 Interview and graphics are created Swan By Grace 1. What is your name and your profession? Sandra
Marlow 2. What made you choose this line of work? I had a good friend who became a court reporter right out of high school, and when she demonstrated her steno machine for me, I was fascinated. The more I learned, it sounded like a very professional career, great pay, never boring, meeting all kinds of people under difficult circumstances, and being involved in the legal arena always interested me. 3. Has it been a long life dream? LOL, no. I went to 4 1/2 years of college before I decided to go to court reporting school. I really didn't know what I wanted to do and once I started researching court reporting, fate just seemed to take over. 4. Do you find any satisfaction in what you do? Yes.
This question is two-fold. First, there is satisfaction in my job
in knowing that I'm helping "find the truth" in a lot of
lawsuits. Being a freelance court reporter, I take depositions, I'm not
in the courtroom. When attorneys take depositions, this is called
discovery, to discover what the opposing side knows and what any
witnesses may know and what experts for the opposing side will
testify to in court. Most depositions cruise along just fine,
question, answer, question, answer, etc. But once in a while you
can tell when an attorney hits on something and exposes information that
was held back, catches someone in a lie, that type of thing. It's
nice to know my work product will be used in court to impeach witnesses
who lie or dodge things and justice actually is served. Second,
satisfaction comes for me when I have finished
transcribing a three-day deposition consisting of anywhere from 150
to 250 pages. There is a huge sigh of relief when the last word is
transcribed and the job is basically done. All that is left is
giving it to the proofreader, making corrections 5. What kind of benefits do you receive? LOL, the benefits in being a freelance reporter is the pay! And perhaps if an attorney lets you know how well a job you did on his last deposition. Most deposition reporters are self-employed; therefore, we pay for our own insurance (medical, life, disability, etc.), our own equipment and materials, i.e., steno machine, laptop and/or desktop computer, printer, desks, fax machine, copy paper, steno paper, etc., and if we take vacation or a day off, we do not get paid. For those of us who freelance, it is a tradeoff. We are our own boss, we work at home, we can take off whatever time we choose, and even if we choose to work part-time, we still make a very significant salary. 6. Are there downfalls with this job? Oh, yes! And in this job it depends on how you define "downfalls." The everyday, just-like-any-job downfalls happen all the time. There are times I love my job when both the witness and the attorney follow all the rules and speak one at a time, don't speak very rapidly, speak clearly and distinctly so I can hear every word. Then there are those times when I hate my job when everyone in the room is mad at one another and they're yelling all at the same time so it's impossible for me to take anything down, I dread working with a certain attorney in town because he talks so fast I can barely keep up with him, I have to take three doctors' depositions in one day and I hate taking doctors' depositions because of their terminology, and this list could go on forever! The other "downfalls" in court reporting comes from a whole different avenue. As a profession we are constantly fighting legislation in Washington D.C. for such things as electronic recording (ER), voice-activated software, and contracting (a reporting firm giving special favors of some kind to an attorney's office or an insurance company to get all their work -- we are supposed to be disinterested third parties at all times -- if we contract with a firm we can't be disinterested). Because technology becomes obsolete so quickly and new discoveries are made all the time, I do believe that eventually there will be voice-activated software invented that will be able to do my job almost as well as I do; however, I don't think it will happen in my lifetime. Software has yet to be able to distinguish words when a person has an accent, it can't distinguish between what we call conflicts, i.e., bear and bare; weight and wait; they're, there, and their; hear and here; I'll and aisle and this list is humongous, and that software can't yet tell when a witness is shaking their head instead of saying "no" to answer a question or nodding their when saying "yes." Our profession so far has successfully defeated ER over the years so we will not lose our jobs to a tape recorder and we have also successfully defeated contracting so that we keep our disinterested status. 7. Is it a career or just a job? After 19 years, I hope it's a career! I still enjoy reporting. I get a mini education every time I go to a deposition. I have heard everything about airplanes and pilots, how seat belts are made, how silicone was first used in breast implants, crop dusting, how police officers investigate automobile accidents, how experts review a case and come to certain conclusions concerning who is at fault in a car accident, why some company is liable for the death of an employee because of faulty equipment and that's just the short list! I never know what the subject of my next deposition will be. It is always a surprise! 8. Is there a historical(?) figure that you admire in your profession? No historical figure, no. I admire most reporters in my profession because they are 98% women. Reporting used to be a male-dominated field and now there are hardly any men reporting at all throughout the United States. Most reporting firms are owned by women and run very successfully. I'm proud to be part of such a great profession. 9. Where do you draw support from to remain where you are in your career? From
other reporters. Only another reporter can understand what we go
through on a daily basis. Our job is very difficult. That is
why we are certified by the State of California at 200 words per minute
with 97.5% accuracy. We are tested over two days, the first day
comprising a written examination in law, procedural law, medical
terminology, anatomy, English, vocabulary, and state and federal codes;
and the second day is comprised of a 15-minute test at 200 wpm with
four voices (to simulate the judge, two attorneys, and a witness) which
we have to type from our notes in a certain amount of time. Our
job is very stressful. Attorneys want their transcripts yesterday.
So we have to drop everything -- EVERYTHING -- and transcribe that
deposition and get it to the client. You can talk all you want
about your day to your husband and/or wife, your mother and/or father,
your sister and/or brother and they will never understand totally what you're
saying. Only another reporter can 10. Could you share a special anecdote about you profession? One
time during a deposition, it became very heated between the two
attorneys. The yelling got to the point where they were standing
nose to nose over the conference table screaming every word in the book
at each other. One attorney finally said, "Do you want
to take this outside?" I was thinking to myself, yes, take it
outside! If they come to blows, because I'm sitting at the
head of the table between them, I'll take the first few hits! And,
of course, the whole time I'm writing furiously to get 11. What are you responsibilities? My responsibility is to stenographically record sworn testimony and transcribe such. I swear each witness to tell the truth, and during the depo it is up to me to get the record by telling the attorney or witness to slow down, to repeat a word I didn't understand, to mark any exhibits (and keep the exhibit numbers straight if the attorney decides he wants to mark the exhibits himself!), and then I transcribe the deposition with the use of my laptop that has specialized reporting software, but I still have to look up any unusual names, medical terminology, medications, anything and everything you can imagine. I must have the transcript proofread and then I make the corrections to the transcript and print an original, certify it, and turn it in to the office I worked for for that deposition so they can copy and bill it to the correct parties. 12. Did you receive special education for profession? Yes,
four years' worth! 13.How long have you been doing this line of work and how has it changed since you've been with it? I have been reporting 19 years. The biggest change in my profession has been the computer. When I first started in 1986, I dictated my notes onto a cassette tape and gave that tape to a transcriptionist or I could type the transcript myself. The profession began to utilize computers in an effort to save our jobs. Legislation for ER is the longest-running battle court reporters have had. We had to come up with a way to make ourselves more indispensable to the attorneys and judges. With our laptops we can now prepare a transcript overnight if necessary, attorneys can hook up to our computers with their own and see our steno notes pop up on their screen in English as we write the testimony, official reporters in the courtrooms can take dailies where one reporter will begin a trial and after a certain amount of time another reporter will relieve the first so that first reporter can go transcribe what notes she's taken so far and then return to the courtroom and relieve the second reporter so she can now transcribe what notes she has and so it goes throughout the trial. This was done very effectively in the O.J. Simpson trial. The computer has been a very strong advocate for the court reporting profession. 14. What are you goals in your career? LOL, to retire! I'm happy where I'm at at this point. Goals would be to own your own deposition firm or to convert to captioning (the closed captioning you see on your TV -- yes, reporters do that!) and there a couple of other things, but at this point I have no desire to do either of those. I have a great rapport with our clients and I'm good at what I do. I'll stay right where I am!
Thank
you, Sandra for sharing with us, a piece of your life.
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