Recommendations to others considering Steno Court Reporting:
DONT AND RUN AWAY AS FAST AS YOU CAN. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
What problems is Steno Court Reporting solving and how is that benefiting you?
I do not know what problems they are solving, but they are certainly creating some. I hired them for takedown on a case I was trying for 1 and 1/2 days. The other side agreed on the record to share in takedown. At the end of the first day I requested an invoice. I was told I would get that at the end of the trial. The trial ended after one and a half days of trial on the second day. My clients were billed by me for a total of 14 hours in court. The court reporter provided me a final statement at the conclusion of the trial for $950.00. I was told that was my one-half portion of the day and a half trial, which came to an hourly takedown rate for the 14 hours of $135.71 if you double my payment for the total charge. I thought that was an extremely unreasonable charge, but elected to just pay it, which was immediately done. Then I am contacted by the company stating that the $950.00 was the total portion due for day one and that I owed them another $1,900.00 for the second (much shorter) day two. We are not talking transcriptions.
We are talking takedowns. If the $1900 is for day two and the $900 was one-half of the charge for day one, this company was attempting to charge me $3800.00 for takedown for 14 hours in court, or at an hourly rate of $271.43. The going rate in my community for take down is between $35.00 and $46.00 and hour. This company was attempting to charge me more than $225.00 an hour higher rate that the highest rate now in our community. I attempted to explain the situation to them logically, but I guess they do not see a problem in someone paying more than $271.00 an hour for a takedown in court.
I have requested anything in writing from them showing I authorized playing that absurd rate for a court reporter. I have yet to see anything come my way with my signature. Apparently they do not see a problem with their excessive charge as they are threatening to sue me if I do not pay, rather than check their own records to see if their charges are even accurate from their own perspective.
Run from this company. This is the worst rip off I have seen in my entire 49-50 years of practice. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
