Members of the
Massachusetts Court Reporters Association met in Worcester on April 6, 2013,
for their spring seminar. The highlight
of the conference was learning about TRAIN, our National Court Reporters
Association’s initiative to Take Realtime Awareness and Innovation Nationwide.
Many reporters
write realtime for themselves, but the push is on for them to transition to
providing realtime for attorneys at every deposition or hearing. This involves writing with a minimum of 97%
accuracy, having software and hardware that allows you to send files serially
or wirelessly, and for greater success in promoting realtime, purchasing iPads
or netbooks for counsel. Stenocast (serial
wireless) and CVNet with a Linksys router, MiFi or Connectify are the preferred
wireless routers used by court reporters.
Stenocast allows you to send wirelessly to many different interactive
realtime products such as CaseViewNet, LiveNote, Summation and Visionary. CVNet can be sent to CaseViewNet only but has
Instant Refresh. As the reporter edits
the transcript during the day, counsel sees the benefit of those corrections.
Reporters also have a serial connection option, if needed.
Only
professional court reporters can provide instantaneous realtime to counsel. Reporters who provide this service, along
with accompanying rough drafts at the end of the day, are the best this
profession has to offer. Since this is a
premium service, reporters who deliver this service have the potential to increase
their income above the usual transcript sales.
Massachusetts is
currently at the forefront in moving this effort forward. There are TRAIN groups in Boston, the North
Shore, and in the western part of the state.
A new group will be starting up soon on the South Shore. This seminar gave those in attendance a taste
of what joining a TRAIN group would be like through a rotation of four
mini-sessions covering different but related topics.
Members owe a
debt of gratitude to Jill Shepherd, Jodi Ohnemus, Sue Garvin, Kathy Silva, and
NCRA Speed Champion Ed Varallo for their time and effort, advice and
encouragement during the TRAIN seminar. They
gave brief tutorials on what equipment to buy, how to set up, how to provide
the cleanest roughs possible, and how write “short” for better translation
rates and less wear and tear on the hands.
The Society for
the Technological Advancement of Reporting (STAR) is another wonderful resource
for those reporters who want to move forward and invest in their career. Their emphasis is always on the latest
technology and is suitable for reporters at all levels.
