realtime Archives - Omega Reporting

What’s Your Super Power, Court Reporters?

September 20, 2018 By Lynette Mueller Leave a Comment

This summer is drawing quickly to a close. How time flies, it seems! Our focus and attention is now looking forward to autumn and all the activities associated with the kiddos headed back to school.

I, for one, am not quite ready to let summer go. For me, one of the most fun things to do during the scorching Memphis summers is go to the movies. And what a movie blockbuster season it’s been! At times it seems as though we are inundated with tons of action flicks and there’s critics in the press with a bit of negativity about the superhero films. My response? “Who cares!! The more action, the better.”

Top of my “best of” lists this summer?

Black Panther
Avengers: Infinity War
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Mission: Impossible – Fallout
Incredibles 2

My absolute favorite, by far, is Incredibles 2. Animated films are not strictly for children at all. I had no hesitation, qualms, or embarrassment in the least attending this summer movie. The adult humor scattered throughout the film is wasted on the young ones! This movie was much anticipated by Yours Truly and was a long time coming — 14 years, to be exact. This movie is brilliant and it has many lessons to be learned for court reporters.

1. Teamwork:

Helen and Bob Parr a/k/a The Incredibles, work hard side by side to make the family dynamics successful. The working mom (Elastigirl) has the confidence to head to the job each day knowing her husband is staying at home with their three kids and performing “heroically” with the day-to-day mundane activities of meal prep, school, and homework.

As a freelance court reporter, it is sometimes easy to forget about the importance of teamwork — especially in today’s ever-changing technology-driven environment. Our profession has become (and viewed by many) a cottage industry (by definition, working at home with your own equipment). Sure, we go to the job and do our magic on that “little machine,” but rarely interact much with the participants.

When I started my company several years ago, I associated myself with a local videography firm to handle videotaped deposition requests. Nearly 50% of the depositions I handle are videotaped.

The roles of the court reporter and videographer are intertwined, and there’s significant synergy and teamwork between myself and my videographer from start to finish!

Our teamwork begins by the videographer arriving approximately an hour prior to start time. This enables him to set up his equipment and do any necessary testing prior to my arrival, which is 30 minutes before the deposition is scheduled to begin. My arrival after the videographer allows him the opportunity to set up at his leisure and no worries about anyone hovering. It’s then my turn to set up. Setup is quick and easy for the court reporter: boot up the computer, attach your tripod to your machine. The videographer then provides a direct audio feed to my computer and we’re ready to go!

Once all the parties, attorneys, and witness are situated and before we go on the record, I always make a quick check to ensure that everyone has their microphone clipped on their lapels. A quick acknowledgement by myself to the videographer lets him know that we’re ready to go on the record. Our teamwork is like a well-oiled machine and the process works smoothly throughout the day.

Once the deposition is concluded, our teamwork continues through the production phase. At times video-text synchronization is requested. Video-text synchronization captures the witness’ testimony via videography along with the certified court reporter’s transcript. A trial-ready CD or DVD allows you to show the witness’ words appearing on screen as they are being spoken. Adding a video component to the deposition process brings the written words “alive”! Video depositions capture the witness’ facial expressions, pauses, change in tone, demeanor, and mannerisms that will never be captured with the written word alone.

In an effort to aid the videographer in his production role, as the court reporter, I can provide him with a timestamped transcript for the process of syncing and/or editing of the deposition. The videographer and court reporter, doing two different functions or tasks, working in cooperation with each other, can create an excellent multimedia tool for later use in the courtroom.

2. Make a Professional Fashion Statement:

My favorite character in the Incredibles films is definitely Edna Mode. Edna knows how to make a fashion statement: the iconic all-black suit and gigantic eyeglasses! During the first Incredibles movie, when Bob made the suggestion that perhaps a cape could be in order for his updated supersuit, Edna responded emphatically with the line, “No capes!” Again, wise Edna knew the importance of appropriate attire for Bob’s specific job.

For court reporters, our professional appearance should be top of mind too. When I started court reporting so many years ago, my first employer stressed to me about dressing professionally. Her uniform always consisted of a blazer and either a skirt or pants.

Reasons to dress for success:

builds confidence, composure, and self-respect
vital to communicating who you are (a valuable participant in the judicial process)
you only get one first impression

More often than not when I arrive at a law firm, the receptionist will assume that I’m an attorney – a great thing! After all, we are respected partners and equals in the deposition and judicial arena, working side by side with the attorneys on their important cases.

3. Success Takes Time:

Prior to the start of the Incredibles 2 at the theater, some of the voice actors for the characters shared how they were so thrilled to be in the second movie. The work, time, and effort to produce an animated film is intense. As I said at the beginning of this post, it took 14 years between the original movie and the sequel.

Every court reporter should strive to become realtime-proficient. It takes time to do so, and you cannot become an overnight success. Hard work and determination are the key factors in becoming realtime-proficient.

Be familiar with your CAT software capabilities and let your software work for you. My software has options to power define entries from the writer. Whenever you can keep your hands on the writer and add entries, it gives you just that extra bit of time to do things quickly and make your feed even more clean on the fly. The prep work is essential to maintain or exceed that goal. My writing is constantly evolving. 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.

4. New Ways Can Be Intimidating:

When Mr. Incredible took over the duties of the stay-at-home parent, he struggled with helping Dash with the math homework. It was a frustration because he didn’t know how to complete the homework in the desired and expected way.

Change is intimidating for court reporters sometimes as well. There are so many technological advancements in our profession each day, and it seems such a daunting task to keep up with it all. 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.

One final Edna-ism from the first Incredibles movie:

I never look back, darling. It distracts from the now.

We all look at the past and reflect on everything we’ve done in our personal and professional lives. Sometimes we spend far too much time worrying about things we should have done or could have done differently.

“Why didn’t I start realtime sooner?”
“I should have upgraded to that new laptop before my old one crashed.”
“I wish I knew more about my CAT software.”
“I wish I had passed that next level of NCRA certification right after graduation.”

Again, while it’s good to think about the past, it’s best to move forward and set goals on how to move forward in a positive way and focus on the present. Concentrate on making a positive impact today and find your Super Power!

What NCRA Means to Me

September 18, 2018 By Lynette Mueller 1 Comment

I love gathering inspiration from others and notable quotes from strong individuals. When I was asked to provide my insight for an article about membership, the following quote from Colin Powell sprung to mind and resonated with me:

“A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.”

Now, you may ask: What does that famous quote have to do with membership?

My court reporting career has spanned over 35 years — a long one, for sure. My path has seen many obstacles and wins throughout that time. Providing realtime reporting was my number-one goal in my professional life, and it’s definitely taken a lot of “sweat, determination, and hard work.” One of the major influences and constants over the last 35 years has, and always will be, membership in my professional association — the National Court Reporters Association!

Were it not for NCRA and the many benefits it offers, I would not be the court reporting professional I am today. As we all know, court reporters can sometimes lead a solitary path at times, because a lot of us work from our home-based office. Sure, we have interaction with legal professionals and witnesses. But, for the most part, it is definitely a solitary environment, as the bulk of our transcript production is done at home.

NCRA offers many additional benefits to its members. Some of the most important reasons, in my opinion, for maintaining membership in our organization are the following:

Networking

While most may think of networking as a means of garnering future business, I look at it a little bit differently. I view “networking” with my fellow NCRA members as an excellent resource to gain advice, information, and guidance about many subjects that we face on a daily basis as court reporters. This guidance has helped me greatly to be the successful reporter I am today.

Professional Development

My national certifications are very important to me, and I’ve worked hard to earn them! Those “three little letters” behind my name are a conversation starter with potential new clients. It’s my opportunity to tout my skills and professionalism and to educate the public about court reporters. The testing for certifications has helped me validate my skill as a court reporter and carries clout in our profession.

Updates on Industry Information

NCRA does a fantastic job with recruiting volunteers (myself included) to serve on committees and bring the membership relevant and up-to-date information on technology and other industry standards. It’s so refreshing to be able to have a go-to source for current information. The NCRA.org website, JCR print, and TheJCR.com are fantastic sources of information!

Continuing Education Opportunities

NCRA brings the best and brightest professionals in our industry to share their knowledge and expertise at their Annual Convention, live webinars, and online webinars. NCRA is my go-to source. I chose my profession when I was a sophomore in high school — best decision ever! I urge every court reporter to choose membership in our professional association, the NCRA. Choose your organization wisely. It can further your career in ways beyond your expectations and give you the tools and resources to set you up for future success and gain the leg up over the competition!

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!

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!

Get Realtime-Capable Now: Tips for Learning Brief Forms for Court Reporters

August 29, 2016 By Lynette Mueller 1 Comment

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.

The JCR has an article in the October 2015 issue with lots of great tips from some amazing court reporters across the country on how to get flawless realtime output. Definitely worth the read!

Today on the blog I’m going to focus on brief forms. Creating briefs on the fly is an acquired skill, for sure. My BriefIt feature in my CAT software is an integral and valuable resource and helps immeasurably with my high translation rate, even though the proceedings could be a fast-paced deposition. It takes focus and dedication to be able to look at the screen during the proceedings and capture those suggested briefs. During a recess is a good time to take a few minutes to go over the suggested briefs. With my software, the phrases I stroke out the most (with a suggested brief) are highlighted in a bolded color. Genius! Therefore, it’s easy to concentrate on the strongest colors and make a note of the suggestions.

So one may ask, “Okay, how do I memorize and keep track of all the brief forms I want to add to my dictionary?”

Our minds have great capacity to recall all kinds of information. I feel it’s good to have a multi-prong approach to memorizing brief forms. Remember to take a handful of briefs at a time to incorporate into your writing; otherwise, you’ll be overwhelmed and could end up dropping important testimony.

Here are a few suggestions to help with that memorization:

Be sure you want to improve your realtime writing and are invested in the process.
Set a goal for yourself.
Write out the brief forms you wish to incorporate into your writing.
Make notes to yourself.
Apply repetition to your practice. As I said, make sure you start with small bits before moving on to the next round of briefs. Keep this in your memory banks before moving on to the next set.
Do most of your studying in the afternoons. One study suggests your ability to memorize relates to the time of day you study, with the afternoon appearing to be the best time of day.
Ensure you are well rested in order to retain the memories. Make sure you take breaks and come back to it later in order to find out how much you actually retained. Then you can focus on the briefs you might have more trouble with.

Next are the steps I’ve implemented that have greatly improved my ability to incorporate new briefs into my writing.

Use BriefIt all the time during the job and add the briefs that make sense to your personal dictionary. Dictionary building is key to the success of a higher translation rate.
Make sticky notes and attach to your writer or computer.
Use the app, Sticky Notes. This is a great tool to use because you’ll never lose that physical note again. Simply open the app and move it to the side of your laptop screen. Multiple colors are available for families of briefs!
I like to use my Recorder app on my iPhone to dictate the briefs I want to work on. By recording the words and phrases, it is an easy task to set up my writer to practice on those briefs. You will get instant feedback if you are writing the briefs correctly when you are hooked up for realtime during your practice session.
The last prong of my process is a cool app called Tinycards. This is a free flashcard app to help make memorization more fun! This app is a game where you can unlock new levels and keeping your memory strength bar full! Tinycards uses spaced repetition and other smart learning techniques to help you master new material efficiently. You can create your own decks and share them with friends or pick from a variety of collections exclusive to Tinycards. You’ll find constellations, country capitals, history, and lots more.

I’ve already created two Tinycards called Steno Brief Forms – Part 1 and Steno Brief Forms – Part 2. When you set up your new (free) account, simply search for these and any other topics to add to your stream and start memorizing those briefs today!

Technology is great!