Court Reporting Board of Arizona Proposes to Cut Ethics From Code

[Lisa Migliore Black]

http://blog.courtreportersaz.com/2013/09/16/court-reporting-board-o...

[Lisa Migliore Black]

Given the age difference, Sharon, yes, I was in the sandbox when you started reporting.  

[Sharon Smith]

Hehe - thought so. That was compliment, LB. Aaah, to be your age again and know what I know now! :):) C/R'g been good to me & used to have a lot of fun with it back when we traveled w/our clients wherever they went, even abroad - but, looking back, wouldn't have dedicated all my working career to this job...been official and freelance and always owned my own firm.  I always said, when it quit being fun, I'd do something else & I think I'm about to that point....

I truly feel for your generation of C/R's - the industry has changed drastically and has taken the fun out of most of it.

[Lisa Migliore Black]

I rarely feel like a youngin' these days, but thanks for trying:)  I've got nearly 18 years under my belt at this point.  

I think the profession is still wonderful, lucrative, and challenging.  I'm happy to be in a position to share that with the next generation of reporters as well. 

[Sharon Smith]

Oh, crap! I'm sitting here trying to count & see if you were even born when I started! :):)  Yikes!   Well, with the fast pace of technology, I'm afraid there will be no reporters, as we know it.  The Judge or a Clerk will have a remote control device to turn on and off a voice recognition device and your transcript will appear immediately on their laptop in real time - no paper copies of anything - everything will be done via computer.  Heck, I have clients now who are off paper - want everything electronically.  You file anything with the Feds, it's electronic already......

[T. S. HUBBARD JR]

Hi, Sharon. You are way above average in your knowledge about what's going on in our CR industry, well informed. We need more people like you not afraid to voice your convictions. 20 years ago we both would have been ostracized for our convictions. Today, we have followers, perhaps a silent majority who are afraid to voice their opinions, but with encouragement it is here on CSRNation and on LinkedIn, Facebook, and elsewhere that we communicate and share constructive ideas and we are not held up to ransom by the likes of NCRA that used to hold up our check book to advertise in the JCR. The more the Internet becomes our personal playground and business resource to network, the more the NCRA becomes irrelevant.

And they know it.

They have been unable to protect the jobs of courtroom court reporters since the mid 1990s. They now only represent deposition reporting agencies and quite frankly, the regional and national firms have got it all right and NCRA has it all wrong. The Big Boys now dictate to the NCRA what and how and where business will be done. They have their own business meeting that for right now comes under the umbrella of the NCRA, but that will not last long. A new business organization will be created and we had better be part of it so we can network and build on our business. Yes, somehow or another regardless how small you are, you will necessarily have to network with the Big Players, otherwise you will only become a bottom feeder. So now is the time to make wise educated choices and do not be influenced by a Roman Senate whose Legions are being decimated by a mindset of old farts (and younger disciples who are only looking to fill their shoes)who are struggling to hold onto past glory when there were no tape recorders, no digital instant playback, no incredible voice recognition technologies!

Why are you going to a yearly national convention anyway? So you miss to see the latest bells and whistles offered by the vendors. But wait. Everything you do throughout the year you do online with them anyway.

Spend your one full week and transportation expenses, hotel stay on your next true holiday with family and friends where you can have real fun.

Only the top one percent in our business are interested in speed competitions. Spend your time more wisely getting the business that others who attend this party cultivating business while they are away.

Network right here on CSRNation with real pros who are glad to share their proven ideas and experience. You do not have to go to an NCRA seminar and pay for credits that will within five years become absolutely useless and meaningless to the courts everywhere as they fully integrate DAR in all the courts of the land.

Believe me, the Big Boys could care less if you have your RPR, and higher designations because half the states do not have licensure anyway! What they want to know is are you dependable? Do you proofread your transcripts? Do you hand in your projects on time? Can you take the more difficult jobs as well?

Even if you are NOT real time certified, can you do credible real time just the same?

If you have said yes to every one of these questions, and you have all of your equipment and you are computer savvy, you have extra PCs for lawyers you WILL make a small fortune by being honest and reliable even if you are a solo practitioner -- as long as you network with the Big Boys.

Screw the NCRA and its feigned noble ideas how to run your life and YOUR business.

It can be had all right here and now networking with honest strangers who want to very much know who you are.

Be a winner!

[Sharon Smith]

Boy, T.S. have you hit the nail on the head! :) Agree totally!

What is going to happen - and I cannot believe the ins. companies don't see this coming - they're contracting with reporting firms now under the auspices of saving $$  - then they're going after the big firm Plaintiff lawyers one by one & they'll jump all over it! Once these contracting firms have put all the "mom and pop" local reporters out of business (and they will if they don't take their jobs), then contracting firms are going to tell ins. companies & big PLf firms:  "This is what our fee is going to be henceforth and you will have to pay it because we're the only game in town now."

Hint to LB: These contracting firms are already establishing their GO-TO reporters regionally.  Don't wait too late & continue to turn down these referrals completely.  If the DOJ rules anti-contracting Statutes are unconstitutional (like they did in Delaware) and thereby voiding them all, these referral agencies will already have their GO-TO folks in place and you will be out in the cold & lucky to even be a bottom-feeder w/local firms.  What gets me is local reporters have absolutely NO CLUE the lucrative business they're losing now, much less in the future.  So don't let the likes of NCRA and other Associations put YOU out of business. 

Don't be naive - it's all about the $$$ with NCRA, otherwise, they would have folded years ago.  But, no, they kept passing this rule and that rule and increasing dues to get MORE money off the backs of slaving reporters just trying to pay their bills & make a good living.  And because they're taking your money, they think they can dictate to you how to run your OWN business. This issue is and always has been for 25+ years all about the $$$ - has nothing to do with ethics. (Otherwise, who would want this demanding job - duh!)  Some folks just woke up and found a way to harness more business and NCRA, running scared, called it "unethical" because they had no other legal reasoning to stop it...LB, you are smarter than that - don't let them take YOU down with them.

[Sharon Smith]

T.S. - 20 years ago we had no vision of the technological wonders and the power of the Internet and just couldn't imagine it.  The generation of reporters now are being as naive as we were back then.

Keep posting and updating, please - I'll check back along the way.

Oh, and, yes, this website is great!  It takes us a step back to the old ways we did things - asking for help from other colleagues in a respectful manner.

[Lisa O'Sullivan]

You remind me of GR on CRF, Sharon. :)

You said: “And because they're taking your money, they THINK THEY CAN DICTATE TO YOU how to run your OWN business. This issue is and always has been for 25+ years all about the $$$ - has nothing to do with ethics. (Otherwise, who would want this demanding job - duh!)  Some folks just woke up and found a way to harness more business and NCRA, running scared, called it "unethical" because they had no other legal reasoning to stop it...LB, you are smarter than that - don't let them take YOU down with them.”

There might be some confusion. Lisa Migliore is actually one of the main reporters at NCRA trying to do the dictating. I say “at NCRA,” but of course I mean associated with. She’s been on multiple committees, including contributing to the “Model Legislation.” That’s the wording NCRA promotes to the different states to help them, in turn, dictate to their reporters. She’s involved herself as a large part of this issue in other ways as well.

I do think it’s good advice you’ve given her here, though.

[Sharon Smith]

Then here's something you might ponder - the Magna lawsuit is inclusive of the Arizona Board and Board members.  If DOJ rules these anti-contracting psuedo laws/opinions are unconstitutional and NCRA overstepped their bounds in restraining reporters from taking work from these agencies, reporters may have a monetary cause of action against LB, personally and professionally in her capacity w/NCRA, the NCRA and its board for lost profits in their restraining them from procurement of business unconstitutionally......so if I were involved with NCRA, I would be extremely careful how I worded my anti-contracting opinions and what restraint it puts on reporters from conducting free enterprise since they are a mere organization and claim to be a governing body.....this could get really interesting!

CR - CFR ??

[Lisa Migliore Black]

Sharon, you should stick to court reporting because your legal opinions are pretty laughable, but I'm pretty damn fearless and well represented legally.  

NCRA hasn't restrained anybody from taking contract work.  Complying with STATE LAW restrains people from taking contract work where such law exists, but that doesn't seem to necessarily stop the biggest firms in our country in their tracks, does it?

[Lisa Migliore Black]

And you're incorrect.  The individual board members in Arizona were dismissed.

[Sharon Smith]

"Sharon, you should stick to court reporting"

Maybe LB should follow her own advice.....and surely NCRA has an ethics provision concerning courtesy to others with differing opinions..

Hey, it's your dime, not mine, LB

What is it you don't understand about "dismissal" - they had to sue them FIRST to be "dismissed" - duh!  And I'm not sure if they were dismissed "totally" in the Amendment.

I see what you mean, Lisa O. - geez!