Setting Your Sights on Legal Scoping

Q: I’ve heard of medical transcription services, and I want to know whether there are legal transcription services. If so, how could I start that type of business? I’m in a wheelchair and can’t work outside the home, but I have a computer and am very interested in the law.

--Jodi Jehning, Temple City

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A: Because of the advent of computerization in the courtroom, there is a growing industry of people all over the country who produce legal transcripts as a support service to court reporters. Many, if not most of them, work at home and use the Internet to advertise and deliver their product.

These people are called “scopists.” They are hired to take the legal testimony that is produced by court reporters in computerized shorthand and, using specialized software, translate the material into English. They then edit the text that results, inserting proper names and technical words that the computer’s dictionary does not catch, proofread the finished result and format it to court specifications. Scopists work for individual reporters or groups of reporters.

To be a scopist you must be smart, efficient and have a fabulous command of the English language. You should spell well, be familiar with the jargon of the legal profession and familiar with the format required for documents in a courtroom.

Scopists advertise their services in the publications produced by state court reporting associations and on court reporters’ forums on the Internet. They can also do direct mailings from lists of court reporters that are sold by some of the state agencies that license court reporters.

--Gary Cramer

Executive director, Los Angeles

Municipal Court Reporters Assn.

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A: There is the potential to earn a full-time living at home from scoping, depending on how hard you want to work. You will have to make an initial investment of at least $2,000 and up to $5,000 on the specialized computer software that translates the Computer Aided Transcription used by court reporters.

There is a national training program for scopists offered by the Legal Services Institute, based in Clearwater, Fla. It offers online training seminars and information on how to start a home-based scoping business. You can reach the institute by calling (813) 531-2637.

An Orange County company called At Home Professions also offers a study-at-home course on how to become a scopist. Contact it at (800) 359-3455.

Paul and Sarah Edwards’ book “Making Money With Your Computer at Home” (published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons) lists three additional law-related careers that, along with scopist, can be accomplished by working at home on a computer.

--Alice Moell, scopist, Van Nuys

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Q: I have an idea for starting a small-business magazine and am working on a business plan. The problem I’m having is trying to figure how much to charge for advertisements. How should I go about setting rates and finding out how some other magazines got started?

--Derek Holden, Reseda

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A: The way to determine what you should charge would be to research competing publications and determine what they are charging, then set your rates based on your expected circulation and a formula that takes into account what it costs you to produce 1,000 magazines.

There is a volume called “Standard Rate and Data” that lists magazines--both consumer and trade publications--by interest category, such as sports, city and home and garden. From that book, which you should be able to find in a good library, you should get contacts for the other magazines in your category. Call each of them and ask them to send you a media kit, which will outline all the facts about a publication, including its advertising rate card, circulation, selling benefits and the research it has done on its market. Such information will be very helpful.

Another help would be a magazine called Folio, a trade publication for magazines. Anyone who is serious about starting a magazine should be reading this publication, which deals with production, circulation, advertising, sales and other information. You can probably find case histories in some of the back issues.

For more information about the magazine, write Cowles Business Media, 11 River Bend Drive South, Stamford, CT 06907-0949, or call (800) 795-5445.

--Michael Carpenter

Publisher, Independent Business magazine, a publication of the National Federation of Independent Businesses