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Posts Tagged ‘stenographer’

Realtime Reporting Done By A Newbie

Tuesday, May 8th, 2012

Realtime Reporter – Conquering Your Fears

Professional Court Reporter

Rachel Gwidt, RPR

 This past weekend I attended the Wisconsin Court Reporter convention in Sheboygan.  One of the sessions was about doing real time.  There were three official reporters that spoke about their experiences with real time and “just doing it.”  They mentioned things like their first experiences with it and how they felt and such.  They also pointed out that you don’t have to be perfect and that judges and attorneys really want it.  Now, these ladies all had their certifications and years of experience under their belts, so for them to say that they weren’t perfect, well, it certainly made me think…
I was at a depo today, and the witness was an older gentleman.  Almost every time the questioning attorney asked him a question, he would say something like “I can’t hear you.”  The witness quickly started blaming his inability to hear on an “extreme sinus condition.”  Then the witness started blaming the attorney for having a very powerful voice that was causing an echo in the room, causing the witness to not be able to understand him.  To accommodate the witness, we uprooted and moved to a smaller conference room.  We started back up again and instantly ran into the same problem.  Needless to say, by this time the questioning attorney was very frustrated.  
 
The suggestion was made by defense counsel to reschedule the deposition for another time after the witness had seen his doctor, and that maybe we could attempt it again after his “extreme sinus condition” had subsided.  I immediately said to myself, “Oh, no!  Now I’m not going to get any pages today.”  I asked to go off the record, and then I said something that I still can’t believe came out of my mouth.  I said, “I have an idea.  Why don’t I scoot over and have the witness and his attorney sit next to me so that they can see my screen? That way it doesn’t matter if the witness can’t hear your question because he can just read it.”  So that’s what we did. The deposition proceeded right along, and we got it done.  
 
To my pleasant surprise, I didn’t freeze up and write badly.  I wrote exactly the same as I would have written with nobody being able to see it.  Actually, I feel like I focused harder than if no one was watching.  Everyone was able to read it just fine.  Did I have some things in my favor?  Absolutely.  It wasn’t super fast and technical (just a nice, short, easy car accident-type case).  I thought to myself, what a stroke of luck to be able to have my first real time experience be so easy and stress free.  Do I feel this automatically qualifies me to take a real time patent case with 12 attorneys hooked up to me tomorrow?  Absolutely not, but what I got from the experience was huge to me.  It was validation of my writing skills and confirmation that I CAN do it.  Most of all, I came away with a new confidence in myself that I didn’t have yesterday (or all the days before that for that matter).  Those of you that know me fairly well know what I’m talking about! 
smiley face

Smile

 
My boss suggested that a next good step would be to write real time for an attorney that I feel comfortable with; you know, explain that I’m working on being a real time reporter and ask if I could set up an extra laptop.  I think that’s a really good idea and a comfortable way of moving forward.  Can you guess what my new favorite saying is? “JUST DO IT!” 
 
 
Rachel Gwidt, 
Registered Professional Court Reporter 

Tags: Court Reporting, court reporting technology, Realtime, realtime deposition, stenographer
Posted in All Posts, Court Reporting, Professionalism, Team, Technology | 8 Comments » | Add Comments

A Supreme Court Reporter: What Are Some Of The Secret Ingredients?

Thursday, April 19th, 2012

Stenographer Breah Madson, offers her advice on what it takes to be a Supreme Court Reporter.Supreme Court Reporter

It may seem like common sense to be polite and courteous to customers, but it is surprising that something that seems so common sense is not commonplace.  Successful business comes down to successful interactions with customers, and a happy customer is a repeat customer.  Being polite can go a long way in ensuring customers are satisfied, and not only come back to the business, but look forward to working with you!  I am fortunate to work with people who are not only polite, but kind and considerate as well.  However, it never hurts to brush up on your skills.  Here are some tips on being polite and professional to better your business interactions:

  • Greet others courteously and with energy.  Coming across as apathetic can be interpreted as being impolite.
  • If you do not know someone well, be one step more polite and formal than you assume is necessary.  Adding “Mr.” or “Ms.,” “Sir” or Ma’am,” gives the other person the opportunity to say, “Oh, please, call me (name).” 
  • Be attentive and listen when someone is speaking with you.  Making eye contact, nodding your head and smiling can go a long way.
  • Stand up, extend your hand and introduce yourself when you are meeting someone for the first time. 
  • End your interaction with things like “Thank you, it was great to see you.   Have a wonderful weekend,” anything to let the person know their time spent with you is appreciated.
  • Say “please” and “thank you” whenever you can. People are more likely to respond to a request if they hear “please” at the end of it.  Also, when someone does something for you, say “thank you.”
  • Keep your voice at an appropriate level based on your situation.  A loud voice can feel abrasive.
  • If you have met someone before, make an effort to use their name when speaking with them.
  • Along the same lines, bring up something you may have talked about previously.  Was your client telling you about their kids at your last meeting?  Ask them if they have any fun summer plans or how coaching their daughter’s basketball team is going. 
  • SMILE!

 Thank you for reading this, and have a great day!

 Breah Madson,  Registered Professional Court Reporter
National Court Reporters Association 

Tags: national court reporters association, Registered Professional Reporter, stenographer, Supreme Court Reporter
Posted in All Posts, Court Reporting, Team | 4 Comments » | Add Comments

Registered Professional Court Reporter Breah Madson

Monday, February 27th, 2012

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

Court Breah Madson and husband Mike MadsonLong 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 
Colorwheel Painting Logo 

 

Tags: career, court reporter, freelance reporter, judicial reporter, stenographer
Posted in All Posts, Court Reporting, Team | No Comments » | Add Comments

 
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