As of today, when you call Independent Reporters, you will be greeted by our automated phone attendant and given three options on what you would like to do. This will make it easier for you to directed right to the person that coordinates the services that you wish to schedule. With having offices in both Calgary and Edmonton, some things were a bit redundant and we needed to streamline things for our clients. For example, our Edmonton office coordinates all reporter scheduling while the Calgary office coordinates all matters technical. Introducing the new phone system will route our clients right to the person that you need to speak with and provide more immediate service for your requests.
Pressing 1 will likely be the main option you will use. This will take you directly to our staff who will schedule your upcoming court reporting and video conferencing service requests. This is also the same team that can assist you with any transcript questions.
Pressing 3will take you to the person best able to help you with any technical support areas for video conferencing and legal video services.
While out of order here in the list, pressing 2takes you to the staff members that handle and coordinate CART and captioning services for clients. For our legal clients, this is best used when you have a hard-of-hearing person that needs realtime accessibility in a proceeding.
After updating our web site this past fall, we had some occasional issues with the online booking form not working correctly. We have done a major overhaul to what we had and, we are happy to say, that the online booking for is now fixed, updated, and easier to use than before.
Now when you schedule court reporters in either Calgary or Edmonton, the form is quicker for you to use. We’ve also added a much simpler way to pick dates from an online calendar which now includes a start and end date for the booking.
After you have entered the information, a detailed confirmation is now sent to you after you click on the Submit button. Previously you just received a message that the scheduling information was sent. As usual, our office will also send an official confirmation so that you know it has been inputted and you will have a court reporter for the day(s) you requested.
One last thing we want to make sure you know about, for every online booking that you schedule through IR, we provide a $1.00 donation to the Humane Society in the city that you schedule services. In 2015 our clients scheduled 396 online bookings through the IR web site, so we rounded-up and provided the Humane Societies with $400. The more you schedule online, the more we will send next year!
Being a court reporting company in Canada we also provide deposition services to attorneys in the United States. One thing that someone reviewing a deposition transcript is the Canadian spellings of words versus how they are spelled in the U.S.
In Canada we primarily use British spellings, but some words may also incorporate U.S. spellings. American spelling of words were originally based off of the British spelling, but over time grammarists in the United States have made the words spelled more like they sound.
Well, Canadians don’t follow ALL British spelling rules, such as the two below:
gaol (British) jail (Canada/U.S.)
tyre (British) tire (Canada/U.S.)
However, in many other instances, Canadians do tend to use the spelling in the same manner as the British. In many ways this does help to offer some clarity when reading text in a transcript.
Here are two words in the sentences below that use Canadian/British spellings in a sentence:
The electric meter on the house is approximately 1.2 metres from ground level.
and Let me check with the office to see if the cheque was mailed out to you.
In the first sentence, if this text was being produced by a court reporter in the U.S., the word, meter/metre, would be simply put in as meter. However, in Canada, we use different spellings for each. Meter – a device used to measure usage is different from metre, which is spelling used to measure distance. You can see how this actually helps to provide the reader with a better understanding of which meter refers to what form of measurement.
The second example is check and cheque. The word cheque refers to a form of payment while check refers to an action of confirmation.
Other words used in Canadian spellings that maintain the British rules are -our words, such as colour and neighbour. Also, words with -ing endings will double the “l”, such as travelling.
Court reporters with our firm maintain a listing of other unique words that are spelled using the Canadian/British spellings. Our go-to reference dictionary at Calgary/Edmonton Independent Reporters is the Canadian Oxford Dictionary. There is a great video on the Oxford Blog – British & American Spellings that provides even more information on differences in Canadian/British and U.S. spellings. Check it out and you will see why we spell words the way we do.
Now, the next time you receive a transcript from a court reporter in Canada and notice some different spellings, you will have a better understanding on why we spell some words just a little bit different than you.
Since it is Earth Day today, the question to us always comes up, Can a court reporting company be friendly to the environment? Yes, we can, and we are! Both Calgary and Edmonton Independent Reporters are Certified Green by the NNRC Green Commission.
People are curious to know how, in an industry that is very tied to paper transcripts, what was done to be a green company. Independent Reporters undertook the challenge of the NNRC Green Commission to meet their standards and become the first, and ONLY, court reporting company in Canada to be certified green! The management team at IR felt it was the right thing to do to reduce the impact we make on the environment. We know our industry creates a lot of waste, but by making changes in both our Calgary and Edmonton offices, we are doing our part to minimize our footprint on the planet.
What Did We Do To Go Green?
Here is a brief summary of some of the steps IR took to receive our Green Certification.
Promote paperless transcripts
Print all transcripts two-sided (have been since 1996)
Use minimum 30% recycled paper for transcripts
In-house recycling program for all recyclables
Use electronic memos/emails instead of paper
Turn off all non-essential equipment at night
Use e-waste programs for all electronic disposal
Replace computer equipment with Energy Star equipment
Use recycled paper for letterhead and promo material
Replace all office lighting with energy efficient lights
Use power saving features on computers/printers
Promote staff to work from home where possible
What are the benefits to our clients?
By using Independent Reporters for your court reporting services you can do help us to help the environment. When you place a Green Order you will receive a $15.00 credit on your invoice for each transcript that you order, plus there are also no delivery charges. Please note that if you were the examiner and ordered, then we will still need to deliver the original paper transcript to you for filing purposes. This will incur a delivery charge
Contact us to learn more first-hand about our green court reporting services.
Pressing 1 will likely be the main option you will use. This will take you directly to our staff who will schedule your upcoming court reporting and video conferencing service requests. This is also the same team that can assist you with any transcript questions.
