One of the agencies that I know sent out a job offer to Massachusetts for a three-day job that needed covered.  This reporter, who I won't name, picked up the job.  She's had the job for over a month and not turned it in.

Finally, she turned in the first two volumes with multiple mistakes.  She still has not turned in the last transcript.  She turned in a rough because the court reporting agency had to have something to give to the attorney because he's going to trial.  The rough ASCII was literally unreadable. 

Now, I don't understand why a court reporter would take work through this website if they are so incompetent that they cannot turn the work in.  I wish there was a way I could filter all the bad apples off of here.

The agency owner called me and wanted to know if there is a way that I filter the qualified reporters from the incompetent reporters.  I told her no, I have no way to do that.  Once I hear someone has done a poor job, I ban them immediately from the website.  I'm a full-time reporter myself; there is no way for me to filter through thousands of reporters.

I'm just very frustrated about this situation.  This is not the first time it has happened either.  There must just be a lot of lousy court reporters out there I guess.  Unfortunately, it looks like it cost this agency their client.  Unbelievable. 

Reporters:  Please don't take work from this website if you can't handle the work.  You're giving my website a bad name!!

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Marge, I don't know how many times I can say it THIS AGENCY DID NOT HAVE LOW RATES!!!  They were regular rates that all of us take.  I don't know how else to say it.  That was NOT it.  They just picked the wrong person to take the job.  Obviously she was the first person that responded. 

Doesn't matter, Kelli.  This thread has evolved to talking theoretically about incompetence and how and why these people get work.

Kelli,

Any agency that I've taken work from on this site has asked me for my resume and page rates.  So whoever this agency was, if they didn't do that, shame on them.  

Low-ball or not,, I have to agree with Marge that it sounds like they were desperate to cover the job IF they didn't request a resume or some kind of background on the reporter.  

We don't have certification here in MA, but most reporters do take and pass the CSR, which I did.  If you didn't have it when I started out on this career, you didn't get jobs.

Tricia

That totally makes sense to me.  I asked this agency owner if this reporter had a CSR certification and she said she didn't. 

I wish there was a way to filter out every reporter that doesn't have a certification on this website.  If I had my way, only certified reporters would be on this website.  Maybe I'll start asking that question when people ask to join.

I wanted to reply to your last reply Kelli, but for some reason there's only a message icon there.   Strange.  Anyway, is there a way to make certifcation a prerequisite to joining any Cover Depos group?   I know you don't have time to police that.  Hopefully people won't misrepresent themselves.  That's only one part of it.  It certainly is up to the agency looking for coverage to check out a reporter's skill and experience before giving them work. 

Yeah, I'm not sure how to set that up.  A lot of agencies join these groups too and they don't have to be certified.  I think I'm going to start asking for a copy of their license sent to me.  It will take longer to become a member, but I've got to do something.

I'm trying to respond to your last statement, Kelli.  I also do not see a reply button.  I think it's unfair to decline people because they don't have certification.  I think a better question would be, do you care about the quality of your work? There are plenty of reporters who don't have certification who bust their ass. I have been on this board for years.  I don't have my cert, but that doesn't mean I'm not working towards it.  I have passed the skills portion of the RPR, but I still need to take my written.  Does that mean I don't deserve to be here?  I think you need to ask the right questions when you take a job and when you're looking for someone to take your job.  This reporter is obviously a nut.  How do you filter the nuts, reporter and agency? I have taken jobs from this board.  I don't think there were any complaints or I would have heard them by now.  It's not fair to ban people because they are not certified.  I've read these boards in and out for years.  The information on here is invaluable.  It's not fair the newer reporters would miss out on this type of information if they aren't even given a chance before banning them.

I agree with you, Melissa and Randall.   I had no intention of banning anyone for no certification.  However, a state like California does have a certification.  You do have to have a license to be a reporter in California.  That does not mean the reporter will be a great reporter either, I agree with you. 

I had an agency owner contact me on Wednesday about a rogue reporter in New York.  She wouldn't tell me who it is but wanted to know what I do about these type of reporters.  All I can do is contact the reporter, make them turn in their work, then ban them when I know they're not up to snuff.  Too many reporters on here for me to babysit anyone.  I'm too busy.  When I know there's a problem, I try to deal with it.

I see there are 621 views of this discussion.  Not very many people are contributing to this discussion, though.  Too bad.  I'd like to hear what people have to say.

I am sorry, but it is the owner's own damn fault for, one, not doing any due diligence.  I can maybe understand being desperate to cover a job, but if you agree to give a job to a reporter that you know is not licensed or certified, then you deserve whatever happens, and you don't deserve to keep the client.  How irresponsible can you be????

Yeah, I agree.  However, I don't think she found out that she wasn't licensed till after the fact.  I don't think the right questions got asked, that's for sure.

I got another complaint about another reporter last month out of Chicago with almost the same scenario; i.e, tons of mistakes on the transcript and the transcript late.  Starting to become an epidemic.

Kelli,

I still don't quite understand why they have to come back to you for complaints and why you feel you should have to police the site.  It's *their job/client* and it's up to them to do their due diligence.  As I said, I have always sent my resume to a new agency.  It's up to them, not you.

Tricia

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