Official FAQ

Keeping Notes

Question:
How long should a court reporter keep notes?

Answer:
Pursuant to 69955(e) In Court: 10 years; Death penalty case: forever. Depos: 1 year if transcribed and 8 years if not transcribed.

ASCII Disks

Question:
If the court reporter was paid for producing the transcripts for the trial, do I have to pay him/her again if I need the transcripts on a floppy disk?

Answer:
According to Government Code Section 69954(a) & (b) a reporter is entitled to compensation for ASCII disks. If the disks were requested within 120 days of the transcript preparation you would have to pay the one-third rate in (b). If it has been over 120 days then you would have to pay the normal copy rate in (a). I have attached the Government Code Section for your convenience.

69954. Compensation for transcript prepared with computer assistance
(a) Transcripts prepared by a reporter using computer assistance and delivered on a medium other than paper shall be compensated at the same rate set for paper transcripts, except the reporter may also charge an additional fee not to exceed the cost of the medium or any copies thereof.

(b) The fee for a second copy of a transcript on appeal in computer-readable format ordered by or on behalf of a requesting party within 120 days of the filing or delivery of the original transcript shall be compensated at one-third the rate set forth for a second copy of a transcript as provided in Section 69950. A reporter may also charge an additional fee not to exceed the cost of the medium or any copies thereof.

Appeal

Appeal Withdrawn After Preparation Begins

Question:
An appeal transcript has been paid for and the day before it was due, we found out that the Court of Appeal was not going to consider it, and the two reporters involved, one being myself, had already printed up the appeal. The question is whether to still bill for it.

Answer:
Once you receive an appeal notice from the Appellate Clerk, it is a court order to prepare the transcript. You must begin preparation. Once the appeal is withdrawn, and you are served with notice of such, you need to cease preparation. You file the portion of your transcript that was completed at the time of receiving notice of the dismissal of the appeal and the county is responsible for payment of completed portion. If you have the total transcript completed, submit that for payment.

Civil Appeal Time Constraints

Question:
When does the reporter's time start running? From the time the civil appeal is filed, or from the time when the transcript fees are deposited?

Answer:
From the time the fees are deposited. CRC 124(c) & (d)

[Deposit or waiver of reporter's charges] The notice given by the appellant under the foregoing provisions of this Rule shall not be effective for any purpose unless, within 10 days after notification from the clerk of his estimate of the cost of preparing the reporter's transcript as designated by the notices of the parties, or within 10 days after being notified directly by the reporter, the appellant shall either deposit with the clerk an amount of cash equal to the estimated cost with directions to apply the same to the fees of the reporter or file with the clerk a waiver of such deposit signed by the reporter. When the appellant has complied with the provisions hereof, the clerk shall forthwith direct the reporter to prepare the reporter's transcript in accordance with the notices of the parties.

(d) [Preparation of transcript] Within 20 days after direction from the clerk or the receipt of the fees from the appellant the reporter shall complete and file with the clerk an original reporter's transcript as directed, and certify the same as correct. One week after the deadline for filing the transcript, the clerk shall accept completed portions of the transcript from the lead reporter in a multi-reporter case even if not all portions of the transcript are complete. The clerk shall pay promptly each reporter who certifies under penalty of perjury that all of his or her portions of the transcript are completed. The reporter shall note in the transcript all places where omissions of any oral proceedings occur (and the nature of the omitted matter) and shall also indicate the place where exhibits were received in evidence or were offered and marked for identification, and shall identify the exhibits so received or so offered. The reporter shall not transcribe or copy in the reporter's transcript any documents which, under the provisions of Rule 125, may be included in the clerk's transcript on appeal.

Indexes on Appeal

Question:
What should be included in the indexes of an appeal?

Answer:

Rule 129. Form of record
(b) [Indexes] The clerk shall include at the beginning of each volume of his transcript an alphabetical and a chronological index referring to each paper or record therein, and he shall also include a list of original exhibits, notices, affidavits, orders, written instructions given or refused, and other papers included in the record with a brief description of each of them. The reporter shall include at the beginning of each volume of his transcript an alphabetical and a chronological index referring to the page at which the direct examination, the cross-examination, the redirect examination, and the recall of each witness begins. He shall also indicate in a separate table in the first volume of the reporter's transcript the page at which any exhibit or other document copied therein appears, and the page at which he has noted the omission of any exhibit or other document. The contents of each transcript shall be arranged chronologically. So far as practicable the arrangement and indexing of an agreed or settled statement shall conform to the foregoing requirements.

Normal Record on Appeal

Question:
In a transcript on appeal, are the opening statements transcribed?

Answer:
The code section that you're looking for is Rule 8.320(c)(3) for criminal appeals and Rule 8.753 for civil appeals. In short, no, opening statements are not part of the normal record on appeal. Extra records can be requested, such as opening statements and voir dire. You only include those if they have been ordered by the court to be included.

Fees

Expedite Fees

Question:
Is it appropriate to charge the copy attorney for the expedite charge if both attorneys (0&1 & copy atty) requested transcript within the same time period?

Answer:
Government Code Code 69951. Transcription in civil cases; Additional fee: For transcription, in civil cases, the reporter may charge an additional 50 percent for special daily copy service.

So assuming you are talking about a civil case and not a criminal case, the code does not specify that it's only the Orig. & 1 that can be an expedited charge. So the short answer is you may charge expedited fees on the copy as well.

There are no provisions at this time in the Code for any expedited fees to be charged for a criminal case, including daily transcripts.

Fee for Second Original After 120 Days

Question:
I have heard that if you produce a transcript and after 120 days that transcript is requested again, that a reporter can charge original prices again. (For example, a motion for new trial transcript was produced and then more than 120 days goes by and the defendant appeals.) The problem is I can't put my finger on the code section that allows for that. Does anyone know where that is or even if that is true.

Answer:
There is no code section that specifically says that after 120 days you can charge for the original again.

Govt Code 69954(b) states that if you are requested to produce an ASCII within 120 days of producing the transcript that you can only charge one-third the rate, 5 cents a folio. If you are asked to produce an ASCII after 120 days it is at the normal copy rate, 15 cents.

As to whether you can charge for the original again is open to interpretation. In LA County, which is probably where you heard this, they consider it to be a new transcript if you have had to change anything, such as, new cover sheets, indices, renumber pages, etc. If that's the case, they consider it to be a new transcript, thus enabling the reporter to charge original rates.

Minimum Transcript Guidelines

Question:
I am slightly confused on the transcript format requirements. I know reporters are required to use 56 characters per line; but do you begin counting at the text or at the line numbering?

Answer:
Quoting from the guidelines, "Left-hand margin is defined as the first character of a line of text."  So you do not count the line numbering.
Click here for more Minimum Transcript Format Standards

Redaction of Victim Name

Question:
Is there "authority" meaning California statute, code, law, court policy, which mandates that victims' names must be redacted from court transcripts, either in all cases or in specific types of cases, e.g., rape cases or sexually violent predator cases?

Answer:
The code section that you're referring to is PC 293.5. That code section provides for victims of sex offenses to have their names redacted from the record, use "Jane Doe" or first name, last initial. This section enables them to have their name redacted from all records, police reports, et cetera.

Deceased Reporters

Question:
One of our official reporters passed away in 2005. Someone recently wanted to order copies of transcripts she had prepared in 2002 that were in the court file. What is the protocol for copying those transcripts and collecting payment if it's not the original reporter? Does the court now own the transcripts? I couldn't find a code section and was just wondering if anyone knew the rules on this.

Answer:
There is no code that addresses deceased reporters. In Fresno we do not allow the court to copy any transcripts. The code states that the reporter gets first rights to prepare the transcript. If the reporter is deceased or retired and let their license lapse, one of the staff reporters prepares the transcript. When I do it I send the money collected to the reporter if alive. If deceased, I send it to their family.