diff --git a/jc/utils.py b/jc/utils.py
index 3adfd69f..700b09e0 100644
--- a/jc/utils.py
+++ b/jc/utils.py
@@ -173,6 +173,22 @@ def convert_to_bool(value):
     return False
 
 
+def stream_error(e, quiet, line):
+    """reraise the stream exception with annotation or print an error _meta field if quiet=True"""
+    if not quiet:
+        e.args = (str(e) + '... Use the quiet option (-q) to ignore errors.',)
+        raise e
+    else:
+        return {
+            '_meta':
+                {
+                    'success': False,
+                    'error': 'error parsing line',
+                    'line': line.strip()
+                }
+        }
+
+
 class timestamp:
     """
     Input a date-time text string of several formats and convert to a naive or timezone-aware epoch timestamp in UTC