A certified court reporter has a heavy workload. The courtroom and deposition services offered include not just taking the testimony but transcribing it and the transcription process can be involved and tedious. Many reporters choose to hire scopists to help out.
The Role of a Scopist
A scopist is like a proofreader, but one with specialized training required when providing deposition services. They have many of the same skills and personal qualities as court reporters such as attention to detail, a broad range of knowledge and the ability to read machine shorthand.
The court reporter contracts with a scopist to assist with the production of the final transcript. The scopist receives a rough transcript along with audio recordings and supplementary documentation. The scopist proofreads the transcript, making corrections as well as confirming it matches the audio recording. However the duties go beyond simple correction of mistakes. Scopists work closely with reporters and help them with tasks such as updating their translation dictionary and adding new keystroke combinations that allow future transcriptions to go faster.
Scopists - Bad Ones and Good Ones
Get a group of reporters talking about deposition services, and someone will chime in with a few "bad scopist" stories. Unfortunately there are some people out there who are overwhelmed by the profession and ultimately don't provide good work. They end up costing a reporter more money as the transcript has to be edited again by the reporter after the scopist edits it.
However there are also many exceptionally talented scopists out there. Sometimes they seem hard to find because they are in such high demand and the best ones aren't taking new clients. It's worth the search to find one because a good scopist makes a reporter's life much easier.
What Can A Scopist Do For You?
A reporter and scopist are more than just two people working together. They are a team that provides better service than either could alone. The reporter can offload some of the more routine, and yet no less important, work onto a trusted partner. Knowing the work will be done correctly and on time, the reporter now has extra hours in the day.
Some reporters use these extra hours to expand their deposition services and take on more clients. Others use scopists only occasionally to help with the feast or famine nature of the freelance profession. When a backlog builds, they can depend on the scopist to carry the load until things slow down.
A growing trend is for court reporters to use scopists to help balance their lives. Court reporting is not a profession where you can put the work on hold. When it needs to be done, it needs to be done now and that can be hard on a reporter's family life and stress level. When a scopist shares the burden, the reporter can even out the workload and be a happier person.
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