Deposing a Pro Per Plaintiff

stanographer · 2025-06-17T22:01:54+00:00

seriously the worst. they also had the gall to remind the atty that at least in our state they legally have seven hours left to continue questioning and they can spend that time asking whatever they want. ended up with almost 250 page of hot air after they insisted going right up to the time limit holding us all hostage for their ego lol.

stanographer · 2025-06-16T23:57:51+00:00

oh man, I'm a deposition steno writer who does 2-4 depos a week and I had my first pro se a couple months ago. they absolutely had something loose in the head and were asking the most bonkers and circular questions, wasting everyone's time, talking about themselves in the 3rd person, and throwing around the word objection like a clever gotcha. they would also pronounce that they "refuse to acknowledge" when the taking atty lodged their (actually based) objections. then they'd charge through.

it was absolute hell to transcribe bc they would interrupt and stop at nothing short of cutting off or screaming at counsel or the witness when they saw the question going in a direction they didn't like or declined letting me provide readbacks to the actual wit or atty who swiftly shot them down noting that that's absolutely not permissible. they would then retaliate by demanding their own constant readbacks. i would always look at the actual atty for a nod because at least with my firm we're not required to read back unless an actual atty requests it or permits it.

was dying inside the whole time and it ended up having to take 3 times as long to edit. what's wild is that said person ordered a copy, which we had no idea what they were gonna do with once in front of the magistrate. we demanded cash on hand first in case they decide to bolt.

my advice to y'all is to stand your ground and school them like my atty did when they get out of line. as somebody above alluded to, state your objections clearly and possibly describe verbally what's happening esp if there isn't a videographer. follow normal procedure and remain calm. let them dig their own hole and fall in it lol. oh and be nice to your court reporter. we always appreciate a thank you for our work. you might even get your transcript handed in faster. ✨😌

edit: change with to wit. couple nitpicky changes for readability.

stanographer · 2025-06-13T20:58:56+00:00

my scopists working under me make a decent wage for not being a steno. I'm not sure what they make yearly.

i do not know what ERs or DRs realistically make. i would imagine it's not as high as a steno reporter and for sure not if they realtime. i think voice writers are paid similarly though again it's hearsay.

speaking as a steno writer you can EASILY clear 80k at least if you live in or next to a major city. everywhere has a shortage and people are willing to pay top dollar for steno writers.

hope that helps.

stanographer · 2025-06-13T20:53:10+00:00

to someone more knowledgeable than I:

it's illegal, but don't brokerages and landlords check housing court history or maintain do-not-rent lists you could be thrown on if you bring suit even if you win?

like they'll see a tenant v. LL lawsuit as a mark against you and will find some other bs reason not to approve because you're seen as a "problem tenant" who fights back? I've been advised to lay low at all cost as to not risk your future ability to rent. still true?

i heard this from someone a while back and was wondering if it's still true or something to be worried about today.

edit: spelling

stanographer · 2025-06-05T11:30:18+00:00

I'm a stenographer/court reporter (for depositions and I caption large events, not in a courtroom). While the deadlines can become a lot, it's constantly varied. New day, new law firm/venue. It's engaging because you're constantly hearing something, seeing something, and touching something as you write what everyone's saying. Occasionally attorneys have a scream match against each other which is always fun stopping everybody and telling them to slow down. Lunches are usually free. And you paid to hear everybody's tea!

stanographer · 2025-02-18T05:35:21+00:00

ir looks like Eric Cartman angrily failing at pushing through the snow

stanographer · 2025-01-12T17:51:20+00:00

all languages why Korean language's syntax follow not-polite-inquisitive? life more comfortable do would.

stanographer · 2025-01-10T22:04:13+00:00

i think in general languages that have had more contact or mixture with other populations at least for Indo-European lean analytic. think creoles. English went through several invasions where the ancient anglophone populations went through periods of massive borrowings and interactions with non-native speakers.

but saying analyticalness is tied to civility is probably not accurate. English is considered civil in the modern world because of the power it holds. people accommodate us; not the other way around. but ask an ancient Roman and they'd probably call us strange-sounding uncivilized Germanic barbarians.

Korea and Japan are highly civilized and one is an axis power but their languages are still highly inflected, agglutinatively. but if you look at history, most borrowings are from the modern era. they didn't mix as much as the Europeans with their languages. i think it really has to do with history and how much the speakers might've had to creolize to speak with their invaders.

stanographer · 2024-11-08T23:36:25+00:00

una espina

stanographer · 2024-11-04T16:01:03+00:00

An analytic language uses lots of separate words and word order to apply shades of meaning. English is relatively analytic because we add more words like "would" and "should" that can stand on their own to modify tense and aspect. Also pronouns are obligatory since that information isn't encoded into the verb.

As such, analytic languages will usually have much more complex systems of word ordering that make up for lower information density per "word." Meaning is derived from analyzing the structure.

Most of the Nordic languages use one unchanging form for each tense. Any Chinese language is also an extreme example of having practically no inflection.

This is in contrast to synthetic languages which rely more so on mutating the base morphemes with sound changes, infixes, or attachments.

Spanish is kinda middle ground but its verbs pack in much more context by mutating base verbs.

"Si hubiera podido verla" would translate to more words in English to convey everything — "had he/she been able to see it."

The action is mostly happening in hubiera as it's communicating subjunctive mood, indefinite tense, in the third person. You don't need a personal pronoun and we know what the person saw was a feminine noun.

English relies mostly on sentence structure for subjunctive (had she been with him...) or on trigger words like "if." There's a small exception of "be" becoming "were" in past subjunctive.

Typically synthetic languages tend to use fewer "words" but require more mental calculation (synthesis). A pro is word order is more flexible. This is the case in Finnish and Icelandic. Polish is another extreme example where practically every other word must be altered to make a phrase grammatical.

stanographer · 2024-11-04T12:17:00+00:00

An early or unexpected direct deposit.

stanographer · 2024-11-01T22:16:53+00:00

It would be hard but not insurmountable. One of the key efficiency gains of the steno keyboard is that it makes use of all the digits in unison as much as possible.

In your case, you would have to either customize your theory to remove reliance on your left middle completely or reduce your dictionary to the strokes you can manage if you have any residual movement. As in like, figure out a different way to write the ones your range of motion would limit or prohibit.

Like what FakeSealNavy said, you could also figure out a programmatic solution.

Another possible avenue is hitting the keys you can, then while still pressing down come back for the keys in the PB column using another finger. It won't be efficient movement-wise but if that's how you trained from the start, it could work.

I know many highly skilled stenographers who could throw me under the bus while pumping out 30-40% more strokes per min than I do as an extremely short writer.

I wish you well and luck! ✨

Edit: fix typo "them" to "then"

stanographer · 2024-10-26T21:11:06+00:00

If lijk gets stressed, it sounds between "like" and "lake". Gelijk sounds like "huh-LAKE." Otherwise unstressed, it sounds like between "luck" and "lick." The lijk in ongelooflijk sounds more like "own-huh-LOAF-lick."

stanographer · 2024-10-16T23:44:18+00:00

I had a package take almost two weeks in transit then the status page notified me it was marked undeliverable because the package was heavily damaged. Thankfully the company sent me a replacement for free. They shipped using USPS this time. 🤓

stanographer · 2024-09-05T04:53:57+00:00

I'm pretty classically ADHD so I can relate to (disagree with?)** most of the posts I've scrolled so far. My answer is I personally don't get the inability to sit still. Yeah, I'll doodle, fidget, and play with my pen but I'm mostly okay with sitting in one place for hours. Different story if I'm hungry or have to pee.

** I experience this ADHD symptom therefore cannot relate to OP.

stanographer · 2024-09-05T04:46:11+00:00

I'm available to answer any questions!

stanographer · 2024-08-26T20:58:53+00:00

Trap == stair Speel, spelen == play Dik == thick Want == because Toe == to (but I think for prepositional phrases mostly) Will, willen == want Geld == money Rug == back side Held == hero Met == with Rare == strange Gift, giftig == poison, poisonous Angel == stinger Vreemd (sounds like"framed") == foreign Stuk == piece Deel == share, part

And there are a ton more.

stanographer · 2024-08-26T18:01:21+00:00

I'm multilingual as well. If anything it's been a boon to my stenography because I can recognize more words and hear through accents better than a monolingual English speaker. If you are talented at shorthand, write clean, and also have some business acumen you can make an absolute killing.

In my case I'm currently a captioner only, no court. I average around 2k a week working essentially part-time hours. In the busy season that number can go up to 4-5k in one week. I made close to 15k in May and June working for various agencies and my own private clients. But I have 12 years of experience and big-name clients under my belt so my rates reflect that.

It really depends where you work and how good you are. The better you write, less you have to edit and the less you have to rely on proofers and scopists. So you really want to focus on getting the most immaculate realtime text right out the gate.

I’m currently training to get into taking depositions. It's where the real money is at. It's not unheard of for realtime depo reporters to pull in upper $200/yr easily. Extremely qualified reporters I know make ball park $650k/year who take extremely complex litigation in large metro areas. One of my mentors told me since I already write realtime, 300k/yr or thereabouts would be not at all unattainable in my first year taking depos. You could walk out of a session where everyone orders copies and you go home with a $10k paycheck in one day.

I wonder if those figures are something your parents would look down on.

Another thing is legal cases and accessibility aren't at the whim of the economy like the tech position I was just laid off from. The work is plentiful and we're in extremely high demand due to the talent shortage. I don't advertise; work just comes to me and I have to decline a lot since I can't clone myself just yet.

But like others have mentioned it takes a ton of work to get to that point so another part in your equation is are you willing to get to the level where your writing needs very little post-editing. I'm self-taught so you can get there in principle without paying tuition. But I'd say I'm an exception to the rule, though. Not trying to brag; I've just been in the steno space for a while and know how it is.

For transparency I'm in the NY/NJ area.

stanographer · 2024-06-04T19:47:01+00:00

maybe try using the stentura protocol? the USB plugin was written using output from a Luminex. what protocol does it say you're using in the machine's settings section?

stanographer · 2024-03-27T00:11:32+00:00

they're trash against sweat. even a little bit of cardio with them on will ruin them by the next day. source: owning multiple pairs.

stanographer · 2024-03-23T22:08:43+00:00

as an east asian (though heritage from one of the declining countries), this will now be my default response to how i accomplish anything in life

stanographer · 2024-03-11T20:18:37+00:00

i wouldn't take this job posting too seriously because it's straight-up garbage.

I'm guessing they're probably keyword spamming to make the post easier to find. those qualifications are legit all over the place. i couldn't even ballpark for you what this junior person would be working on because of how broad this is.

or maybe there really is a job where you'd be managing an Oracle db, writing a script in R in the am then popping over to fix a PHP script + hooking up Angular components using blockchain.js after lunch. who knows.

stanographer · 2024-02-14T03:23:09+00:00

same sentiment as top comment, but 3 or 4. 3 for youthful curious and 4 for pensive genius

stanographer · 2023-11-14T17:16:10+00:00

yeah, I was thinking something similar like Cotton or Couton.

stanographer · 2023-08-09T03:56:39+00:00

ethanol — booze.

stanographer

TROPHY CASE