Is Your Transcript Half-Full or Half-Empty?

[Lisa Migliore Black]

Migliore--Half-empty.pdf

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[Lisa Migliore Black]

Here's a copy of the NCRA suggested guidelines.

NCRA TRANSCRIPT FORMAT GUIDELINES

No fewer than 25 typed lines on standard 8-1/2 x 11 paper.
No fewer than nine or 10 characters to the typed inch.
Left-hand margin to be set at no more than 1-3/4 inches.
Right-hand margin to be set at no more than 3/8 inch.
Each question and answer to begin on a separate line.
Each question and answer to begin no more than five spaces from the left-hand margin with no more than five spaces from the Q and A to the text.
Carry-over Q & A lines to begin at the left-hand margin.
Colloquy material to begin no more than 15 spaces from the left-hand margin, with carryover colloquy to the left-hand margin.
Quoted material to begin no more than 15 spaces from the left- hand margin, with carry-over lines to begin no more than 10 spaces from the left-hand margin.
Parentheticals and exhibit markings to begin no more than 15 spaces from the left-hand margin, with carry-over lines to begin no more than 15 spaces from the left-hand margin. (In these states or jurisdictions with transcript format guidelines recommended or established by court or other applicable rule, such guidelines shall be observed.)

[Judy]

Where can one find the NCRA transcript format guideline? Not that it would change my transcript, since I'm in Cali and we have our own, but I'm interested in seeing their guideline.

[Lisa Migliore Black]

Changing the way that we bill for our services has definitely been a topic of discussion lately. Converting to an hourly fee is one idea. By the word, another. I can see pros and cons to the several methods available to us.

Regardless of how we bill as an industry, I think it should be done in a way that instills trust in our consumers and doesn't cast the profession in a bad light. We are required to have transparency in our familial and financial relationships. I think we should have a straightforward transparency in our billing practices too.

[C Cipolla]

Just a wild idea... what if instead of "page rates"... the system charged clients by "word rates" and paid reporters by "word rates" too... it would be easy to get that data on a word document, and that number would be absolutely fair... Margins would be irrelevant. In fact, companies would want wider margins to save paper and it would be more eco-friendly...

[Erica Abbott]

I am in NY. I was taught to double space but have 25 lines per page. The margins, I believe, are only an inch on each side. Is this considered "cushy"?

[Lisa Migliore Black]

Page format does make a big difference. Some firms play that game on both ends. They have their support staff, scopists and proofreaders, working on transcripts with very generous margins, and then transform them into longer documents when it comes times to invoice the attorneys.

And the formats for the word indexes makes a big diffference if they are being charged at full page rates. I've calculated comparative bills for clients on my invoices based on four-column word indexes, but I've recently seen one billed at full page rates with only three columns.

Now, if someone wants to charge a couple hundred dollars for a word index and they have an educated consumer willing to pay that price, more power to them.

But I'd like our consumers to be aware that some price comparisons are not apples to apples (1) if page formats are altered, and (2) if extra pages are being padded in with no disclosure of price, or worse yet, line items are being deceptively labeled as "transcript" pages.

[Kelli Combs (admin)]

I saw a transcript from New York a couple of years back and it was 600+ pages for one day. The margins were so narrow. I was shocked. The most I have ever written was 424 for a very, very long day. New York is the worst for padding transcirpts I think. I saw one last week that was from in court and it was amazing what they get away with. I am jealous; I want to turn in a 600 page transcript when in actuality, it is only about 350 maybe.

[Lisa Migliore Black]