What is a Freelancer?
The State of Missouri’s freelance reporters are always there to meet the client’s request, sometimes on very short notice, or are willing to help find someone who can. The freelance reporter makes a living by taking and transcribing depositions, providing realtime transcription when requested, filling in whenever called upon for hearings, motions and trials, traveling wherever needed from attorneys’ and doctors’ offices to homes of witnesses or to warehouses, courthouses, corporations, or even outdoors, if necessary.
Freelance reporters are service minded, willing to go the extra mile to accommodate the wishes of the parties, and eager to comply with requests to prepare transcripts and get them into the hands of their clients. They are continually learning and keeping up to date on the latest technology so as to be prepared for whatever legal needs arise, from streaming video from a courtroom to litigants all over the country, or to providing daily transcription with a cooperative attitude.
Many Missouri free-lance reporters are self-employed and are solely responsible for their own insurance coverage and income taxes, as well as providing for all their own equipment, office furnishings, supplies, continuing education, and advertising. To be successful, these reporters must stay on top of their game, provide the best of services with a smile, and be the best they can be to meet the needs of their clients, specifically, and the legal system in general.
Thanks to the Illinois Court Reporters Association
Link to NCRA Community of Interest - Freelancers
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Top Nine Reasons To Engage The Services Of A Local Reporter-Owned Court Reporting Agency |
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Reporters from locally owned agencies have a consistent, conscientious, professional commitment to providing attentive, value-added services to their respective clients. |
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Reporter-owned agencies have been historically efficient at networking among themselves to provide coverage for their respective clients. |
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Locally owned agencies reinvest money into the local and regional economies; they do not siphon off significant dollars to other states, regions, or countries. |
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Locally owned reporting agencies have the ability to provide all the court reporting-related litigation-support services available in the national marketplace. |
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Volume discounts are no bargain when the service rates for the network firm you have been calling are appreciably higher than the comparative service rates of your local reporter-owned reporting agency. |
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Volume discounts are no bargain when you spend 3/4s of the year tracking your scheduled depositions to determine whether you attain that elusive number. |
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In fact, court reporters are bound by a Code of Ethics that addresses, among other things, a prohibition on kick-back incentives for scheduling with the agency, as well as establishing contracts at below-customary rates, which would compromise, or give the appearance of compromising, the necessary impartial role of the court reporter in proceedings. Conscientious individuals are mindful of the fact that any cost savings obtained by the law firm rightfully should be directly realized by the law firm’s client. |
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Missouri licensed CCRs are required to attend continuing education seminars on relevant rules and business practices in order to maintain their certification. |
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Local reporter-owned agencies know the importance of providing upfront, itemized billing without hidden costs or overcharges to cover incentive programs.
Thanks to the Illinois Court Reporters Association
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What is an Official Reporter?
Have you ever wondered who the person was in the courtroom typing on the little machine? Did what they were doing intrigue you and you wondered how they did it? You were wondering about the Official Court Reporter! There are 141State official court reporters along with many Federal official court reporters that work in the courthouses throughout Missouri and take a verbatim record of the words spoken in court by using machine shorthand.
An official court reporter works in the courtroom alongside a judge – whether it be the county courthouse or the federal courthouse. Officials report proceedings in juvenile cases, divorce cases, felony cases, and probate cases, just to name a few. They are front and center at the hearings of not only small cases, but also in highly publicized cases – criminal trials, millionaire divorces, government corruption trials, lawsuits against everyone from rock groups to elected officials to ballplayers.
The official court reporter needs to be knowledgeable about courtroom procedures and legal terminology, be self-motivated, disciplined and goal-oriented, have extensive vocabulary, and remain up-to-date with technology.
When requested, official court reporters prepare transcripts of the court proceedings. Transcript income received is in addition to their monthly salary and is earned on a per-page rate. There are times when an official is requested to provide realtime translation for the Court, the attorneys, or even a deaf or hard-of-hearing juror or litigant. When an official is requested to provide expedited or daily copy, they must put in extra hours to complete the transcripts; but these expedited and daily copies are billed at a higher page rate.
Official court reporters are also referred to as the Guardians of the Record.
Thanks to the Illinois Court Reporters Association
Link to NCRA Community of Interest - Officials
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What is Captioning?
Captioning is the immediate translation of the spoken word to text in conjunction with a video signal.
Various captioning terms are used to describe the text communication environment – and, again, many consumers are unaware of the technical side of captioning and may prefer to use “captioning” as a catch-all phrase for text communication. To assist in understanding the various levels of text communication, the following glossary may be beneficial. |
| Realtime Captioning is the method of captioning where captions are simultaneously prepared and transmitted at time of origination by specially trained real-time captioners using a stenotype machine. Closed Captioning (CC) only appears with the use of a decoder. The decoder may be either attached to a television, but televisions made after July 1993 are required to have a built-in decoder. |
Closed captioning allows caption users to enjoy the same broadcast and recorded video materials that other television viewers enjoy. The TV converter may have a button with the letters “cc” that, when pushed, either turns on or off the captioning capability. |
| Open Captioning is visible without using a set-top decoder or a TV with a built-in decoder chip. When a video is “open captioned,” the captions are permanently part of the picture. |
| Live-display Captioning is used when an accurate script and/or videotape is available in advance. The text of the program is transcribed and stored on a computer disk. At time of air, the captioner manually displays the already-prepared captions. Usually live-display captions are roll-up, so the captioner displays them line-by-line, as much in sync with the program audio as possible. |
| Off-line Captioning is the preparation of captions for recorded programming so that, at time of air or tape playback, the captions are a part of the videotape. Captions appear to "pop-on" and are typically placed in the upper and lower third of the television screen. |
| Pop-On Captions are when a phrase or sentence appears on the screen all at once – not line by line -- and stays on the screen for a few seconds, usually in sync with the audio or is replaced by another full caption. Pop-on captions are used for most off-line captioning. |
| On-line Captioning is provided at the time of program origination. "Real-time," "live-display," and a combination of the two are methods of on-line captioning. On-line captioning is most frequently used for live programs. Captions appear to "roll up" from the bottom of the screen, usually two or three lines of text in total. |
Roll-up Captions roll on and off the screen in a continuous motion. A maximum of four lines of text can appear at one time. As a new line comes along, it appears on the bottom line and pushes the other lines on the screen up. Roll-up captions are used for most on-line captioning. |
| Television broadcast captioners/providers use realtime reporting technology to provide access to people with hearing loss to see what is being said on live television broadcasts such as news, emergency broadcasts, sporting events, and so forth. |
Internet information (or Webcast) reporters provide realtime reporting of meetings, press conferences, and other Internet events, while simultaneously transmitting the transcripts to computers world-wide.
By Colin Cantlie, a member of NCRA’s Captioning Community of Interest, where he serves as a consumer advocate
Link to NCRA Community of Interest - Captioning
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What is CART?
Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is the instantaneous translation of the spoken word into English text using a stenotype machine, computer, and realtime software, and a means of displaying the text on a computer, TV monitor, or large screen. |
| The display is not only the spoken word translated into written text, but also speaker identification, and a description of environmental sounds, when possible, which allows the CART Consumer to have a complete understanding of what is transpiring. |
| CART Services can also be provided from a remote access point through the Internet when the CART Provider is not present at the same location as the consumer or presenter. The CART Provider listens to the speaker via telephone or over the Internet and provides the realtime text to a Web site for viewing by the consumer. |
The Americans with Disabilities Act specifically recognizes CART as an assistive technology which affords "effective communication access." Thus, communication access more aptly describes a CART Providers' role and distinguishes CART from realtime reporting in a traditional litigation setting.
Thanks to the Illinois Court Reporters Association
Link to NCRA Community of Interest - CART |
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