"What are the odds we can get a rough draft?"
Said the attorney in the trial I was working in. "Well, pretty good. You want the whole thing, or just certain witnesses?"
"Oh, just a few witnesses."
"No problem. Give me a heads-up the day before, and we've got a deal. Oh, and I like to get paid on Friday for the pages I produce in a given week."
"We can do that."
Awesome. Now, I wasn't sure what the case was going to be like, who the experts were going to be or what their field of specialty was. No matter. All the attorney wanted to know was could I do what he asked me to. The answer is always YES. In my case, I contacted both scopists to see what their schedules looked like to put them on stand-by status so that I could send the files at breaks and the like so they could work while I was still in court.
This profession is a SERVICE profession. To stay relevant, our service has to be top notch. Do what the client wants. In freelance, it's obvious what happens when a client is unhappy; they go to another service. What happens in the court system? They complain to the judges and the court managers; and court reporters COULD be replaced.
Strive to be the court reporter that all the attorneys like to see when they come into the courtroom to try a case. Be the reason we maintain our relevance in this ever-changing world of court reporting.
