Anyone else tired?

Let’s take a quick poll. How many of you Texas CSRs out there knew that there were substantive changes to the Uniform Format Manual effective July 15th, 2003? Yeah, me neither.

The most oppressive change in the revised UFM? The option of using 9 pitch printing is now verboten; only 10 pitch is allowed. Let’s see what this amounts to for the working reporter: It adds an additional seven characters per line in what equates to a de facto 10% pay cut to every court reporter in Texas. With the stroke of a pen, a committee of rulemongers in Austin made a dime out of every dollar evaporate into thin air. In the face of stagnant rates for the last 20 years and every attorney taking ten depos a year wanting a special deal, was it really necessary to strike one more blow to our revenue stream?

With this latest change, the Texas format is looking amazingly similar to the federal officials' format. Well, guess what. Freelance reporters in Texas don’t have government healthcare and pensions and we don’t draw a salary. I pay my own insurance and the only money that goes in my IRA is what I put there, SO HOW ABOUT YOU FREAKIN’ BEANCOUNTERS QUIT JACKING WITH MY LIVELIHOOD!!!

“Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.” – Milton Friedman