1.3 Gifts, Fees, Accuracy, and Record Duties

Gifts and incentives

AAERT's Code instructs members to avoid giving or receiving any gift, incentive, or reward of substance to or from attorneys, clients, witnesses, or others associated with a proceeding, except businesslike payment for professional services. The concern is not merely whether the item changed a decision. A valuable benefit can create obligation, unequal treatment, or an appearance that access to the record is for sale.

Analyze a gift scenario by asking:

• Who offered it, and what connection does that person have to the proceeding?
• Is it ordinary business hospitality of negligible value or a benefit of substance?
• Is it tied to referrals, speed, preferential access, an outcome, or silence about an error?
• Do employer, court, agency, procurement, or judicial-ethics rules impose a stricter ban?
• Can the offer be declined and documented without disrupting the proceeding?

A reporter should follow the stricter controlling rule. Expensive event tickets from counsel, a bonus for a favorable transcript, or a gift card for “taking care of” a disputed passage should be refused and reported through the applicable channel. A universally available cup of water at a facility presents a very different risk, but local policy still controls.

Fees and commercial independence

A lawful published rate, court-set fee, or negotiated contract payment compensates work; it does not purchase influence over content. AAERT says members determine fees independently unless statute or court order sets them. A reporter must not agree that payment depends on who wins, what a witness says, or whether damaging speech is excluded. Billing disputes are administrative issues. They do not authorize withholding, modifying, or destroying the official record contrary to governing requirements.

Keep a clean separation between:

Accuracy and corrections

Accuracy means faithfully capturing the proceeding and preserving the relationship between audio, annotations, job information, and any later transcript. If the reporter notices that a name was logged incorrectly, the correction should be made in a way the approved system preserves or documents. If audio was lost, the reporter should immediately notify the presiding official or authorized supervisor and follow the failure protocol. Inventing words from memory, copying language from a similar case, or concealing a gap converts an equipment problem into an integrity violation.

A controlled correction normally identifies the original entry, corrected information, person making the change, time, and authority or reason. The exact audit method depends on the system and assignment. The governing distinction is between correcting metadata or an acknowledged error and altering what the record says. The reporter may correct a misspelled name after verification; the reporter may not change testimony because a participant wishes it had been phrased differently.

Preservation and delivery

AAERT's Code states that recordings are preserved according to statute or court order or, absent those, for no less than three years. That ethical floor is not a universal schedule for every government record. Court retention schedules, contracts, protective orders, and case type can require a different or longer period. The blueprint separately tests retention under applicable laws, rules, and regulations. Always identify which rule governs the particular audio, log, transcript, exhibit, and administrative record.

The Code also requires meeting promised delivery dates, making timely delivery when no date is specified, and promptly notifying clients of delays with a truthful assessment. Do not promise an expedited transcript without confirming resources. If delay becomes unavoidable, report it early through the authorized channel; do not falsify a completion timestamp or sacrifice accuracy.

Competence and scope

The Code tells reporters to know their software and hardware and perform simple troubleshooting. Competence includes testing, monitoring, recognizing faults, preserving backups, and escalating beyond one's authority. It does not mean improvising unsafe repairs during testimony or claiming expertise the reporter lacks. Similarly, the reporter must not offer legal counsel, personal opinions, or credibility assessments. The ethical response to uncertainty is to preserve the record, state the operational issue neutrally, and obtain authorized direction.

Exam application

If counsel offers a costly weekend trip after asking for an unusually fast transcript, separate the issues. Decline and report the benefit under applicable policy; then evaluate the expedite request through ordinary scheduling and fee procedures. If a promised deadline later becomes impossible, notify the authorized client early and explain the true status. Neither the gift nor the billing relationship changes the words captured, access restrictions, or correction process. This separation of business administration from record integrity is a recurring CER judgment pattern.