court reporting Archives - Omega Reporting

Lessons Court Reporters Can Learn from Olympians

February 14, 2018 By Lynette Mueller Leave a Comment

It’s Court Reporting & Captioning Week 2018!

As I’m reflecting this week on this important time for all court reporters across the nation, I am distracted by another important event for the world — the 2018 Olympic Winter Games! As of the writing of this post, the United States has a total of six medals: three gold, one silver, and three bronze. All of these young athletes have much to be proud of, for sure!

We court reporters and future court reporters can learn some very valuable lessons and habits from our Olympic athletes when it comes to our daily reporting functions, duties, and success.

Approach both success and failure thoughtfully. A court reporter’s job is a strenuous one. Each day we face something new and unexpected. Of course, that is probably the top reason why I still love this profession today. There is never a boring day for the freelance reporter. There are the lows, though, that we face at times: the fast talkers, the interrupters, the realtime fear of imperfection, the realtime mistrans, and others. Athletes accept their success and/or failures with an eye toward looking at what matters most and not one single event. They more often than not critique their performances in a very constructive way and state how their performance could be improved upon. Be kind to yourself and don’t be overcritical when we face those small “failures” from time to time. Remember, we are providing an extremely valuable service to the legal professionals and their clients.
Never stop learning and be a student for life. Olympic athletes not only train physically to maintain their stamina for competition, but also train their minds to tune out distractions and reduce stress and anxiety. They are diligent about critiquing their performance with their coaches and watching the replays. Every day we produce transcripts for our valuable clients in a timely manner and more often than not on an expedited basis. We should take a hard look at how we can improve our writing and realtime skills so that we can work smarter and not harder to meet the deadlines we are faced with. Realtime is and has been an in-demand service for attorneys for several years now. Court reporters (of all experience levels) need to understand that in order to stay relevant in today’s legal environment, we must maintain and continually hone our skills each and every day. From a previous blog post: Being realtime-capable should be the goal of every court reporter now! My realtime goal is to always strive for 99.8% translation rate on every job. The prep work is essential to maintain or exceed that goal. My writing is constantly evolving (even after 30 years of reporting). Writing short is paramount to the success of my translation rate, for keeping up with the fast talkers, and also being kind to my body — specifically my back and hands. You can read more here to learn some secrets to memorizing brief forms.
Be tenacious. Athletes never give up on their goals and keep moving forward without regard to obstacles that present at times. We court reporters should invest in our careers and have attainable goals for moving forward in our profession. What is your next step to move forward? Is it that new NCRA certification? Being realtime capable? Writing shorter? Starting your own firm? The steps and path toward these goals may be time-consuming and difficult but so worth it in the end. Additionally, we have so many resources and colleagues to help when needed for advice, technology tips, realtime tips, and general help. I’ve found that court reporters are an extremely giving community; one just needs to ask for assistance.
Embrace your passion. The official slogan of the 2018 Olympics is “Passion. Connected.” The games are all about bringing everyone together for their shared passion of the winter sports. Passion is important for court reporters too. Technology is my passion! The field of court reporting has changed from when I was a student so many years ago. It should be noted that there are some fantastic tools available to assist court reporters to be more productive, efficient, and valuable to attorney clients and legal professionals. Court reporters should keep in mind that in order to be effective and stay relevant, we must keep abreast of technology, embrace it, and never be skeptical of the newest innovations.

I have grown and evolved because of this profession and the amazing people I’ve met during my career. It has pushed me to soar and reach that next certification. It has helped me conquer my fear of putting myself out there when meeting new people. My goal for the coming year will be to continue to strive to be a better reporter each day and will seek inspiration from our amazing Olympians in order to attain that goal!

Rocketbook for Court Reporters

July 18, 2017 By Lynette Mueller Leave a Comment

The 2017 NCRA Convention and Expo in Las Vegas is drawing near, which has me reflecting upon past conventions and the knowledge base I gained from them. The Rocketbook was introduced to me by an awesome court reporter colleague, Lisa Knight, and it has proven to be a valuable productivity tool for me lately.

As a freelance court reporter in Memphis, Tennessee, depositions, sworn statements, hearings, and court trials are just a few of the proceedings that my clients need me to take the verbatim proceedings down. For each job I create a job sheet, as most court reporters do I imagine. That job sheet is our bible for each deposition or other verbatim proceedings we need to transcribe at a future date. The job sheets include things like the date, start time, location, attorneys present, witness name, and case caption. Of course I also include any exhibits I marked and any spellings that I asked the witness or client for as well.

In the past, I used a legal pad for my job sheets and, then, filed them away in a storage cabinet. With the Rocketbook, the need for all that paper is a thing of the past! Utilizing the Rocketbook saves me time, boosts my productivity, organization, and gives me flexibility in how I work on the go.

As a busy freelance court reporter, I do travel to different cities across the county when my clients need me. When I do have the occasion to travel, go on vacation, or if I go spend time with my children, of course I take advantage of downtime to work on editing transcripts. Because my job sheets are now digitized, there’s no need to carry the hard-copy job sheets when I’m away from my office.

What is Rocketbook? According to their website:

The Rocketbook Wave provides the freedom of a traditional pen and paper notebook, while instantly blasting your notes into the cloud using your smartphone.

When you use Pilot FriXion pens with the Wave notebook, you can erase your notes using your microwave oven and reuse your notebook. Available in 2 sizes – each book comes with one pen.

There are many cool features of the Rocketbook:

The QR code on the bottom of each page ensures that your pages are always in chronological order.
The image processing is crisp and clean — maybe even better than the original!
The symbols on the bottom of each page lets you send your job sheets to the location you designate within the app: Evernote, box, email, Dropbox, Google Drive, the Cloud, OneNote, Slack.
Works with Pilot FriXion pens only. The pens come in in different colors and different tip styles. Choose one that matches your personality!
The iOS app is always in Airplane Mode, which means if you’re like me you can edit on the go on your airplane travels too! (As of July 2017, Rocketbook’s blog advises that a new and updated iOS app is coming soon.)
You may erase and reuse your Rocketbook five times.
Use your microwave to erase and reuse. You do need a turntable in your microwave. If you have a model like mine with no turntable, just purchase a Nordic Ware Microwave Micro-Go-Round 10 inch for the workaround.

How does one use the Rocketbook?

Purchase the Rocketbook and Pilot FriXion of your choice. I have the Wave and love it! Check out my Gadgets page for a link to purchase on Amazon.
Set up the smartphone app by connecting your email, Evernote, box, Dropbox applications to match the symbols on the bottom of each page.
Start creating your job sheet on the first page of your notebook as you normally would.
After the job and you return to the office, use the smartphone app to scan your page. Place an X on the particular symbol at the bottom of the page in which you wish to store your job sheet.
Next, select Scan within the app and place your smartphone on top of your page within the grid lines. Wait for the app to auto-focus and the app will automatically take a pic.
Now tap on the scan of the page and it will become larger. At the bottom of the scan, you will see the symbol that you selected earlier is green.
Tap on the green symbol and all your connected cloud accounts and connected email will display.
You may choose at this time to select all of your connected accounts if you wish by tapping next to each option.
Then select Sync All.
The next screen allows you the option to give your job sheet a special file name before it syncs. Do so now.
Finally, tap Send and you’re done!

I would love to hear if anyone else is using this digital notebook and your experiences with it. This is so easy to use. All you need to do is CREATE, SCAN, and ERASE!

Technology is great!

Top Ten Gadgets for the Holidays 2016 for Court Reporters

December 15, 2016 By Lynette Mueller Leave a Comment

The holidays are upon us! Gift giving can be stressful sometimes for your favorite court reporter or legal professional. Luckily, I have my top picks you can choose from to ease the burden of coming up with a great gift for that favorite person on your list. It’s just a click away!

Automatic Pro Connected Car Adapter: This handy gadget has realtime location data about who’s driving your car. I’ve been using this device since late fall and am absolutely loving it! I am using an app called IFTTT to automatically generate a Google spreadsheet to keep track of my work miles. No more mileage logs for me where I have to handwrite all the data. This adapter plugs into almost any car to provide unlimited monitoring with zero fees. You may even connect your car to your Echo, your smart thermostat, or any other part of your digital life. This product works only in the United States.
Tile: Quickly find items that you seem to always misplace with Tile. I have given these as gifts before, and they’ve been a huge hit! Can’t find your car keys? Not sure where you placed your phone? Or what if my equipment gets stolen? Quickly find your lost items using Tile’s Bluetooth tracking device. If your Tile is within the 100-foot Bluetooth range, it will play a loud tune until you find it. Keep the app running in the background, and Tile will automatically remember the last time and place you last had your item so you know where to start looking. Tile is available for both Android and Apple devices! I currently have the Tile Mate. Since last year, they now have the Tile Slim. The Slim is as thin as two credit cards. Easy to stick, slide, or tuck into tight spots like wallets, purses, passports, and more.
Kenu Airframe+ Car Mount for Smartphones: This little gadget is great for mounting in your car when using your GPS app. It can be mounted in the car so it’s stationary. Never worry about glancing down at your phone and being distracted again.
Square: Start accepting credit card payments today! A free credit card reader will be sent to you when you sign up with Square for use on iPhones, iPads, and Android. The account setup process is quick and easy. As mentioned above, as an independent court reporter, I do work in the courtroom. There are occasions when an attorney has forgotten to hire a court reporter and then approaches me to ask if I can cover his matter as well. In the instance where an attorney is not known to you and you are unsure of the payment history, Square comes to the rescue. You have the ability to swipe their credit card on the spot for the attendance fee and never have to worry if you will be paid later.
DYMO LabelWriter: This labeler is my all-time favorite gadget. Just upload your company logo, add your contact information, and print a professional-looking label for every transcript that heads out the door. My labeler is connected to a dedicated computer. But I have no worries about keeping my contacts up to date, because I utilize Apple’s iCloud. When I effect a change or update in my address book on one computer, it then syncs on all computers, so my contacts are always up to date and available no matter which computer or device I happen to be using. I also have created a customized exhibit sticker with my logo. No more worrying about ordering exhibit stickers because I create them on-the go. The product features of the DYMO labeler are many:
- Create and print address, shipping, file, folder and barcode labels
- Print USPS approved DYMO Stamps postage directly from your desktop – no monthly fee, contracts, or commitments required
- Uses thermal printing technology — no expensive ink or toner needed
TUDIA Klips: Without protection from wear and tear, many experience the inconvenience of having their charging cable break in less than six months of use. Once broken, it is not long until the cable is no longer capable of recharging. TUDIA Klip works to stop strain, before wires become exposed and the cable stops working. Rather than buying a new cable, the Klip allows you to preserve your original Apple Lightning or 30-pin cable. The Klip snaps on to your charging cable in seconds. This device keeps your cable functioning longer and helping yo, stay connected, and fully charged.
Sugru: If you already have a cable that’s frayed, use Sugru. Sugru sticks permanently to lots of stuff like ceramics, glass, metal, wood, and most plastics and fabrics. Just push it onto something, then it’s time to build, seal, fix, create, and stick things together. You’ll have 30 minutes to get the job done. Give it 24 hours, and Sugru turns into a durable, flexible silicone rubber that stays stuck (unless you remove it).
TimePorter for Apple Watch: TimePorter for Apple Watch was gifted to me by my sweet husband last year. This is both a case and a stand. TimePorter holds your charging cable, an extra Watch band, your USB charger, and more in a silicone-lined case. Pop your charging disc into the integrated opening in TimePorter and drape Apple Watch across the top to charge. With Apple Watch resting on TimePorter, open the case to the preferred angle and TimePorter transforms into a viewing stand, perfect for viewing notifications and the time. This is awesome! I actually can store several watch bands in this handy case.
Rocketbook: This device was recommended to me by a great court reporter colleague. The Rocketbook Wave provides the freedom of a traditional pen and paper notebook, while instantly blasting your notes into the cloud using your smartphone. Image processing: In an instant, the Rocketbook app crops and enhances each page so your digital notes are more crisp and vibrant than the real thing. Send your notes to specific locations in the cloud services you already use. My favorites are Evernote, box, and Dropbox. When you use Pilot FriXion pens with the notebook, you can erase your notes using your microwave oven and reuse your notebook.
Pilot FriXion Gel Pens: Use these pens with your Rocketbook. Writes smooth, erases clean for a “mistake-free” writing experience. This is perfect for making drafts, edits, lists and notes.

There you have it — my Top Ten Gadgets for the Holidays 2016. Happy gifting! Oh, and don’t forget to pick up a little something for yourself while you’re shopping. You can click on the image below to start shopping now.

Happy Holidays!

There’s a little fixer-upper in all of us, Court Reporters

October 12, 2016 By Lynette Mueller Leave a Comment

I’m anxiously awaiting the premier of the hit HGTV show Fixer Upper Season 4! Chip and Joanna Gaines restore and renovate old homes in the Waco, Texas, area. Their design style, working relationship, and positivity are an inspiration to so many people all over the world.

We court reporters can learn valuable lessons and habits from Chip and Joanna when it comes to our daily reporting and realtime goals.

Make time for yourself and family. During each episode, Chip and Joanna always make time for their cutie kids! It’s paramount to keep in mind what’s truly important, and that is to make family your number-one priority. When I was a young mom, I always came home from the job, picked up my children, gave them a smooch, and spent time with them until bedtime. After the kiddos were tucked in bed, I headed off to the computer. Now that I’m an empty nester with no kids, of course, the computer time is done at a more reasonable hour! My two children are young adults now and thriving in their own careers. When we reminisce, they remind me that I worked hard during their formative years and how they knew I was always there for them whenever they needed me.
Have faith in yourself. When Chip and Joanna buy old properties, of course there’s always the chance something could go horribly wrong with the renovation: asbestos, old wiring, rusted pipes. You get the picture. They stay positive and overcome all obstacles that come their way together. As court reporters, we will always have those bad writing days for several reasons. There’s the fast talkers, the witness who insists on answering the question before it gets out, the thick foreign accents, or the construction noise just outside the deposition room window. We need to rely on our foundations that were laid in our training and maintain a great attitude at the same time in order to overcome those unique and particular obstacles in our depositions and/or courtroom settings. We are human and aren’t perfect. While we only use audio backup as a tool, we are the guardians of the record and need to ensure we capture the verbatim testimony on every case. Always use courtesy when interrupting the proceedings and explain the rationale for your interruption in a concise and respectful way. More often than not, one always gets a better result when staying positive.
Work hard to be the best you can be. The Gaineses are an extremely hardworking couple, for sure! In addition to their tv show, they also have their own farm with animals, they now have a bakery, the Silos, new furniture and rug lines, and a magazine, to name a few. Court reporters work hard too. Every day we produce transcripts for our valuable clients in a timely manner and more often than not on an expedited basis. We should take a hard look at how we can “renovate” our writing and realtime skills so that we can work smarter and not harder to meet the deadlines we are faced with more and more. Realtime is and has been an in-demand service for attorneys for several years now. Court reporters (of all experience levels) need to understand that in order to stay relevant in today’s legal environment, we must maintain and continually hone our skills each and every day. From a previous blog post: Being realtime-capable should be the goal of every court reporter now! My realtime goal is to always strive for 99.8% translation rate on every job. The prep work is essential to maintain or exceed that goal. My writing is constantly evolving (even after 30 years of reporting). Writing short is paramount to the success of my translation rate, for keeping up with the fast talkers, and also being kind to my body — specifically my back and hands. You can read more here to learn some secrets to memorizing brief forms.
You’ll get a higher return on investment. After the homes are renovated on Fixer Upper, the homeowners definitely have a property to be proud of and one that is worth so much more. Once we, as court reporters, invest in our careers, we earn that return as well. The steps and path to being realtime-proficient can be time-consuming but so worth it in the end. When we go out on each job, we don’t always have the luxury of knowing when a rough draft will be requested or an expedited transcript is needed. If your writing is great, you can say with confidence, “Yes, I can get that rough draft to you!” Your “return on investment” is that your editing time is so much less than before and you will earn more dollars for doing less work! You can shout out loud to yourself with pride and confidence after you hit Send “Nailed it!” The less editing time means you can go enjoy your hobbies, your family, or just sit on the couch and watch Fixer Upper!
Trust in colleagues you can go to for help and resources. In order for the homes that Joanna rehabs, she has several go-to friends and colleagues to ensure her rehabs look amazing! There’s Jimmy Don who creates the wonderful and inspirational signs for the homeowners’ kitchens. And then there’s Clint Harp, the craftsman that builds and creates the one-of-a-kind furniture pieces. Court reporters have so many resources and colleagues to help when needed for advice, technology tips, realtime tips, and general help. I’ve found that court reporters are an extremely giving community; one just needs to ask for assistance. There are a multitude of avenues one could use to hone our realtime skills. Here are a few:

NCRA website. There’s a plethora of information, tips and tricks, and technology-related articles here. Go there often to check for new content.
JCR. Again, lots of great information all court reporting related.
NCRA Webinars. Soak up that knowledge at home in your pajamas if you wish!
Create a study group online via Google Hangout, Facebook, or Skype.
Regional seminars held by state associations. Learn from colleagues and stay close to home to reduce travel costs.
Facebook groups. My gosh, there are Facebook groups for just about any court reporting subject you could imagine. Just search and find the right one for you. It ranges from software groups, hardware, realtime, brief forms, health, fur babies — the list goes on and on.

These five lessons I’ve named are just a few to get you started on your personal “fixer-upper.” I’d love to hear about your big “reveal” after you’ve implemented some of these ideas!

Learn from Secret Agents Like Ethan Hunt, James Bond, and Others

January 17, 2016 By Lynette Mueller Leave a Comment

January 2016 JCR

So, I live in a household with two guys. As you can imagine, our moviegoing outings tend to be action films, science fiction, and comedies. Don’t get me wrong — I am not complaining in the least. I love all of those genres!

This summer’s movie season has been great! The last two movies we’ve seen — Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. — are flicks about secret agents and packed with continuous action!

As is the case with most action films featuring secret agents like Ethan Hunt, James Bond, and others, common elements can be found throughout the movies: mysterious plot, superhuman skills and maneuvers, amazing chase scenes, continuous action, and the gadgets that help them achieve their mission or goals. The heroes generally have the same character traits: dependable, in peak physical condition, and prepared for any situation. They exercise continuously and consistently because they know it can mean the difference between life and death out in the field. They don’t cut their workouts short when they’re tired or miss a day because they’re not up to the challenge. They train hard, train with purpose, and train as if their lives depended on it. Even though I’m a working reporter, I feel it is imperative to practice my writing on a daily basis. There are several resources to find practice material.

Realtime Coach (my favorite)
YouTube
stenospeed.com
speedstenodivas.com
Facebook groups

So, in our effort to channel our inner “secret agent,” we can learn from these fictional characters in our quest to become the best professional court reporter ever!

The definition of “professionalism”:
the skill, good judgment, and polite behavior that is expected from a person who is trained to do a job well

Just like Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible series, court reporters should use technology tools and gadgets to solve everyday tasks and real-world problems in order to help make the job easier. Court reporters should keep in mind that in order to be effective and stay relevant, we must keep abreast of technology, embrace it, and never be skeptical of the newest innovations. This past June, I co-presented with my good friend, Keith Lemons, at a seminar about realtime tips and fears and also the gadgets we use to help us be more productive. Some of the favorite gadgets:

smartphones
iPads/tablets (realtime reading devices)
Apple Airport Express (output for realtime)
MXL AC404 USB Conference Microphone (great for AudioSync)
DYMO LabelWriter (create exhibit stickers and mailing labels on demand)
Bolse 4 Port USB AC Rapid Charger (charge multiple devices at once)

Find a full list of my gadgets here.

In the opening minutes of Mission: Impossible, Ethan Hunt dangles precariously from a mammoth four-engine turboprop plane that pushes triple-digit speeds during a steep vertical takeoff — superhuman skills for sure and in peak physical condition! While we court reporters may not be superhuman, we should strive to be the best we can be and keep up with our writing skills. Being realtime-proficient is the key to achieving super agent status for our clients and meeting their needs so they have the tools necessary to prepare their case. The benefits of realtime are huge:

improved writing skills
less editing time
improved translation delivery
quicker transcript turnaround
job satisfaction
name recognition; people ask for you
increased income
readback is phenomenal

In The Man from U.N.C.L.E., the two main characters, Solo and Illya, realized they were going to have to work together and they discussed what they knew about each other. Both of these men had clearly done research about their respective rivals and gathered information that would help them down the road to achieve their joint mission. Just like Solo and Illya, court reporters need to be sure to be prepared for each assignment and know where to search for answers to different scenarios we may be faced with on a daily basis.

In order to make our realtime feed topnotch and prepare for the job, we should reach out to our clients and/or their assistants to request as much information about the case that is available. Some things to request:

full caption/style of case
list of attorneys/participants
proper names and case-specific jargon, if available
previously marked exhibits
research online for case-specific terminology and technical terms
create and enter briefs into job dictionary
practice newly created briefs
create a cheat sheet with new briefs

Finally, everyone knows all secret agents are dependable and can get the job done speedy quick! Dependability means that court reporters should arrive to the job at least 20 minutes early, be prepared for each assignment, willing to comply with expedited transcript requests whenever possible, and meet transcript delivery schedules.

Court reporters, our mission, should we choose to accept it, is to be even more awesome every day!