that's never been my experience that a scopist of two years does an incredible job.  I'm just saying....

[Bradley Cook]

Well, Kelli, competence is a rarity in every profession. That's why you need to take things on a case-by-case basis. When I was editing trade journals, I was astonished at the work people would submit for publication. Later, when I ran the music section of an "alternative" weekly, it was even worse. 

And so far, I haven't seen the "clean product" of which you speak. Every depo transcript I've ever scoped was very far from clean.

And it isn't that I "want to charge 1.25 a page." I want to charge the accepted norm, which is why I started this thread in the first place. I'm not sure why my asking such an innocent question has engendered such hostility from you.