Fear the Middleman

Why pay more to a "national" court reporting firm for your local depositions?
Truth is, "national" court reporting firms DO NOT have court reporters on staff in every locale across the United States or the world. Instead, they subcontract with local reporters. You can hire that same local reporter directly and save money in most cases. How do you save money by hiring locally? Marketing on a national scale is expensive. Local reporters don't have that expense. Higher operating costs and an additional layer of profit result in higher prices for the consumer, YOU.

You can save money by hiring locally for your out-of-state depositions too.
Contact CRS for all your out-of-town depositions. With our court reporter, videographer and interpreter contacts and knowledge of the court reporting industry, rest assured that you're getting a quality referral. CRS offers the convenience of one call does it all, just like the "national" firms, while avoiding the pitfalls of third-party contracting and other unethical practices that not only undermine the integrity of your court records, but could render your transcript void in some jurisdictions.

Click here for a more in-depth look at the benefits of avoiding the "national" middleman markup and hiring local reporters.

Beware of the "Usual Stipulations"

Here in Northern California court reporters are always faced with lawyers from Southern California making a stipulation at the end of a deposition, relieving the court reporter of his or her obligations under the Code of Civil Procedure. 

Our normal procedure is to always follow the code, which means the witness has 30 days to read his or her counsel's copy instead of the original and send an errata sheet to the court reporter.  The original remains in our office for 30 days and after that, any corrections received are placed with the original, sealed, and sent to the noticing party for safekeeping until time of trial.  These procedures ensure the integrity of the original.

Click here for a thoughtful article by Steven D. Archer, a partner in the Los Angeles office of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLP on what it means to make the "usual stipulations" in a deposition. 

New! Realtime TV viewer

We now have the revolutionary StenoCastTV for instant-on real-time, no com ports to configure, no baud rates, no tokens!  Ask for a free hands-on demo today.

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Could your court reporter's gifts put you at higher risk for an IRS audit?

From Save Our Court Records:

The Law Firm of Hanson Bridgett Offers Legal Opinion Regarding Tax Implications!

Many court reporting firms have been promising valuable incentives to law firm staff in exchange for booking depositions. DRA and CCRA, two prominent court reporting associations, have retained the law firm of Hanson Bridgett to review the tax implications of these incentives and have shared the results for wide distribution.

According to the Hanson Bridgett analysis, law firms, attorneys, and staff should be aware that offers of such incentives raise potentially serious tax consequences for law firms and their employees.   As Hanson Bridgett writes: 

Court Reporter vs. Machine

An open letter by Deposition Reporters Association President Lisa Michaels on the differences between a professional court reporter and a tape recorder.