Ethics First is a voluntary, no-cost public awareness program that seeks to positively educate court reporters, colleagues, firms, and in particular their clients and consumers, about how and why the impartiality and neutrality of the court reporter is of the utmost importance in maintaining an unbiased legal system.
Ethics First is an NCRA member benefit program. Participation is restricted to NCRA members and the firms who employ them¹.
There are three Ethics First categories:
The Ethics First Participant category includes only NCRA members who make the record. To qualify to be classified as an Ethics First Participant, you must meet two qualifications:
- You must be an NCRA member eligible to use the NCRA Member Logo.
- You must make the record.
This includes all NCRA members who are stenographic court reporters or Certified Legal Video Specialists (CLVS). This does not include nonmember steno reporters, voice writers, or DAR/ER monitors.
Ethics First Participant benefits
As an Ethics First Participant, individuals can:
- Market their adherence to the principles of Ethics First to clients and colleagues;
- Use the Ethics First Logo in advertising, on their website, on business cards, etc.
Ethics First Participant requirements
Participants agree to:
- Abide by the requirements of the NCRA Code of Professional Ethics and to be subject to its sanctions for any violations;
- Positively affirm the Ethics First principles and agree to promote the Ethics First educational program;
- Renew their eligibility to participate on an annual basis concurrently with member dues renewal.
Ethics First Participant eligibility
To be eligible to be an Ethics First Participant, you must be:
- An NCRA member; and
- Involved in making the judicial/impartial record. (This includes NCRA-member stenographic reporters and NCRA-member legal videographers [CLVS].)
The Ethics First Supporter category is reserved for individuals and associations that support the tenets and precepts of Ethics First but are not involved in the actual making of the record. This category represents a wide array of individuals and organizations, including: state court reporting associations, state bar associations, CART and broadcast captioners, attorneys, law firms, judges, judicial associations, insurance companies, vendors, scopists, transcriptionists, businesses, etc. The key difference between the Supporter category and the Participant category is that Supporters are not directly involved in making the record.
Ethics First encourages the involvement and support of those who, although not judicial court reporters or court reporting firms themselves, agree with and stand behind the principles that the program represents. Ethics First Supporters are entitled to promote their affiliation through use of the Ethics First Supporter logo.
Ethics First Supporter eligibility
The Ethics First Supporter category encompasses all individuals and organizations who, although not themselves directly involved in creating the record in judicial court proceedings or depositions, support the principles espoused by the Ethics First program.
This includes:
- attorneys
- law firms
- state and local bar associations
- judges
- state and local court reporter associations
- insurance companies
- court reporting students
- captioners and CART providers
- vendors*
- scopists*
- transcriptionists*
*An individual must be in the appropriate classification of NCRA membership (i.e., associate, retired, student) to be eligible for the Ethics First Supporter category. The Supporter category is not intended to allow nonmembers the opportunity to skirt the membership requirement for Ethics First Participants.²
NCRA reserves the right to determine the eligibility of any individual, firm, or association seeking to become an Ethics First Supporter in order to maintain the integrity of the program as an NCRA member benefit.
Ethics First Firms eligibility
To be eligible as an Ethics First Firm, the firm in question must have at least one owner or manager who is an NCRA member.
A firm may sign up for Ethics First if at least one firm owner or firm manager is an NCRA member in good standing. Only an individual who is legally able to sign on behalf of a firm will be able to register their firm as an Ethics First Firm.
Note: Once a firm owner/manager registers his/her firm for Ethics First, that individual will automatically be registered as an individual Ethics First Participant or Supporter, depending on eligibility.
1 Firm and individual participation is subject to the specific terms and conditions explained further below.
2 Although CART providers and captioners are NCRA members, they do not “make the judicial record” and therefore are not designated as Ethics First Participants and welcomed, instead, as Ethics First Supporters.