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Archive for August, 2018

CourtScribes Offers The Best In Digital Court Reporting

Posted on: August 27th, 2018 by Dependable Website Management No Comments

If you’re looking for the best way to create a record of court proceedings, you need the best court reporting system, so CourtScribes is where you should turn.

Digital court reporting is a relative newcomer to the field of court reporting, per CourtReporter.edu. But this subspecialty of court reporting has made its way into a number of courtrooms across the United States, thanks to advancements in digital recording.

Miami Court Reporters

The digital revolution led by people like the Miami court reporters of CourtScribes includes blockchain.

CourtScribes uses professional-level recording systems to bring the most sophisticated digital technology into the private marketplace and provide the highest quality transcripts.

The company uses computer-based digital systems with enhanced features that perform recording functions with convenience, flexibility, and economy.

Electronic recording equipment is overseen by an experienced reporter at all times. The reporter simultaneously takes notes that are time-linked to the corresponding recording, so people involved with the case can instantly find the point in the record where they want to re-listen.

Because primary participants are assigned to separate, discrete sound channels, it’s easy to identify who’s who. A typical four-channel system individually records the judge, witness, plaintiff’s attorney and defendant’s attorney. When two or more parties talk at the same time, digital reporting captures each voice clearly on its own separate sound channel.

The recording process captures all words exactly as they are spoken without worrying about a person being unable to understand accents or complex medical or technical terms. During the transcription process, the audio can be replayed as needed to verify any questions.

Any portion of a recorded proceeding can be played back over audio speakers whenever the judge or counsel requires it.  Audio also can be replayed for jurors if they wish to review actual spoken testimony during deliberations.

Counsel can also obtain copies of the actual recording with digital annotations “hot-linked” to the audio so points of interest can be located quickly and efficiently.

Another benefit is that both log notes and audio files are transmitted over the internet, reducing or eliminating shipping costs and delivery delays. Storage and archiving are efficient because audio and log notes are saved as computer files.

Legal Professional Sues Amazon Over Exempt Status

Posted on: August 20th, 2018 by Dependable Website Management No Comments

A former paralegal at Amazon.com Inc. is suing the company, alleging that the online retail giant misclassified paralegals as exempt employees, The Puget Sound Business Journal reported.

Paralegals and court reporters are both crucial to the legal process.

Court reporters

Miami court reporters Courtscribes bring technology to the table.

The lawsuit alleges that Amazon wrongfully misclassified paralegals as exempt employees, meaning that they were not subject to state and federal rules that required the company to pay them overtime for working more than 40 hours a week and to give them scheduled, set times for meal and rest breaks,  the Puget Sound Business Journal reported.

The lawsuit was filed in King County Superior Court in Seattle on Aug. 1. Filing the lawsuit was  former Amazon employee, Lorraine Colby of Bellevue, who said she worked as a paralegal for Amazon from June 2012 to June 2017.

Amazon is headquartered in Seattle and is looking to open a second headquarters somewhere else in the United States. The company has not responded to the lawsuit in court and a spokeswoman declined to comment to the Puget Sound Business Journal when contacted Aug 16.

“In its never-ending search to save money from its employees, Amazon willfully misclassified its paralegals to save on overtime and avoid the requirements of meal and rest breaks under Washington state law,” the Business Journal quoted the lawsuit as saying.

The lawsuit alleges that Amazon’s legal department was “advised on multiple occasions that these employees were misclassified based on their job duties.”

Amazon onboarding documents told paralegals they were expected to work 50 hours per week to meet the minimum requirements of their job, the lawsuit said, but they were not paid 1.5 times their regular pay for working more than 40 hours per week.

The lawsuit said because paralegals can’t “independently determine their own work product, settle cases, and determine strategy or impact policy or procedure without the authorization of an in-house lawyer” they are not exempt employees.

The lawsuit seeks class-action status to include any paralegals who worked for Amazon in Washington state after August 2015 and were classified as exempt.

Houston Man Holds Guinness World Record As Fastest Court Reporter

Posted on: August 13th, 2018 by Dependable Website Management No Comments

Who’s the fastest court reporter in the world? According to Guinness World Records, it’s

Mark Kislingbury, who can type 360 words per minute on his stenomachine.

Kislingbury set the record in 2004, securing his place in the Guinness World Record book as well as his place in history.

But Houston, Texas native Kislingbury is not happy to just sit back and relax now that he holds the world record, he told WGNO TV while he was attending the National Court Reporters Association convention in New Orleans recently.

court reporters

There’s still a place for courtroom stenography in the technological revolution by court reporting agency CourtScribes.

“I’m going to keep practicing in hopes of breaking my own record.  Hopefully in the next few years I can break it by typing 370 or 380 words per minute,” he said.

“It is wonderful to hold the record because only a small amount of people have a World Record, and I have one,”  he said.

Kislingbury, who said he has been a court reporter for 35 years, uses a stenomachine. While he was at the recent convention in New Orleans, he competed in a “real-time” competition in which he had 99 percent accuracy.

“Using this machine is using shorthand.  I make so many shortcuts, it allows me to go faster than most people,”  Kislingbury said.

He encouraged more people to learn his profession, which is seeing shortages across the United States.

“There’s a big demand.  There are jobs everywhere,” he said.  “The money is good.  The job satisfaction is good.  The job is challenging, so not everyone can do it, but that’s why we get paid so well.”

Guinness World Records says its mission is to make the amazing official. They seek to inspire people — individuals, families, schools, teams, groups, companies and communities – of any age, in any city or country, to be inspired by reading, watching, listening to and participating in record-breaking.

To become the ultimate global authority on record breaking, Guiness World Records

researches, measures, documents and authorizes the world’s superlatives, then creates products that entertain, inform and inspire people through our unique window on the world.

NCRA Adds Three New Corporate Partners

Posted on: August 6th, 2018 by Dependable Website Management No Comments

The National Court Reporters Association (NCRA), the country’s leading organization representing stenographic captioners, court reporters, and legal videographers, announced that three major industry leaders serving or representing the court reporting and captioning professions have signed on to the Association’s corporate partnership program, NCRA said in a press release.

court reporters

There’s still a place for courtroom stenography in the technological revolution by court reporting agency CourtScribes.

NCRA welcomed MacCormac College, Chicago, Ill., Magna Legal Services, Philadelphia, Pa., And U.S.  and Legal Support, Washington, D.C., as corporate partners.

NCRA’s Corporate Partnership program, which ranges in levels of support from $10,000 to $100,000, aids in business and workforce development efforts by NCRA and the National Court Reporters Foundation (NCRF).

“We continue to focus on the next generation of captioners and court reporters by illustrating that these professions are viable and lucrative career opportunities,” said NCRA executive director and CEO Marcia Ferranto. “We’re excited about the diversity of the organizations that are joining our commitment to closing the shortage gap of stenographers nationally.”

“NCRA recognizes that there are various methods available to capture the spoken word, but our emphasis is on ensuring that both the general public and the legal industry understand that stenography is by far the most effective and desired method,” Ferranto said

The court reporting and captioning professions offer viable career choices that do not require a four-year college degree and yet offer good salaries, flexible schedules, and interesting venues. There is currently an increasing demand for more reporters and captioners to meet the growing number of employment opportunities available nationwide and abroad.

Court reporters and captioners rely on the latest in technology to use stenographic machines to capture the spoken word and translate it into written text in real time. These professionals work both in and out of the courtroom recording legal cases and depositions, providing live captioning of events, and assisting members of the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities with gaining access to information, entertainment, educational opportunities, and more.