catuogno connection

Jam4Springfield Pays It Forward

November 21, 2012 By

Catuogno Court Reporting was proud to sponsor the Jam4Springfield concert that took place at the beginning of this month. We were also thrilled to be in attendance this morning when the concert’s coordinator, member of local rock legend FAT, and member our own sales team, Peter Newland, presented a check to the Springfield Open Pantry to help feed the hungry of the Springfield area.

Peter has worked endless hours over the past few months to put together the memorable and successful Jam4Springfield event. All of his hard work paid off as the event raised $10,000 for the Open Pantry. Peter presented the money this morning at the Basketball Hall of Fame during the annual Mayflower Marathon put on by Bax & O’Brien of Rock102 (as of this writing they have raised over $100,000 worth of food and donations!) Check out the pictures below of Peter at the event this morning.

Happy Thanksgiving from everyone at Catuogno Court Reporting & StenTel Transcription!

 

 

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Catuogno Court Reporting & StenTel Attend the 2012 ALA Conference

October 23, 2012 By

Catuogno Court Reporting and StenTel’s head of the Legal Divison, Dean Whalen, attended the 2012 Association of Legal Administrators conference at MGM Grand at Foxwoods. The ALA was founded in 1971 to provide support to professionals involved in the management of law firms, corporate legal departments and government legal agencies.

Dean Whalen at the CCR & StenTel Booth at the 2012 ALA Show

 

 Dean said, “The 2012 ALA conference was a great show. We had an opportunity to meet and interact with Legal Administrators in the surrounding areas and show them how StenTel’s legal services can greatly help their practices. We also were able to meet with existing customers and get great feedback. A great time was had by all in a beautiful setting of the MGM Grand.  Also, I came away a 50 dollar winner at the Casino!”

 

Dean Whalen and Shawn Connors of Murphy Hesse Toomey & Lehane, LLP of Quincy, MA. Shawn was the winner of our raffle for the 5 liter bottle of wine!

Dean Whalen and Shawn Connors of Murphy Hesse Toomey & Lehane, LLP of Quincy, MA. Shawn was the winner of our raffle for the 5 liter bottle of wine!

   

Dean Whalen with Catherine Knaus of Houd & Loudorf Law Offices

 

Dean Whalen and Gail Faherty, Administrator for Hammond Law Office and Communications Director of the ALA Region 1

 

For more information on the Association of Legal Administrators visit their website. http://www.alanet.org/

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Support A Great Cause with Jam 4 Springfield!

October 9, 2012 By

Catuogno Court Reporting is proud to announce that we will be sponsoring a great cause through the Jam 4 Springfield 2012 concert. Coming up on November 3, there will be a fantastic benefit concert to raise funds for the Open Pantry’s Emergency Food Pantry. The show will feature local rock legends FAT (including our very own Peter Newland of our sales team!), The James Montgomery Band and The Spampinato  Brothers  (of NRBQ). The show is going to benefit the Pantry in conjunction with the annual Bax & O’Brien’s Rock 102 Mayflower Marathon which filled three 48 foot trailers with food and raised over $80,000 last year.

The Open Pantry Emergency Food Pantry has provided  critical services for the hungry, homeless, and disadvantaged in the Springfield, MA area since 1975. Last January, The Open Pantry was forced to temporarily shut their doors when they ran out of food and could no longer supply Springfield’s hungry families with meals. With an expected 20% increase in people seeking food assistance this year, we want to make sure that they don’t have to shut their doors again.

The Jam 4 Springfield event is scheduled to take place at the famed Paramount Theater on Main Street in Springfield at 7pm on Saturday, November 3. Don’t miss what is sure to be a great event to support a fantastic cause and help our friends and neighbors right here in the Springfield area. You can purchase tickets online at the Jam 4 Springfield website or call 1-877-725-8849. If you purchase advance tickets the Springfield Parking Authority (SPA) is providing free parking at the Taylor Street and Columbus Center Garages. We expect the event to sell out quickly so show your support and purchase your tickets today!

Check out this video of a 2010 performance by FAT!

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A Court Reporting Documentary on the Horizon

July 20, 2012 By

A new documentary started filming at the beginning of June detailing the life of a court reporter! As members of the industry, we here at Catuogno are obviously very excited about the impending film.

Headed up by Marc Greenberg, owner of SimplySteno an online court reporting program, this documentary will follow court reporting superstar Mark Kislingbury as he works to reach an astonishing 400 words per minute.  For those of you who don’t know, Mark Kislingbury already holds a Guiness World Record for fastest court reporter at an astonishing 360wpm. Greenberg and his crew will follow Kislingbury’s crusade to beat his own record for a full year starting with the NCRA conference coming up in Philadelphia in just a couple of weeks. The plan is to wrap up filming at the 2013 conference.

There already seems to be a fair amount of excitement in the court reporting industry surrounding the endeavor. Just three days after launching the project on the popular fundraising site Kickstarter, the goal for money needed for filming and production was exceeded! Greenberg has already started interviewing professionals in the industry starting with NCRA president Doug Friend. Check out the video of that interview and one from Deputy District Attorney Wayne Kraft below.

Follow the progress of the film at their website www.courtreportingmovie.com

 

 

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Visit Us at the RI Bar Annual Meeting!

June 14, 2012 By

Catuogno Court Reporting & StenTel Transcription is at the Rhode Island Bar Association Annual Meeting taking place at the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence. The show is taking place today and tomorrow so stop in and see us at our booth! Our CEO Ray Catuogno and Dean Whalen our Director of Legal Sales will be there to answer all of your questions about our services and let you know how Catuogno & StenTel can help your law firm. Plus, you can enter our raffles to win some great prizes. Prizes up for grabs are a 5 liter bottle of wine (check out the picture below to see how big it is!) and 4 tickets to see the Red Sox play at Fenway.

Catuogno Court Reporting @ The RI Bar Show

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Court Reporters are Technology

May 30, 2012 By

This week we came across a little video made by the Michigan Association of Professional Court Reporters in which they proclaim “We Are Technology!” In a world where everything seems to be making the transfer to being fully machine automated it is a good reminder that they can’t do everything. Right now (and hopefully not anytime in the near future!) there is no recording machine that can truly replace a court reporter. The professional court reporter is still the best technology that there is when it comes to turning speech into text.  A person can always learn a new skill, improve upon their work, or even recognize a mistake. A computer or recording device still needs a person to do that. Seems to me like the court reporter will always have the upper hand there.

The other great thing about this video is that it goes through some of the different jobs that a court reporter can do with their skills. It’s not always just about sitting in court rooms or depositions. If you don’t know much about the field hopefully this video will encourage you to learn more. If you are a court reporter, leave us a comment with other areas where you have used your steno skills.

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Catuogno Court Reporting & StenTel Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!

March 21, 2012 By

May the road rise to meet you,

May the wind be always at your back,

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

The rains fall soft upon your fields, and

Until we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of His hand

_______________________________________________________________________________

St. Patrick's Day at StenTel

On Friday, March 16th, Catuogno Court Reporting and StenTel celebrated Saint Patrick’s Day! Ray Catuogno, CEO of the Catuogno Court Reporting and StenTel, treated all of the Springfield employees to a green and festive breakfast! We had green sprinkled donuts, mint-chocolate donuts, fresh fruit, and coffee.

St. Patrick's Day at StenTel

Jason at StenTel Sandy at StenTel

 

We also had a “Lucky Guess” game for all to play! We had a jar of Skittles and everyone had to try and guess how many Skittles were in the jar. The employee who guessed the closest, without going over, won a $25 Visa giftcard.

How many Skittles do you think are in this jar?

Stentel Skittles

There were 973 Skittles in this jar!

 An employee from our Boston office had the closest guess – 936! St. Patrick’s Day in the office was a huge hit. There were lots of laughs, full tummies, and fun Irish cheer!

Did you partake in any Saint Patrick’s Day festivities? We are always looking for fun new ways to celebrate in the office, if you have any ideas comment or email us at Marketing.Sales@StenTel.com

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Court Reporting- A Dying Career or a Dwindling Group?

March 16, 2012 By

Since the advent of the tape recorder,  rumors have flown that court reporting as a career is going the way of the dodo. Decades later, court reporters are still a necessary part of the legal world. Thankfully, the tape recorder didn’t take over when everyone realized how cumbersome it was to try to locate a specific section of tape and then hope that the audio was of decent quality. The most recent threat has come with the improvement of voice recognition technology and software.

Speech recognition definitely has the potential to become a part of the court room as budgets are tightened. Currently the technology isn’t advanced enough to truly replace a court reporter but who knows how long that will last. It is hard to imagine how a computer would ever be able to accurately identify different speakers, accents, or discern if something is being read and should be placed in quotation marks. For the sake of our hardworking court reporters, lets hope that the technology is still a long time coming.

speech-recognition

Can you imagine if the courts used speech recognition and got results like this?

It seems fairly evident that court reporters will be needed for quite awhile but that begs the question of will there be enough of them left? The average court reporter today is in their fifties and the number of individuals entering the profession is on the decline. The lack of interest is resulting in fewer and fewer schools offering programs. Just last week AIB College of Business in Iowa announced they are dropping their court reporting program due to lack of enrollment. Pretty soon it won’t be easy for the aspiring court reporter to find a school.

So to all you court reporters out there- Tell people about your job and encourage them to become part of the elite field of court reporters.

 

On a lighter note, here is an amusing bit taken from the actual transcript of a court reporter:

Q: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?

A: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.

Q: And Mr. Dennington was dead at the time?

A: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy.

 

 

Leave us a comment with the funniest or most bizarre moment that you’ve had on the job.

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Catuogno Court Reporting & StenTel “Fight For Air” With the American Lung Association

March 7, 2012 By

On Saturday, March 3rd the American Lung Association held its 4th annual “Fight For Air Climb.” The purpose of the climb was to draw attention to the American Lung Associations mission which is, “Our focus is on healthy air, tobacco control and all lung disease, including asthma and COPD.  Our mission is to save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease.” The climb served as a fundraiser for the American Lung Association which has been helping people quit smoking, funding research, advocating for healthy air, and educating millions about asthma since 1904.

The climb was held at One Monarch Place in Springfield, Massachusetts. One Monarch Place is home to Catuogno Court Reporting and StenTel. Our main office has been located at One Monarch Place since 1995. Many employees from Catuogno Court Reporting and StenTel joined in the climb as “the Cat’s Climbers”.  Our CEO, Ray Catuogno, was one of many who climbed the 528 stairs to the top of the 24th floor.  The Cat’s Climbers raised a total of $957.00 for the American Lung Association.

Fight for Air

_________________________________________________________________________________

Cat’s Climbers Times
Time Name Place
0:03:59 Catherine Brunelle 22
0:04:08 Kathy Monthei 26
0:04:20 Christian Barthelette 35
0:05:27 Kristine Sweetman 80
0:12:00 Michael Knowlton 191
0:12:26 Raymond Catuogno 19

 

 _________________________________________________________________________________

 

“The support of the volunteers and fellow climbers gave me the motivation to strive to beat my time from last year.” -  Kathy Monthei   

Also participating in the climb were fire departments from across New England. The Hadley Fire Department, Northampton Fire Local 108, Agawam Fire Department , Easthampton Fire Department, Holyoke Fire Department , Monson Fire Department Association, Stamford Fire Local 786, and Westbrook Fire Department were in attendance in full firefighter gear to climb to the 24th floor. Saturday’s climb raised a total of $52,897.34 for the American Lung Association!

If you would like to find out more about the American Lung Association, their next climb, or to donate, check out their website.

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Thank A Court Reporter

February 29, 2012 By

Here at Catuogno Court Reporting, we have decided to take the opportunity in this week’s blog to show a little extra appreciation to our court reporters and all of their hardworking colleagues out there.

court reporter

Most people who don’t interact with the court reporting world hear “court reporter” and automatically picture someone sitting in the courtroom typing away. They don’t ever picture that same person dedicating an extraordinary amount of their personal time to editing and proofreading their work before producing the final transcript. Court reporters don’t just put in their eight hours and call it a day. They often give up time with their families and put off everyday errands that we take for granted because an attorney has requested an expedited transcript.

I came across a news story about a court reporter from South Dakota, Ken Howell, who worked for 4 straight months without taking a day off to complete a 4,325 page transcript from a month long murder conviction appeal. All the while, he was still going to court each day and recording more proceedings. Can you even imagine going to work 40 hours a week and then adding on your “regular” editing and proofing to preparing a transcript that big? Check out the picture below of Ken Howell standing next to the final transcript (keep in mind that he stands well over 6 feet tall.) Click here to read the story.

Court Reporter Ken Howell

Court reporter Ken Howell next to his 4,325 page transcript.

I also found some court reporter appreciation going on in Wisconsin every year. Since 2007, they have had Court Reporter Appreciation Week every October.  Some of the judges send their court reporters nice letters thanking them for their work and others hold luncheons to show their appreciation. I think Wisconsin is doing this right and other places should get on board!

So to all of our court reporters we send out a great big “Thank you!” for all of your hard work.

 

Leave a comment showing some court reporter appreciation!

If you are a court reporter, leave us one telling how many pages your longest transcript was.

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