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The following information is the result of a poll taken on the Yahoo! Scopists Support Group E-mail group. These results are meant as a tool for a scopist to get an idea what other scopists are charging for the same services. The results are not scientific by any means. In order for an amount to be listed, 15 or more scopists must have said that that was their rate out of the 227 scopists who responded. (NOTE: Some scopists in the poll do not accept jobs requiring audiotapes and/or video work at all. Of the scopists who are willing to use tapes or do video work, the following rates were reported.) The lowest and highest rates for all questions have been tossed out so that the real averages may be found. "Average" in this poll means the majority of scopists charge that rate. Where there are ranges given, an equal amount of people gave those rates. If only one rate is given, that is the rate that most scopists charge for that work. Click to subscribe to Scopists Support Group - It's free! How long have you been scoping? The length of experience of scopists participating in this poll ranged from one week to 32 years. Definitions: Audiosync - listening to audio within the CAT system throughout the entire job Taped - listening to audio using a transcriber throughout the entire job Spot checking - listening to audio using audiosync or transcriber just in questionable areas of the job What is your NORMAL turnaround time? Average normal turnaround time is five days for freelance work, 30 to 50 days for trials. A large amount of scopists actually use five to seven days as their normal turnaround time for freelance work. Scopists tend to use a few different formulas to reach their rates. The two most common are: A) Normal turnaround time of five days = normal rate Two to four days = normal rate + 50% Less than one day or next day = normal rate + 100% B) Normal turnaround time of five days = normal rate Turnaround time of four days = normal rate + 50% Turnaround time for three days = normal rate + 65% - 70% Turnaround time for two days = normal rate + 80% Anything under 25 hours or next day = normal rate + 100%
What is your EXPEDITED turnaround time? Expedited turnaround time is anything more than 24 hours and less than three days.
What is your DAILY turnaround time? Daily turnaround is anything less than 24 hours for most scopists.
 About half the scopists polled charge more for technical jobs. If so, what percentage do you add on to your rate? This varied greatly from scopist to scopist. The rates were as low as .10 more a page to a high rate of .65 more a page. Some scopists add a percentage from 25% to 50% to the page rate. Do you charge more for medical jobs? Same as technical question. If so, what percentage do you add on to your rate? Same as technical rates. If you are working with a really excellent writer, do you discount your rate? Only a handful of scopists discount their rates for excellent writers. If so, what type of discount do you give? The average discount was .10 a page, although a couple scopists gave a bigger discount. If you are working with a terrible writer, do you add on to your rate? Most scopists either charged more or simply refused to work with a writer who was either a terrible writer or one that refused to update his/her dictionary. If so, how much more per page do you charge? Rates varied from .25 more per page up to double the normal page rate. Do you charge more for voir dire (jury selection) or wall-to-wall colloquy (opening statements, closing statements, motions, etc.) Many scopists add .25 - .40 more for this type of work if it goes on more than five pages. What is your income goal per month? Part-time scopists had an income goal of $500 on the low end, $750 average, $800 high end. Full-time scopists had a low income goal of $1000, average rate of $2500 - $3500, high rate of $5000. Do you charge a late fee if the invoice is not paid on time? Some scopists do charge a late fee. Many of those who do not currently charge a late fee have said they will be adding that to their future invoices. What is the amount of the late fee, and what is the time frame of a late payment? The standard late fee is 1.5% of the total invoice. Some scopists charge a fee if the payment is 10 days past due and others use the 30-day mark. TRANSCRIPTION: Finding transcription rates proved to be a difficult task. Transcriptions have too many variables to find real averages. Rates vary depending on turnaround time, lines per page, characters per line and spacing. The fees are often increased for technical jobs. General rates per page seem to be as low as $3.50 a page and as high as $10.00. Rates per audio hour range from $40 to $100. PROOFREADING: The following rates are for both proofreading within the CAT system or providing an errata sheet to the reporter.
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