Wisconsin Court Reporting Statutes – Rule 804.05 (6)

Submission to deponent; changes; signing.  If requested by the deponent or any party, when the testimony is fully transcribed the deposition shall be submitted to the deponent for examination and shall be read to or by the deponent.  Any changes in form or substance which the deponent desires to make shall be entered upon the deposition by the officer with a statement of the reasons given by the deponent for making them.  The deposition shall then be signed by the deponent, unless the parties by stipulation waive the signing or the witness is ill or cannot be found or refuses to sign.  If the deposition is not signed by the deponent within 30 days after its submission to the deponent, the officer shall sign it and state on the record the fact of the waiver or of the illness or absence of the deponent or the fact of the refusal or failure to sign together with the reason, if any, given therefore; and the deposition may then be used as fully as though signed unless on a motion to suppress under S. 804.07 (3) (d) the court holds that the reasons given for the refusal or failure to sign require rejection of the deposition in whole on in part.

Jane M. Jones, RMR, CRR
Managing Partner,
Brown & Jones Reporting, Inc. 

FREELANCE COURT REPORTER – What’s It Like Being Married To One?

Long before getting married, I met a humble woman for a first date and that same night, I asked her what she was doing for a living. She answered, “I’m in school right now, and I’m going to be a stenographer.” Being an appropriate answer at our age, I looked at her and thought distinctly of two things; the first was “you’re beautiful, I don’t care what you’re going to school for,” and the second was “what on earth is a stenographer?!!” Well, I must have talked to her more that night, because a few years later, this humble woman is now my wife (lucky for me!) and I now have the knowledge of not only what a stenographer is and does, but more so, what it’s like being married to one!

To be completely truthful, I love being married to a Stenographer, a.k.a. Judicial Reporter or Freelance Reporter (as I believe the position is also titled). I have married a woman with an honorable career. I have married a woman who holds a degree of value, true value, in that Judicial Reporting is a very niche market and there is demand for it. And finally, I have married a woman smart enough to earn that degree, a degree which I’ve learned doesn’t come easily, it doesn’t come by simply passing a class or test with minimum requirements or standards, but it comes by becoming truly skilled and proficient. You can’t graduate with a C average, it’s A+ or you’re staying in school longer!

Beyond this, there exists a bigger picture. For our relationship and household, not having to worry too much about my wife’s career stability is great. Yes, there are busy weeks when I don’t see her, and slow weeks when there’s just a job or two, but in the long haul, it seems there will be more and more need for the services of court reporters.  And even with the threat of new recording technology, (something she’s shared with me in industry news), my gut says that there will never be a substitute for a good reporter. (Did I say good reporter? I mean GREAT reporter!)

The simple truth for me is that I don’t care how good the technology gets, it won’t be a human, and it will never offer the adaptive nature required and necessary for doing this job. That’s a nice comfort for us to have. From day to day, being married to a court reporter brings days of triumph, where “taking down” a hard case is done well and we celebrate the joy of that performance. There are also days where things don’t go perfectly well, or let’s be honest, the job assignment was with someone rude or challenging to understand. It happens. Yes, I’ve seen some tears, and yes, I’ve had to reassure my wife that she does an impeccable job, but I always figure those hardships and doubts are a part of any career or human experience and certainly a part of being a good husband. And then there are little day-to-day things like when a job finishes early and my wife makes it home early to make me lunch. Who would complain? And then there are times when a job goes late, not only do I get to work a little later too, but I get to cook dinner for her –- doing what I can after her long day.

In the end, my wife has stability, an honorable job, a flexible schedule, and as a result, she also has balance in life. I love all of that! She works hard; there is no doubt about that. And this career offers her great earnings, while allowing time to be a wife, a family woman, a caring member of the greater community. This balance brings great joy to my own life, and it benefits so many of the people we know. And at our dinners, or even our lunches, I can assure you that when we say our prayers, when we acknowledge our blessings, my wife’s career is always amongst our list.

Michael Madson      
Color Wheel Painting, LLC  
www.remodelandpaint.com 
 

Court Reporting Mentors – What Is the Value?

There is the technical definition of mentoring – a developmental partnership through which one person shares knowledge, skills, information and perspective to foster the personal and professional growth of someone else.  Then there is my definition – friend and coach.

 In the field of court reporting, mentoring is invaluable.  The mentor can share insights that have been learned through the years, not only about technical skills involving software and theory, but also about social skills, values, ethics and standards in the legal community.  In addition, mentoring affords the court reporting student an opportunity to write at an actual deposition or hearing, and any questions they have regarding their experience can be answered at that time.  

 I am very proud to be a mentor.  I make myself available 24/7. The job we do as court reporters is very important, and I am happy to share my knowledge with another generation of court reporters.  Being a student can sometimes be difficult and stressful, so I am always positive and encouraging. I believe the goal is worth all the hard work.  I encourage everyone to be a mentor at least once.  It is very rewarding — not only for the student, but also for you! 

Submitted By Mary Ring, RPR, Brown & Jones Reporting

COURT REPORTERS STENOGRAPHIC NOTES – THE IMPORTANCE OF BACKING UP:

There have been some alarming stories in the news lately about court reporters who have lost their notes.  There was one recent story dated 1-2-12, entitled “Stenographer Error Gives Convicted Florida Murderer New Trial.”  A lot of court reporters are using paperless steno machines.  Some of us have really cool machines, but unfortunately, they are more complex than what we are used to.  If there is a lot of cool stuff on the machine, but we don’t know how to use it, it puts us in a scary position.  That’s why it is a great idea to attend seminars and attend classes and learn about your machine.

I must admit that I never really knew how to back up my steno notes.  Of course, I am a freelance reporter who types up the majority of my work; however, if you are an official reporter or a freelance reporter who has notes which you are saving because they’ve never been transcribed, you must know how to back things up.

My machine is a Mira A3.  I have three cards on the back of my machine.  One of them is a Data SD card.  This blog is going to tell you how to get your notes off of your Data SD Card and onto your computer.  First of all, you need to make sure that your Mira writer is set to Date/Time Directory and File Structure.  You need to be on Case CATalyst 6 or higher, in order to do this.  Go to your Mira writer.  Press the button Setup, then Directory.  Make sure it says Date/Time/Directory and not Classic.  You don’t want Classic because when you back up the notes, they all say 001, 002, etc.  If you ever need any notes, it will be very difficult to find them this way.  After you have made the changes on your machine, just click okay, and you are all set to backup your Data SD Card.

First, you must take the Data SD Card out of your writer and put it into your computer.  Some computers have a special slot for data cards.  If not, then you need a card reader.  You insert the card into your card reader and then insert it into your computer.  A box will pop up.  Highlight the info.  Hit Control A.  Highlight.  You can copy or cut.  I prefer to cut, so that I will have a fresh SD card for future work, so I hit Control X.  If you want to Copy, then hit Control C.  Minimize this window.  Right click on your desktop.  Click new, then click folder, and name it.  Double click.  Open it.  Hold down the Control key.  Press V.  Everything will move into the folder.  Put the data card back into your writer.  You will now have a fresh, clean card to use.  You don’t want to be in the middle of a job and have your data card fill up.  It can be rather stressful!

Now you can put the folder with the notes in a special place.  If you’re organized and label things well, you won’t be involved in a nightmare situation where you’ve lost your notes and can’t get them back.  It might also be a good idea to back up the notes file on a CD, in case your computer ever crashes.  I hate to be negative, but ………

Take the time to get into good habits!

Jane M. Jones, RMR, CRR

COURT REPORTERS AND THEIR EQUIPMENT
UPDATING YOUR  STENO WRITERS.

If you have had a steno machine for a while, it is very important to update the software, so that everything works correctly. I know people tend to put this stuff off and never do it, but once you sit down and do it, it really does not take much time at all.

Go to www.stenograph.com.  Click on Support.  Click on Downloads.  Over on the left-hand side, you will see a list which includes the Diamante & Wave, elan Cybra, elan Mira, and Stentura.  Just click on your writer.  I updated using a cable, so I had my writer connected via cable to my computer.  At this point, after you have clicked on your writer, just follow the directions.  It is very easy!  If you have any problems, of course, you can call Stenograph Support and get their help.

This is so simple.  Stop putting it off.  Do it today!

Jane M. Jones, RMR, CRR
Brown & Jones Reporting, Inc. 

iPad App Mania at STAR – October 2011

Here is a list of the apps provided by Rosalie Kramm, that were presented by Mike Miller, Kevin Hunt, Grover Mundell, and Rosalie at our STAR convention in Savanah.  Remember, even though these apps were made for the iPad a lot of them can be found for the Android and other tablets.

Mike Miller’s app suggestions (Note:  There are more apps on this list than were presented because we ran out of time.)

Form Tools – create your own pdf forms on your iPad

Invoice2Go – make a quick, easy invoice on your iPad

iAnnotate – annotate pdf files

Air Display – do you ever wish you had an extra screen for your computer?  Use your iPad app

Large Type – use this app to tell attorneys, “We need to change the video in 3 (?) minutes.”

Penultimate – “original, best-selling handwriting app available”

Evernote – create notes, snap photos and record voices – great for taking notes at meetings

DropBox – send photos, documents, and wav files

Kevin Hunt’s app suggestions:

Logmein – access your server from everywhere and anywhere

Law Stack – “a legal library on your app” – access cases from all over the country

RoboForm – manage your passwords for all of your computers and logins

Fuze Meeting – Hold and attend web conferences on your iPad

Dragon Dictation – use voice-activated software (to get a laugh)

Grover Mundell’s app suggestions:

FaceTime – use your iPad to chat and see your friends/family/workers

Courtroom Connect Streaming – watch streaming realtime text from a remote location

Rosalie Kramm’s app suggestions:

MyView – realtime viewing software (costs court reporters $299 per year)

MyCase – app that allows attorneys to run their practice

iJuror – app that assists attorneys with jury pool/selection

A VIDEOGRAPHER‘S VIEW DOWN THE TABLE

THE CLOUD – A product review

I’m not sure who in the Brown & Jones offices is the biggest techno-geek, but any list of the top five has to include me,  so I feel justified in writing this little story.  It’s a quick glimpse of my turn down the path to the “dark-side” ie., APPLE computers and iThings and my search for “the CLOUD.”

Learning to use the MAC introduced me to “Mobile ME”; Apple’s fee-for-service internet cloud service. For those of you towards the bottom of the afforementioned list, “the cloud” or cloud computing is described by Wikipedia ( for the lack of anything else or better close to hand ) this way, “Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a metered service over a network (typically the Internet)”. You take files on your computer, be they documents, photos, videos, tuna sandwiches, whatever, and send them out to the ether where they can be accessed by yourself on devices or computers not your own or by others on their hardware. In one form or another this sort of thing is all the internet has ever really been all about. Oh, and advertising. And selling things. And naked people.

A year ago Mrs. Santa gave me the iPad I demanded for Christmas. I had an altruistic plan to eliminate paper waste from my business.   I knew that I could create the three simple forms required of me when videotaping a deposition electronically on my iPad. You see, there’s an app for that…. I knew that those forms could be emailed to the office, and THEY could print them if they needed to. I could store what I needed electronically, and move them about as I wished. The real savings I was looking for came in dealing with the “paperwork” sent to me by the office for every video job they gave me. If you’re reading this you already know what I’m talking about.

This is where it gets all, “John and stuff” so tighten your seat restraints and hold on. “What’s the big deal John? Open the files in your computer and get to work”! Here’s the big deal: I don’t use just one computer. I have three running in the office right now, with three different operating systems. I also have multiple iThings that have uses across the broad spectrum of things I do because, well, you know, there’s an app for that. Furthermore, portable things have limited storage capacity. I want to be able to access all of my revenue generating paperwork and files across multiple platforms.

Fly into the CLOUD! Essentially, “the cloud” is some big computer hidden in a secret bunker at a secret location serviced by oompa-loompas…. Ok. No oompa loompas. The cloud is an extension of your own personal computing universe. Apple’s Mobile ME was all of that, for hundred bucks a year. Whatever.   Then Apple introduced an operating system upgrade; LION. Like every version of Windows after, well, Windows, it was supposed to make life more wonderful than it already was. Remember how wonderful your computer worked when you started with this: c:\Lion introduced iCLOUD and ditched Mobile Me. iCloud would sync all of your email, contacts, calendars, photos, video, iTunes, anything you bought from the Apple store, everything except all of the documents and forms I created and needed to move from computer to computer and computer to iThing and from MAC OS to Windows and on and on and on….  And it was now free. Free but it didn’t do anything useful except for the frighteningly shallow and vapid.

Dear Friends, Please. Allow me to introduce you to “Dropbox”.  There are few things more satisfying in the world of things you plug in than a product that does exactly what you want it to do without upgrading it or buying it a plugin.  Dropbox is a “cloud” service. Download the program – that’s what we called them before they became “apps” – set up your account, name email, phone number, whatever, and download stuff into your new “dropbox”.   All of my little MAC programs have a new option for saving things:  Dropbox.  Want to separate your tuna sandwiches in Dropbox? Just create a new folder as you would in any OS and, viola! Want to make a “public” folder so that you can share with friends without allowing them access to your tuna sandwiches? Go for it!

Now, download the app for your iThings or Droids or whatever and sign in. Watch how quickly your documents and photos move from one device to another!! Like my favorite little commercial pig, “Weeeee! wee Wee WEEEEEEEE!!!”  The app I use to create my forms on the iPad allows me to send my completed work as a pdf file via email. And that’s what I would do lest something happen to my iPad; email it to myself, open it in the studio and save and process from there.  
I could even cc the office if I needed to. With the addition of Dropbox to my iThings and computers, my forms app added a new option, one that allows me to save the forms direct to Dropbox whence they are swept away on electronic wings to all of the places I need them. Also, since it is an internet based service, you may log-in from any connected device and access your files.  You know that audio file you didn’t want but now you do but it’s too big for email, and I live in Me-no-money-Falls and you don’t?  I can move that audio file to Dropbox and you can get it and get back to work.  And there are features I haven’t even started playing with yet, because I actually have  what I want already.

Dropbox.com. The download requires less time than it takes to make a tuna sandwich. The app and up to 2GB of storage is free!  And it doesn’t touch my email, contacts or photos.  And it doesn’t tell Apple or Microsoft anything about what I’m doing. It doesn’t tell Google or Yahoo. At least I don’t think it does.

This blog submitted by Videographer John Spohnholtz.

I’ve been a Registered Professional Reporter for 20 years, and I’ve been a Certified Realtime Reporter for 13 of those years.  For many, many years after I received my realtime certification, I rarely took realtime jobs.  Even though I had my certification, I was always nervous and afraid to take the actual realtime jobs.  I was worried my equipment would not work,  worried about how many untranslates I would have , worried what the attorneys would think of my writing.  Even though I was a certified realtime writer, I never really thought I was good enough to actually do a realtime job. 

With many things in life, we will never feel like we are ready for something, but we just have to push ourselves to take the next step and just do it, and I finally took that step last year, and it was a big step for me,  and I was put on a realtime case with multiple realtime hookups and multiple attorneys.

I knew the only way I would be able to stay on this case is if I pushed myself beyond my comfort zone.  I was hooked up to one attorney using LiveNote and two other attorneys doing CaseView Net.   It brought back the same nerves I had when I first started working as a reporter.   My writing was not perfect, but I survived.   No attorney yelled at me or criticized my writing and the world did not come to an end.  I actually did it!  I was so proud of myself, and I felt great that I finally did something I should have done years ago.

After a couple times of doing the realtime, it got less and less scary, and I felt more and more confident with myself.   Part of the confidence came from being prepared.  Before going into a realtime job, I would always test my equipment the night before and try to put any words I could in my dictionary, and I would bring a checklist to my job reminding me of everything I needed to do once I got there.

I think I will still be nervous any time I do a realtime job,  for me there’s really no way around those nerves, but the financial and mental reward from  pushing myself is well worth it!

Society For The Technological Advancement Of Court Reporting

Next STAR Convention is March 15-17, 2012, Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada

Join STAR now!!

Star Membership
A primary reason for the formation of the Society for the Technological Advancement of Reporting was to create an organization through which its members could exchange information, evaluate products, and present their ideas to the manufacturer with a united voice. Today STAR members continue to take an active part in presenting information needed to enhance and improve CAT technology and related products.

Members receive the following benefits from Stenograph:

• $200.00 discount on professional writer (plus published cash back)
• $100.00 discount on professional software
• $50 off the renewal of a software support contract
• $50 off the renewal of a writer maintenance contract (excludes Basic w/o Loaner contract)
• $20 additional discount on software support renewal if done online prior to 30 days before contract expiration (excludes edit contract)
• $100 off the initial purchase of a CaseViewNet license and $20 off the renewal price

Members receive the following benefits from PenGad:

• Pengad will pay STAR dues for anyone who purchases $3,000 or more per year, based on one paid membership per account.  Good for firm owners.
• The sales period year runs from October 1, 2009, through September 30, 2010.
• Sales must be paid within Pengad’s standard terms of 30 days net.

Networking
Through networking, members profit from the business and personal experience of over 700 firm owners and professional court reporters throughout the United States, the U.K., Canada, and Australia.
Members receive a comprehensive membership directory which serves as a valuable tool for networking and/or referrals.

Brainstorming
STAR offers a Spring Conference and a Fall Annual Meeting in various parts of the country each year. Seminars and workshops offered at these events include product updates and instruction as well as many helpful training opportunities designed to support members in the successful promotion and operation of their businesses. All STAR educational offerings include major program portions of NCRA-approved continuing education credits.

Technology
In the Exposition Hall at the Fall Conference, members have the opportunity to visit one-on-one with vendors from throughout the country who provide products and services for court reporters. Members receive practical information and solutions to operational challenges by reading the “STAR.STAR”, STAR’s quarterly publication. STAR also includes a wide array of both display and classified advertising. Members are encouraged to submit articles on topics they feel would be of help to other members. In addition to the newsletter, special bulletins are issued as needed to keep members current on STAR activities.

Go to www.staronline.org now and join.

Rates are as follows:

$150.00 – Reporting Member or Agency Member
$75.00   – Associate Member
$40.00   – Student Member

Authored By Jane M. Jones, RMR, CRR
Brown & Jones Reporting