Why Not?

It happened again. Earlier today I was setting up in the conference room at a law firm in which I had never been. As I sat there awaiting the arrival of the doctor who was to be deposed and the plaintiff’s attorney, the attorney who would be taking the depo came in and said, “Are you the doctor?”

The same thing goes through my mind every time this occurs…yes, I am the doctor (Doctor of Court Reporting). Of course I politely said, “No, I’m the reporter.” But I just don’t want to anymore. Why can’t I be the doctor for once? After all, aren’t I the one in the room with the skill no one else has? And for that matter, aren’t I the only one on the floor and perhaps the entire building with my skill? And let’s face it…I may be the only person in the five-block walk from my office that has my skill.

I realize that the title of doctor is reserved for very few. I think we can all agree that a medical doctor deserves the title. After all, isn’t the name doctor meant for them? Then there are chiropractors who get to be doctors, and I have to say that the ones I’ve met in depositions don’t seem very medical to me. But okay, I’ll concede the point.

Then there are doctors in a variety of very non-medical fields that get the honor of being called doctor, people who have taken the time to study and earn one additional degree beyond a Master’s. I have never begrudged them their due, but why just them? There’s a lot of them, and although there are many geniuses and men and women of great talent in their group, there’s honestly a lot of people with nothing that would distinguish them from others in their field, except they turned in a paper. Okay…a damned good paper, but a paper nonetheless.

And now we get back to us, the lowly, ignored, taken-for-granted little court reporter who is easily the hardest working person in the room. And yes, we sometimes get paid well, but we deserve it, don’t we? We’re the hardest working person in the room! Plus, let’s not forget that in the room with the attorneys, the witnesses, the judge, perhaps, the bailiff, the clerk…well, let’s face it. Everyone we encounter, we’re the only one with the skill, savvy and license to do what we do. And we do it well, if I say so myself.

How does this sound? Mark Brickman, DCR. Doctor of Court Reporting. Sounds pretty good to me. And why not? We deserve it! And who’s going to argue with that? As I tell people who snicker from time to time at a mistranslate on my realtime screen, “Let’s trade places. Let’s see how you do sitting here in my chair.” I have yet to get anyone to switch places, and now that they’ve stopped giggling at my near perfect transcript, they’re thinking “that guy should be a doctor!”

So let’s put this idea on the front burner. Let’s not wait for someone else to recognize our amazing skill. Wasn’t it us who fought to have our profession recognized as a profession and not merely a secretarial job? Yes. Haven’t we been fighting for years to establish ourselves as permanent fixtures in our courthouses around the country and not be replaced by tape recorders? Yes. Well, I say who would even dare to replace a doctor with a tape recorder? No one. That’s who.