Over the course of your court reporting career, there will be times when you will be faced with situations that require you to make a judgment call. When choosing the right action to take, it helps to be familiar with a code of ethics. By reviewing a code of ethics, you will be able to more easily make the right decision. Here are a few situations you may face sometime in your career. Many of these types of situations are addressed in the National Court Reporters Association Code of Ethics.
Can You Deliver?
You are a new court reporter and are assigned to a deposition. When you get to the deposition, the attorneys inform you the witness is a doctor and the case is a medical malpractice case. You have never taken a malpractice deposition and are worried it might be above your skill level. What should you do?
Solution: When you are in a situation where you feel your skill level does not match the assignment, you should call your court reporting firm and explain the situation. A good court reporting firm will find a court reporter who is able to successfully complete the deposition. First and foremost, it is your responsibility to ensure the testimony is recorded accurately and that the record is protected.
Too Sick to Work
You wake up feeling very sick and unable to leave your home. You have a deposition scheduled at 10:00 a.m. and know you can’t make it. What should you do?
Solution: If you work for a court reporting firm, call your firm and ask that another court reporter be assigned. Most court reporting firms will have someone always available to take such emergency calls and schedule another reporter to take the deposition.
Independent reporters may not have the luxury of this type of backup. In that case, you should find another court reporter who is available and can take the deposition for you. If the deposition is of a technical nature, be sure to schedule a reporter that you know has the skill to complete the assignment. Your highest responsibility is to always ensure that the deposition testimony is being recorded accurately by a qualified court reporter.
When to Let Go
Once you transcribe a deposition, you keep the steno notes and a copy of the transcript for your records in case there is ever a back order. But you work from a small home office, and your closet is running out of room. You would like to free up some space by getting rid of some of those old notes and transcripts. What should you do?
Solution: Many states have different retention policies for shorthand notes. Various state and federal courts will also have retention policies. It is good to become familiar with these various retention policies for jurisdiction in which you do business.
The National Court Reporters Association’s Code of Professional Ethics states:
“Preserve the shorthand notes in accordance with statute or court order, or otherwise for a period of no less than five (5) years through storage of the original paper notes or an electronic copy of either the shorthand notes or the English transcript of the notes on computer disks, cassettes, backup tape systems, or optical or laser disk systems.”
Many good reporting firms are also able to provide storage capabilities. It is a good idea to have backups in several locations so in case of a hardware failure, you will be able to access your notes and dictionary.
Timely Service
You have had an unusually busy month, taking depositions every day. A few transcripts are due in 10 days. The rest of the transcripts have no specific due date. You usually have all transcripts finished within 10 business days, but there are so many transcripts right now that there is no way you will be able to finish all of them in 10 business days. What should you do?
Solution: Even though you haven’t been given a specific date by which the attorney will need the transcript, you should plan on delivering all transcripts to clients no later than two weeks. If you have enough backlog that you will start missing this reasonable time, you should ask your firm to stop scheduling you until you can catch up. If you are an independent court reporter, you should begin to call your network of court reporters and make arrangements for another reporter to take future depositions until you can catch up on transcription.
Stay Relevant
You have been building a very successful career in court reporting for several years now. You know there is new technology and new writing techniques out there but you haven’t had time to dig into any of these new areas. What should you do?
Solution: To stay relevant in the field of court reporting, you need to continually learn new things and improve your skills. You should stay up-to-date on new technologies. if you do not, you are in serious danger of becoming a dinosaur. Technology changes quickly, and you will be outdated faster than you think. It is a good habit to continue to add to your body of knowledge on all areas of court reporting, such as punctuation and grammar skills, the business of court reporting, new realtime and shorthand techniques and technology.
Michigan’s state association, Michigan Association of Professional Court Reporters, is a great source for reporters to gain knowledge in the court reporting industry, and they regularly put on seminars related directly to court reporters’ software, which is a very cost-effective way to learn about the updates in your software programs, allowing you to become more efficient in producing your transcripts.
Involvement Required
You have been reporting for a few years now and are very busy. You know there are court reporting associations at state and national levels. You find most of the reporters you know are in one or more associations or court reporting groups. You just don’t know if they are usefull to you personally. What should you do?
Solution: It’s time to join organizations and attend some events and meetings. You will find many resources that will be of direct benefit to you. Professional organizations are a place where the future of an industry and integrity of an industry is discussed. Activities and initiatives are often in existence that protect the profession and further advance the industry in many ways. These are all of benefit to you as a court reporter working in the industry.
Everyday Ethics
Your ethics govern your thought process so that when a problem arises or you need to try and work your way through a situation, your solution is based on your ethics. Having a standard of ethics that governs us each day of our lives means we always know how we are to act no matter what. It is important as court reporters to remind ourselves of what it is we stand for.
For more on court reporting ethics from our perspective, download this free report: “Thoughts on Court Reporter Ethics: From a Court Reporting Firm Owner”.