The Judicial Council in San Diego has added an amendment to its budget asking for funding for court reporters when poor people qualify for fee waivers under the recent Supreme Court ruling.
The funding will cover a verbatim record obtained through court reporting, electronic recording or some other means.
The high court’s ruling in Jameson v. Desta earlier this month affirmed an indigent litigant’s right to have a free court reporter in a civil trial. The Supreme Court said an accurate trial record is especially important in the appeal stage of a case.
“While we don’t know the scope of that budget obligation at this stage, we know that it will become one,” said council member Judge David Rubin of San Diego, chair of the Judicial Branch Budget Committee.
Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye wrote in the court’s unanimous decision, “Without an exception for fee waiver recipients, the policy at issue here places indigent civil litigants at a significant disadvantage with respect to the right of appeal compared to those litigants who can afford to pay for a private shorthand reporter,” Courthouse News reported.
Some judges requested language allowing for other ways to record proceedings besides court reporters, anticipating a potential shortage of court reporters in the future.
“I’m not necessarily advocating that we switch to electric recording for all proceedings, but it is something that maybe we should be looking at as we begin to propose budgets that are years from now,” said Judge Stuart Rice of Los Angeles, outgoing president of the California Judges Association.
The Supreme Court’s ruling does not limit recording to court reporters, and the Council noted there are “many technologies out there that will convert voice to text.”
“This is certainly not meant to say, ‘Hey, we are now against court reporters,’” Rice said. “We just want to be able to make sure that as we move forward we have the ability to provide access, provide a verbatim record, by whatever means the future holds for us.”
Judge Marla Anderson of Monterey County said the proposal should be for “an inclusive world that includes court reporters as well as any means of getting a verbatim record.”
Cantil-Sakauye said,“There is no ill-will toward court reporters. It is a nod to the future if need be for the courts.”
