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COPE - Advisory Opinions

Advisory Opinion Procedures

Any Member in good standing may submit to the Committee on Professional Ethics a request for an Advisory Opinion.

Advisory Opinions shall consist of (1) Private Advisory Opinions and (2) Public Advisory Opinions.

  1. Private Advisory Opinions
    1. A Private Advisory Opinion may be requested in lieu of proceeding with a complaint, as provided in Section A(3) of the Complaint Procedures, or by persons who seek guidance as to whether certain actions or conduct are permitted under the Code of Professional Ethics.
    2. The Committee shall keep confidential the identity of the person or persons making the request and the identity of those names in the request, unless otherwise directed by the Board of Directors.
    3. The Committee's response to requests for Private Advisory Opinions shall be within the limitations of the information received by the Committee.  Additional information may be requested by the Committee, if needed.
  2. Public Advisory Opinions
    1. The Committee may from time to time recommend publication of Public Advisory Opinions which illuminate one or more of the provisions of the Code of Professional Ethics.  These opinions may be based on facts derived from requested Private Advisory Opinions, deleting reference to names or places, or on an assumed state of facts.
  3. Review
    1. The Board of Directors may review any Private or Public Advisory Opinion on its own motion and adopt, modify, or reject it in whole or in part.

Advisory Opinion Index

  1. Filing extension on appeal to accept freelance assignments
  2. Reporter's relationship to litigants
  3. Reporting for a spouse's law firm
  4. Altering the official record
  5. Failing to pay a substitute reporter
  6. "Off the record" must be agreed to
  7. Rescinded 2005 
  8. Selling transcript copies from a private meeting
  9. Selling the transcript to third parties/When is a deposition a public record
  10. Agency transcribing depositions taken by reporters no longer with the firm
  11. Reporting a case and then becoming a witness to a case
  12. Reporter sues insurance company, then reports their depositions
  13. Rescinded 2005 See Advisory Opinion 45
  14. Retaining and distributing disks and/or data
  15. Determining the order of transcript delivery and/or Submitting transcripts to third parties to distribute
  16. Determining the order of exhibit delivery and/or submitting exhibits to third parties to distribute
  17. Using contingent fee arrangements
  18. Rescinded in 2000
  19. Substituting an agency's certification page for a reporter's page
  20. Delivering an ASCII file of a transcript to a third party to distribute
  21. Manipulating transcript page formats 
  22. Providing excerpted portions of the testimony
  23. Preparing "off the record" comments
  24. Providing attorney names/addresses of certain deposition transcripts to third parties
  1. Releasing paper notes to third parties
  2. Selling transcript copies of an open or public meeting
  3. Rescinded 2009 See Advisory Opinion 45
  4. Transcribing against the wishes of counsel
  5. Responsibility of Agency Owners for the ethical conduct of non-Member reporters
  6. Advertising a member's credentials and expertise
  7. Reporter's description on the record of non verbal communications, events, or gestures
  8. Preparation of deposition summaries
  9. Rights of a court reporting agency when a reporter is unable, unavailable or refuses to prepare a transcript in a timely fashion
  10. Certifying a transcript from a source other than directly from the reporter
  11. Providing the official transcript of a proceeding to the hiring party
  12. Reporting a deposition where the witness is appearing by telephone
  13. Ethics Issues Involved in the Electronic Transmission of the Written Record of a Proceeding
  14. Attorney Requests a Copy of a Reporter's Backup Audio Media
  15. Holding a Transcript Hostage
  16. Authorizing Others to Sign Transcripts
  17. Rescinded 2006 
  18. When does the reporter go on the record?
  19. Providing Trial Presentation Services
  20. Should a Court Reporter Act as Both The Verbatim Reporter and the Videographer for the Same Proceeding
  21. Guidance on Gift Giving Rules

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 








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