Court Reporters & Employment Situations

EMPLOYMENT AND COURT REPORTING



As the 2009 summer faded this year, it was with relief that our calendar seemed to be on the rise with settings. This fall we have noticed some incredible spikes, up and down, on our calendar. This has been a very unusual year in that some of our more reliable clients have dropped out of our 80/20 list and some on the other end of that list have risen upwards.

Normally trends can easily be spotted. This year not so easy to see what is transpiring in the legal community. Personal injury, usually the bread and butter in our industry, has been less than stellar. Asbestos litigation is also quite reduced; although, it's been in a downward trend over the past few years.

It's been pointed out that more and more insurance companies are attempting to drive harder bargains from service providers.

People are saying that 2010 will be the year where reversal of many of these down trends will happen. Many analysts are being bearish on predictions which seems to run counter of any soon to be seen reversal in the markets.

The Christmas shopping period this year has been tauted as the make it or break it for many retailers. It would seem that we may lose some old venerable friends this winter from the economic crisis that doesn't seem to be going away very quickly.

I wish all of my friends and colleagues the

best for the upcoming holidays,






~ The Beagle

LET THE SUMMER GAMES BEGIN

NCRA ~ Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey

NCRA Constitution & Bylaws - The Right To Participate

Membership Rights Being Overlooked and Trampled by Board of Directors.

When the NCRA convention convenes August 6, 2009 and shuts down August 9, 2009, it is the Beagle's hope that the Board of Directors will have the common decency to begin to advocate for membership rights.

The last few months has enlightened some members of this national organization to become much more involved in righting what they see as a ship that has lost its course.

The leadership of associations such as NCRA are the stewards of the profession and yet it seems that a small band has decided to hijack and take the good ship into a direction that the folks who have paid their steerage fees for years and years do not necessarily favor.

The Beagle has learned that this organization has a media to avail its members to called Direct Member Voting (DMV). It is a tool that could easily help answer questions that are facing leadership by simply asking their members if this proposed direction is something they are in favor of pursuing rather than ignoring the thoughts and feelings of so many.

When the final gong is sounded on their convention in August, it would appear that a restoration of direction will be plotted or there will be an exodus of some truly longstanding and loyal members.

I ask that you review a prior post on this blog that refers to a heightened desire to start a rival faction to NCRA...the dependence of this effort will be reflected in the outcome of the votes taken in Washington, D.C.

~ The Beagle

A New National Reporters Association

A New National Shorthand Reporters Association ~ Ten years ago would you have even given this a moment's notice? With the National Court Reporters Association's (NCRA) membership closing in on 30,000 members in 1998, a virtual jaugernaut in volunteer associations, nothing seemed impossible. That is until corporate America entered the scene.

Now, with its membership crumbling and losing nearly 1000 members a year for the past 10 years or so, it is faced with changing itself from being the representative of an honorable profession to prostituting itself to other would-be professions that are clamoring to become relevant in the business of being "Guardians of the Record."

No matter what private forum you choose, you will find disfavor running rampant with NCRA members and former members. These aren't just plain jane people we're talking about here either. People who have held office in NCRA, people who attained NCRA's highest certifications, PEOPLE WHO CARED.

There is a movement afoot to dislodge the corporate strangle hold on NCRA and to those people only the best of luck can be offered as there is no doubt on anyone's part that the current office holders and NCRA management will do their darndest to block any change.

If members and former members of NCRA want to make change and attempt to revert to what the organization stood for then they will have to become a bit more organized and thoughtful in their efforts to overtake the mountain that now stands before them. Much like a battle front, although this particular battle front has spies embedded on both sides, this confrontation will certainly take time and casualties will be littered throughout the landscape.

There is an independent movement from this avenue approach to start a new national organization. This seems be gathering traction and may well overtake what the Beagle sees as a much more difficult task of infiltrating the power structure at NCRA. Either way, there is a hard struggle ahead for NCRA.

~ The Beagle