MY ROUGH UNEDITED TRANSCRIPTS ARE ON A WEBSITE

[Leesa Durrant]

What to do?  I did a 15-day arbitration for FINRA.  The claimant lost the case.  She's bitter and developed a website.  On this website are my unedited rough transcripts. There's a lot of excerpts, but some complete days of testimony.  She did pay for the rough only.  I don't know how long they've been up, but I just found out about it last week.  I contacted the CCRB and Connie basically said they don't have a position on this situation because they're roughs.  I'm not happy about this and so I send her a cease and desist letter with the Government Code Section.  Yesterday I see that she's now added a link to my cease and desist letter as well as my agency website.  I called her directly.  I calmly tried to explain my side of the situation to no avail.  As of today I have a call in to Connie Conkle again and I'll try Mona Sorvino of NCRA and next I'll contact DRA to see if they have a position.  I also think the DRA has an attorney retained, so I'd like to run this by him for specific code and law violations.

I'm pissed!!!  I consider myself a better-than-average court reporter and I don't want this out there as a represenation of my work.  If this has any affect on my reputation, I'll be livid.  I'm looking at having to file a lawsuit.  I think we all will say it's been a long time coming.  We have to set a precedent for this stuff.  Really it should be a class action against the attorneys who stipulate away our transcripts, but this one is personal.  I don't have the money for this.  I have two kids and an autoimmune disease.  Maybe I should test the waters for donations to our "cause."  I hate the thought of a lawsuit, but I get so worked up every time I think of those transcripts out there.  I really do feel violated in a weird way.  Anyway, my court reporting community, what do you think??

She said this Code didn't apply because we were in arbitration:

California Government Code Section 69954 states that “[a]ny court, party, or person who has purchased a transcript may, without paying a further fee to the reporter, reproduce a copy or portion thereof as an exhibit pursuant to court order or rule, or for internal use, but shall not otherwise provide or sell a copy or copies to any other party or person.”

[Leesa Durrant]

Where is this site?

[Amanda Leigh]

Good reason to never have your name or your agency name anywhere on the rough.

[Audrey Ricks]

Sorry you're going through this, but like others have said, don't sweat it.  It's simply a rough and no one will care to review what is out there, at least not anyone in the direct line of providing work to you. 

I've done a couple of FINRA hearings and other arbitrations where they either want only a realtime (viewing) feed or a rough draft.  Those rates are generally negotiated prior to the proceedings taking place.  I've also been in those proceedings when, later, one side asked for a rough draft but not a certified copy.  It's generally a practice that most agencies here or independent reporters won't participate in, but when those situations ASK for it to be part of the assignment, you can increase your rough draft rate and/or negotiate more time, whatever it takes to make sure you're compensated and everyone is happy with the arrangement and in agreement with the terms. 

And, by all means, put in all the headers/footers/disclaimers. 

Perhaps I'd continue with asking it to be removed and/or replaced with the final version (if there is one), but it sounds like it's posted merely to get others to side with them on some issue or another and not so much to draw attention to any imperfections in the rough draft. 

Hang in there!