Court Calendar Life is a Daily Juggle

Posted bystenoimperiumPosted inCourt Reporting, Legal ServicesTags:, , , , , , , , , ,

For many, the term “calendar manager” conjures up an image of someone neatly organizing appointments, ensuring everything runs smoothly, and calmly coordinating schedules. But for those of us who live it, we know the reality is far from a serene desk job. In the world of court reporting, being a calendar manager is akin to being an air traffic controller—juggling countless moving pieces, resolving conflicts before they turn into disasters, and managing last-minute surprises that seem to materialize out of thin air.

The Morning Scramble

The day typically starts with a fresh batch of emails, voicemails, and text messages from attorneys, law firms, and reporters. Overnight cancellations, reschedules, and urgent new requests flood in. There’s a deposition that just got pushed up by an hour, a last-minute request for a real-time reporter, and a law firm calling to make sure the reporter they requested is still available.

As I sip my coffee (which, let’s be honest, is usually cold by the time I get to it), I begin triaging. Which reporters are already scheduled? Who can take a last-minute job? Who has a specific client request? Who is available to cover a 7:00 a.m. video deposition two counties away? The balancing act has begun.

The Assignment Puzzle

Once the fire drills are momentarily under control, it’s time to assign jobs. But it’s not as simple as plugging names into a schedule. Every job has specific requirements—some attorneys have their favorite reporters, some depositions require specialized skills like real-time or CART, and others need a reporter who is comfortable covering highly technical patent cases.

And then there’s the human factor. Some reporters prefer to stay within certain regions, while others don’t mind a bit of a drive (especially if there’s mileage reimbursement involved). Some reporters have kids to drop off in the morning or evening commitments that limit how late they can work. Some prefer multi-day trials, while others thrive on short and sweet half-day depos.

There’s an art to this process—a delicate balance between matching the right reporter to the right job while keeping everyone happy.

The Confirmations Begin

With assignments set, confirmations start rolling out. Emails, calls, and texts go out to reporters and law firms, ensuring everyone knows where they need to be and when. Ideally, the schedule stays intact, but more often than not, the chaos continues. A reporter calls in sick, a client requests a specific videographer who is already booked, or an attorney suddenly changes the location of the depo to an entirely different city—just an hour before it’s set to begin.

It’s a full-time game of Tetris, shifting and rearranging assignments, calling in favors, and ensuring no deposition goes uncovered.

The Mayhem and Mishaps

Ask any calendar manager, and they’ll have their fair share of war stories. There was the time a reporter was sent to the wrong address—twice. Or the deposition that required an interpreter, only to have the interpreter show up fluent in the wrong language. Or the court reporter who arrived at a firm only to discover the entire building was locked, with no way to contact the attorney who had scheduled the depo.

Then there are the unexpected client quirks—lawyers who forget to tell us their depo requires a real-time transcript until the morning of, witnesses who cancel five minutes before a start time, or firms who schedule three depositions in one day but don’t bother to mention that they all require different types of specialists.

And let’s not forget the dreaded “reporter double-booking” fiasco—when a last-minute assignment gets accepted by multiple calendar managers, and two reporters show up at the same location, both believing they were assigned the job. Awkward, to say the least.

The Unsung Heroes

Through all the madness, calendar managers remain the backbone of the court reporting industry. While reporters are out in the field covering depositions, calendar teams are behind the scenes ensuring schedules are filled, confirmations are made, and emergencies are handled.

Reporters rely on calendar managers to be their eyes and ears before they even step into a deposition. They need to trust that the job details are accurate, that all special requests have been noted, and that they won’t be sent to the wrong place at the wrong time (at least, not on purpose!).

Why It Matters

For court reporters, understanding the controlled chaos of calendar management can lead to a better working relationship with scheduling teams. Flexibility, prompt communication, and a bit of patience go a long way in helping us do our jobs effectively. Likewise, calendar managers appreciate reporters who keep their availability updated, confirm assignments quickly, and communicate when issues arise.

At the end of the day, we’re all in this together. Whether it’s a high-profile case or a routine deposition, the goal is the same: ensuring seamless coverage and top-tier service for clients. And despite the daily madness, the satisfaction of pulling off the impossible—finding coverage for a last-minute depo, coordinating a multi-location proceeding, or simply getting everyone where they need to be—makes the chaos worth it.

So, the next time you get a call from your calendar manager at an odd hour or receive a frantic email about a schedule change, just know—it’s all part of the fast-paced, unpredictable, and strangely exhilarating world of court reporting scheduling. And yes, while we schedule, assign, and confirm—nothing about it is ever that easy!

Published by stenoimperium

We exist to facilitate the fortifying of the Stenography profession and ensure its survival for the next hundred years! As court reporters, we've handed the relationship role with our customers, or attorneys, over to the agencies and their sales reps.  This has done a lot of damage to our industry.  It has taken away our ability to have those relationships, the ability to be humanized and valued.  We've become a replaceable commodity. Merely saying we are the “Gold Standard” tells them that we’re the best, but there are alternatives.  Who we are though, is much, much more powerful than that!  We are the Responsible Charge.  “Responsible Charge” means responsibility for the direction, control, supervision, and possession of stenographic & transcription work, as the case may be, to assure that the work product has been critically examined and evaluated for compliance with appropriate professional standards by a licensee in the profession, and by sealing and signing the documents, the professional stenographer accepts responsibility for the stenographic or transcription work, respectively, represented by the documents and that applicable stenographic and professional standards have been met.  This designation exists in other professions, such as engineering, land surveying, public water works, landscape architects, land surveyors, fire preventionists, geologists, architects, and more.  In the case of professional engineers, the engineering association adopted a Responsible Charge position statement that says, “A professional engineer is only considered to be in responsible charge of an engineering work if the professional engineer makes independent professional decisions regarding the engineering work without requiring instruction or approval from another authority and maintains control over those decisions by the professional engineer’s physical presence at the location where the engineering work is performed or by electronic communication with the individual executing the engineering work.” If we were to adopt a Responsible Charge position statement for our industry, we could start with a draft that looks something like this: "A professional court reporter, or stenographer, is only considered to be in responsible charge of court reporting work if the professional court reporter makes independent professional decisions regarding the court reporting work without requiring instruction or approval from another authority and maintains control over those decisions by the professional court reporter’s physical presence at the location where the court reporting work is performed or by electronic communication with the individual executing the court reporting work.” Shared purpose The cornerstone of a strategic narrative is a shared purpose. This shared purpose is the outcome that you and your customer are working toward together. It’s more than a value proposition of what you deliver to them. Or a mission of what you do for the world. It’s the journey that you are on with them. By having a shared purpose, the relationship shifts from consumer to co-creator. In court reporting, our mission is “to bring justice to every litigant in the U.S.”  That purpose is shared by all involved in the litigation process – judges, attorneys, everyone.  Who we are is the Responsible Charge.  How we do that is by Protecting the Record.

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