Blog Category: Court Reporting

Here are lists of apps that Planet Depos has compiled (as a result of reporter feedback) that can help simplify your workday.

Calendar apps are helping reporters track the status of their work and meet deadlines more easily.  Court reporters suggested Pocket Informant, Business Calendar, and CalenGoo for Android users; and Sunrise Calendar 2.0, Fantastical 2, and Calendars 5 for iOS users.

Managing files that have been completed, those that are still in the works, and those waiting to be worked on is easier to do with file management programs such as ES File Manager, ASTRO file manager with Clouds, and Total Commander for Android users; and File Manager Pro, Air Sharing, and Folder Plus for iOS users.

Getting to assignments by car is easier with trusted driving apps like Waze, Google Maps, and Locus Map Pro for Android; and Waze, Google Maps, and MotionX GPS Drive for iOS users.

Using public transportation is much, much easier for Android users who have downloaded Transit App; and for iOS users who have downloaded Transit App, AcrossAir, StopanGo, and Transit App.

Getting home after a long day is much easier with these taxi and black car service apps.  Android users like Uber, Hailo, and Gett – Taxi & Black Car Service, and iOS users like the very same apps:  Uber, Hailo, and Gett – Taxi, Limo & Black Car Service.

Storing and sharing transcripts is really easy with these Android apps:Dropbox and Bitcasa — and these iOS apps: Boxie (Prettify Your Dropbox), Bitcasa, and Cubby

If you’re a long way from home and are too tired to drive or fly home, finding a hotel room at 50 to 70 percent below the listed price at the last minute is now really easy with these Android apps: Hotels.com, Priceline, and Hotel Tonight — and these iOS apps: Hotels.com, Priceline Hotels, Flights & Cars, and Hotel Tonight.

And if you find yourself far away from home with a deadline looming, you can now easily access your home computer using these Android apps: JumpDesktop, PocketCloud Remote Desktop Pro, and LogMeIn Ignition — or these iOS apps: JumpDesktop, PocketCloud Remote Desktop Pro RDP/VNC, and LogMeIn Ignition.

With the right apps, court reporters remain productive wherever they are, sending work to their scopists and proofreaders remotely, backing up testimony as it’s taken, and managing their workload all from the convenience of their Android and iOS devices.

It was Tawni Kind, a court reporter, and also the wife of Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI), who first envisioned a partnership between the National Court Reporters Foundation (NCRF), the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA),  and the Veterans History Project (VHP).

10 years and almost 3,000 oral histories later, this partnership remains strong and continues to expand, thanks in large measure to Beth Kilker, the Oral Histories Project Coordinator at NCRF, as well as America’s court reporting schools, court reporting firms and courts, such as the Lake County Courthouse in Waukegan, Illinois, shown here.

Because of NCRA’s and NCRF’s partnership with the VHP and Library of Congress, history is being recorded and preserved for future generations to examine.  Never before have our children had an opportunity to comprehend the devastation wrought by war as recounted through so many soldiers’ first-hand experiences. This is a first in the making of history.

As court reporters, we are gifted with the ability to give back to society in so many ways – from providing real-time captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing, to shadowing students in school utilizing CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation), to giving late-deafened adults the ability to participate in town hall meetings and training sessions.

We owe our freedom to our Veterans. This gift of their memories as recorded and transcribed by us is something that future generations now have available to them as a learning tool. Thank you, court reporting community, for the time you’ve taken to give this gift of history, knowledge, and insight to the world.

College graduates are having a difficult time finding work, and are returning to grad school and community college in large numbers. Those who are talented musicians or video gamers may want to consider court reporting — one of 2013’s “Top Jobs.”  The court reporting profession offers a secure income stream and provides a service to the hard-of-hearing and legal community that imparts a sense of personal fulfillment that very few professions can claim.

If you are passionate about words, can process information quickly, are nimble on the keyboard, have an excellent ear for sound, are prepared to work as long as it takes to get the job done, and willing to drive or fly wherever your client is taking testimony, whether it be in America, Canada, Europe or mainland China, then you may make an awesome court reporter.

Mark Kislingbury, the world’s fastest court reporter, stroking upwards of 360 words per minute, was a die-hard video gamer before he entered the reporting profession.  He advocates a steno theory that utilizes a lot of “short forms,” which enable the reporter to “write” entire words, phrases and sentences in just one stroke.

But don’t think that the road to becoming a professional court reporter is easy.  To the contrary, according to the National Court Reporters Association ’06 report, just 5% of those who enroll in court reporting programs nationwide graduate.  That explains why there are so many court reporting positions worldwide, and why court reporters are so desperately needed.  Look at what it really takes to be successful before you invest, and after careful deliberation, if you think you have what it takes, the hard-of-hearing and legal communities will be grateful to you for the incredible service you provide.

Among the 21 court reporters who responded to Planet Depos’ inquiry as to who is and who is not left-handed, an amazing 24 percent were south-paws, a statistic rivaling baseball’s 25 percent.   Worldwide, on average, only  1 in 10 people is left-handed.  That’s a mere 10 percent! So the question becomes, why do left-handers appear to be much more well-represented among court reporters?

Nature’s Experiment?  Handedness and Early Childhood Development, a study by NIH, suggests that “left-handedness may be advantageous for specific activities because it brings about a shift of dominance toward the right hemisphere, enhancing visuospatial functioning carried out on that side of the brain (Heilman 2005).”  That same study goes on to discuss an over-representation of left-handers among creative artists, architects, musicians and mathematicians.  Considering the fact that 4 of America’s last 7 presidents were left-handed (57%), the question is do left-handed politicians have an upper hand over their right-handed counterparts?

Court reporting training programs have always considered musicians as having a leg-up in court reporting school because of their already honed hand-eye-ear coordination.  Now that scientists have discovered that language function among righties is localized to the left brain hemisphere among 95 percent of its population, while lefties exhibit only a 70 percent left-hemisphere for language dominance among their population, it seems that people who process language more evenly across both brain hemispheres have an advantage when it comes to reporting — so if you are a lefty, and looking for an amazing career, consider court reporting.  You may just have an edge over your right-handed peers.

Court reporters are required to stay alert for long periods of time. So, how do they do it?  Over the years, reporters develop tricks for staying focused.  Most turn to caffeine and sugar, but the University of Kentucky suggests the healthier, lower calorie option:  laughter.  That’s right — good, belly-jiggling laughter. No more caffeine, no more runs to the bathroom to splash cold water on your face — just laughter.  In fact, the University will tell you that “laughter stimulates both sides of the brain to enhance learning. It eases muscle tension and psychological stress, which keeps the brain alert and allows people to retain more information.” Additionally, for student and veteran reporters alike, laughter might be just the trick you’ve been seeking to finally increase speed and accuracy.

Laughter can not only help reporters stay focused, but it also burns calories. In fact, according to Weight Loss Resources, “just 15 minutes of laughter a day will burn 10 to 40 calories, depending on a person’s weight and the intensity of the laughter.”  People who are good humored, who laugh, and make others laugh, also come across as more alluring or attractive, which is great news, too, right?

It gets better.  A University of Maryland Medical Center study indicates that “laughter is linked to healthy function of blood vessels.” Michael Miller, M.D., Director of Preventive Cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, indicated that “At the very least, laughter offsets the impact of mental stress, which is harmful to the endothelium,” and that the change in the endothelium “was similar to the benefit we might see with aerobic activity.”  So clear were the results of the University of Maryland study, that Miller says, ‘The recommendation for a healthy heart may one day be exercise, eat right, and laugh a few times a day.’”

To be your level best all day long, begin working laughter into your workday breaks by either reading jokes or watching funny videos; and while everyone else is filing back into the conference room or courtroom still tense because they’ve filled up on caffeine and sugar, you can relax, because you’ve filled up on laughter.  Who would have ever guessed that laughter really is the best medicine?!

In 2014, as a court reporter, you are more indispensable to the legal community now than ever before, as you are relied upon for your ability to:

•  take verbatim testimony,

•  have the testimony appear instantaneously on an iPad,

•  disseminate a real-time feed to participants locally and remotely,

•  provide instant rough ASCIIs

•  provide final transcripts within hours of the completion of the proceeding.

These skills are your greatest, most important endorsement, and it is up to you to let counsel know “what you can do.”

Whatever your niche, make counsel aware of the services you provide by including them on your business card and/or LinkedIn profile and generally integrating that information into your interaction(s) with him/her either on the job or wherever you happen to run into them.

Sign up on social networking sites to receive the discussion threads for the Bar Associations in your area.  You’ll learn a lot and will probably find that you have excellent insights to share.  Use those threads to follow and attend events, such as happy hours and golf tournaments.  When you arrive, introduce yourself and network.  You are your best advocate and publicity tool.   As a court reporter, you have an entire skill set that counsel needs in order to win his/her case.