by Monica Chamness
Staff Writer
Accurate Reporting Service of Jacksonville has come full circle.
The court reporting business opened in the late 1970s on the 10th floor of the old Florida Title building. Pamela Chafin Roach later moved to another location and the Florida Title building was demolished in 1981 to make way for what is now the Bank of America tower. On July 1, Roach moved her business into the tower.
“The lease was up where I was,” said Roach, a registered professional reporter and president of Accurate Reporting. “I was at a decision point whether to stay or go. I loved the building [the 1887 Building at West Bay and Clay streets] but I felt out of the loop. My clients are in this area so I felt I needed to be closer. ”
Being in a Class A high rise with its accompanying amenities also influenced her decision. Her new office is larger and offers more conference room space for her clients, which include insurance companies, attorneys, the Internal Revenue Service, The Florida Bar, the City’s General Counsel Office, railroad companies and the military. Accurate Reporting handled the Grady Carter tobacco trial on CourtTV. It is also an independent contractor for three magistrate judges.
“Recently, I was called to Blount Island to take a statement on a ship because there was an accident,” said Roach. “We’ve had international depositions; occasionally, a client will want us to travel out of the country. It’s a real variety. There are all kinds of things that make it interesting.”
Roach began her career in the legal field while still in high school. The Florida State Employment Department administered a typing test to her class and Roach’s scores were off the charts. (Her alma mater, the Stenotype Institute of Jacksonville Beach, clocked her typing speed at 260 words per minute.) She was immediately recruited as a legal secretary at McGuire Woods.
“I had a music scholarship to go to college, but the job seemed like a lot of money at the time,” she said. “I went to work for them the day after I graduated.”
Twelve years later, Roach returned to school to learn court reporting. Her plan was to work part-time as a freelance reporter so she could rear her two small children. (Her son Matt is an attorney here.) The plan unraveled, but with positive results.
“I had no intention of owning my own business,” she said. “I grew to love it — the people I’ve met, the places I’ve gone. Even more, there are so many subjects such as medical topics and contract disputes that I never would have heard about otherwise. You never know what you’re going to hear.”
Rosenfeld & Teske, a court reporting agency in business since the 1940s, hired Roach fresh out of school. Sam Rosenfeld, the original owner of the company, retired and Ruth Teske, longed to teach at Jones College. After just a year, Roach was given an opportunity to buy the business. She accepted, renaming the business after herself. Later that same year, she dubbed it Accurate Reporting Service.
Through her 25 years in the profession, Roach has seen a number changes, most notably technological advancements. Fancy software, CD transcripts, instant transcripts, video teleconferencing, burning exhibits on CDs in-house and linking them to transcripts are the current tools of a court reporter.
“Lots of people think of this as clerical, which it isn’t,” said Roach. “It’s great for a man’s profession, if he’s interested in it. There’s probably only five or six male reporters in Jacksonville. It takes a lot of stamina to sit and type all day; it strains your back and neck. I have carpal tunnel in both hands from doing this. To excel, you have to have excellent English skills and dexterity.”
A music lover, Roach plays the piano to keep her fingers nimble.
Roach employs six full-time reporters (including herself) and three additional reporters who operate outside of the office. In addition to her office manager, who also worked for the original owners, Roach has one reporter who has been on staff for 21 years. Another long-term reporter was inspired to pursue the profession by watching “Perry Mason” on television.
“The shortage of reporters has been a real obstacle,” said Roach, who served as president of the Jacksonville Court Reporters Association for two years, most recently in 2000-01 year. “A lot of schools across the country have closed because enrollment is down. Within the last two weeks, I received a call from Tallahassee because there was not a single reporter there available that day. They literally begged me. They were willing to pay extra because they couldn’t reschedule the deposition. Some courts in the country are looking into installing electronic reporting to save money but our lobbying groups are opposed to it. There’s no way you can listen to a tape and properly identify the speakers.”