Laptops and Courthouse Research

by Hava Lyon | More from this Blogger

11 Apr 2007 09:00 AM

I have been getting quite a few responses lately regarding the courthouse research opportunity, which is fantastic--I love to receive feedback and encourage any questions or ideas to be sent to me at Hava L {at} Families dot com. One question that I have forgotten to answer and I realized that once I went through my e-mails, is the question of whether you need a laptop. The short answer is no, you technically don't need a laptop. But, as in the case of taking children with you to the courthouse, there is the technically correct answer, and then there is the common-sense answer.

When you go to the courthouse and collect records, you have to put those records into a program (whether it is a custom-built program or Excel) and then send those files to the company you work for. Which means one way or another, you have to get that information into the computer in order to upload it and get paid for it. The fastest and easiest way to do this is (obviously) to type it directly into a computer (ie, a laptop.) If you don't have one, there are two alternatives: You can either take notes by hand and then input the records when you get home, or you can take a handheld tape recorder with you and dictate the information into it, and then type it when you get home from that recording.

My own personal thoughts on these two methods are this: A. My handwriting, when I get lazy (and handwriting hundreds of records a day would surely induce laziness) is close to unreadable. Also, I am to the point that I am on the computer so much, I rarely handwrite anything anymore. I cannot imagine hand writing that many records. B. With the recorder option, I have to point out that the computers are usually right in the thick of things in the office, and I would be uncomfortable to sit there and read this information out loud to myself. Perhaps I'm just easily made uncomfortable, and I can see other people not having a problem with this, but for me, myself, and I, I wouldn't be able to collect records this way. This is definitely a YMMV (your mileage may vary) situation. The most important consideration, however, is C. Your pay rate per hour is going to be less when you do it this way. There is absolutely no way around that. When you handle the information twice, you are doubling up on your workload, and making it more difficult for yourself. You can still make a decent wage per hour, but don't expect it to be as high as $15 - $20 per hour. One idea is to start collecting the records by hand, and then as you receive your first couple of paychecks, using that money to buy a cheap laptop. You absolutely do not need anything special to do this kind of work, and can get away with buying the cheapest of the cheap.

If you contact a company and get offered a county, they should be able to estimate how many records this county is going to generate in a given month, based on population. You can then run the calculations (X amount of records times Y pay per record = Z amount of money coming in per month) and decide if the income will be worth the cost of buying the laptop. This is a personal decision, and I wish my readers all the best in making it!

For a list of blogs relating to this topic, please check this out.

Learn more about Hava Lyon

Hello, my name is Hava or Havs (depending on my mood and yours!) I am a freelance writer who writes for several blogs, both paid ones such as this one, and personal blogs.

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dubites (10) 14 Apr 2007 12:43 PM

I do this work in several counties. For one of my counties I can printout the Summarized Index at home, which gives me all the information I need, except the address. I then take the printout to the courthouse and tab through the documents for the needed information. I have gathered 800 records this way in only 2 1/2 hours, then I type it in at home. This particular courthouse is a little over 2 hours drive away and active, but since I can gather all the information very quickly while AT the courthouse, I can now go TO the courthouse just once a month, as opposed to once a week- saving me gas and before and after school care expenses.

Hava Lyon (1545) 14 Apr 2007 12:56 PM

Wow, that's pretty cool! None of the counties around here offer anything like that. I have to ask: When you go to the courthouse, do you put the address part into the computer or do you write it on the printout? I'm just wondering because the program that I was using while a researcher would not allow me to go backwards through the items I had already put in, so it wouldn't have been possible for me to put in only the addresses and then fill everything else in later.

Since you are driving 2 hours just to get to the courthouse, this kind of thing would be a HUGE time and money saver. I'm glad you figured out how to do this--thanks for sharing!

Havs

dubites (10) 15 Apr 2007 06:07 AM

I take the printout to the courthouse and handwrite the addresses in, then when I get home I type it all in. :) I could put my kids in before and after school care and spend two days driving up to the courthouse and doing it all right there, or.... get the kids on/off the bus myself and drive up only one day and the second day stay home and type it all in. Still take me two days of "work" but this way I'm saving gas and child care.