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...

[Quyen]

I'll wait to see how the courts rule. Until then, I'll just agree to disagree.

[Lisa Migliore Black]

Ethical standards limiting gifting will remain in tact in Arizona even if the proposed changes go through.

There have been two Constitutional challenges brought by Esquire:  Delaware and Georgia.  Esquire was successful in Delaware and not in their own home state, where they argued that the board had no authority to sanction them for violations.  

Unfortunately, the courts may not get to rule on the Constitutionality of the issue in Arizona.

[T. S. HUBBARD JR]

Lisa, as usual, the Queen of Ethics, the spokeswoman for the NCRA, does prattle too much, me thinks. Magna will win and in the process embroil the incompetent NCRA board of directors as a side show which will finally bring the beast to its knees to be sacrificed. This is the beginning of the end of NCRA. My oh my, what will we all do without our leader?

[Lisa O'Sullivan]

Lisa, as usual, the Queen of Ethics, the spokeswoman for the NCRA, does prattle too much, me thinks. >>

Agreed.

Magna will win and in the process embroil the . . . NCRA board of directors as a side show . . .>>

That’s my prediction too. And I don’t think it’s just the board of directors who will be embroiled.

[Quyen]

@Lisa O.:  **LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE**

[Quyen]

@TS.: **LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE**

[Lisa Migliore Black]

I find the sarcastic name-calling unnecessary, but I've become accustomed to it.  Knock yourselves out.

[Lisa O'Sullivan]

You know you've done the same and worse, Lisa.

At any rate, through this development and I'm sure more we'll see, I think it's becoming increasingly obvious that you have gone too far. Having an opinion is one thing, but forcing that opinion onto everyone else as the only right way is another thing. And that's what you've done via your comments in every online corner of the court reporting world, your NCRA committee work, and your contributions to the anticompetition efforts of multiple other states where you have no business presence of your own.

As much as you would like your worldview on national agencies to be everyone's worldview, it just doesn't work that way in our country. For your own sake now, maybe it's time to give this a rest.

[T. S. HUBBARD JR]

Lisa O, cheers to you. As for me I love it when she prattles like an old woman without teeth (meaning there is little bite to her comments that hurt us) because in my view the more she holds up her Queenly staff of Justice, a representative of the NCRA, the more foolish appearing is the NCRA and thereby dragging them into the abyss of at least one and maybe more national lawsuits.

Oh, where oh where is that Fat Lady? Will she ever sing?

[Marge Teilhaber (TILE hobber)]

I cannot believe my eyes.  To say I'm shocked is a major understatement.  I haven't followed this issue closely and don't care to get embroiled in time-consuming posts because I just don't have the time but WTF is going on that Lisa Migliore Black, a wonderful person and proponent of our industry, is having this crap thrown at her.   I stand with Lisa Migliore Black.  I have no time to learn what's behind this, but whatever it is, again, I stand with Lisa Migliore Black.  

Whatever it is that's behind this cannot possibly justify this disrespectul and hateful stuff I'm seeing here.  I'm sickened.   

I will read posts but most likely not reply because I have to be up in 12 hours and have no time for this.

[Lisa O'Sullivan]

I think you're a sweetheart, Marge, who only sees the good that people want you to see. :) And though we disagree on this, I love you.

But you yourself say you haven't followed the issue closely and haven't learned what's behind this. I wonder whether you'd feel differently if you had.

[Lisa Migliore Black]

Marge, thanks for the kind words.  Really, I expect nothing more from these two individuals and just simply try to ignore the bad behavior.  

We are freelance reporters, officers of the court, and some of the business conduct that we see in our profession simply wouldn't fly if a judge or arbitrator engaged in the same practices.  Attorneys wouldn't walk up at the beginning of motion hour and hand the judge or arbitrator a gift card, iPad, or luxury box tickets in open court. An arbitrator wouldn't openly announce that he's given a 20% discount to corporate counsel for reaching a $100K threshold in yearly billables, and then turn and hand a bill to the one-time litigant for their fees at an inflated rate. Yet these are the practices that court reporting companies are engaging publicly and in secret.

I don't worry about my future.  My business has been growing steadily, despite unethical and unlawful behavior in my market.  I worry about our profession's future and the public's perception of our role in the judicial process should ethics be eroded merely for the sake of expanding profit.  Ethics are as important to what we do as speed and accuracy, in my opinion.  

Ethics are important in every aspect of the world we live in--whether it's judges who are elected and preside over cases of attorneys who make large campaign donations, pharmaceutical companies' gifting practices to doctors--the list goes on and on where the public demands more transparency and can seek to enact regulation and law to protect from harm.   It's their Constitutional right to do so. The movie Hot Coffee was recommended on another forum.  Great movie, available on NetFlix.  Lots of correlations to our industry to be made how large corporate interests control the legal profession and legislature.