“Union-sponsored bill would raise court reporter fees by nearly a third”

Malcolm Maclachlan reported in the Daily Journal about the latest iteration of legislation to increase the statutory rates for reporter’s transcripts.  Senate Bill 991, introduced last week, would increase rates to $1.13 from $0.85 for each 100 words of transcription for original copies and to $0.20 from $0.15 per 100 words for each copy bought at the same time by the court or a party.

In Jameson v. Desta (2018) 5 Cal.5th 594, 608, the Supreme Court said that court rules and even the Legislature itself recognize “the realistic, crucial importance that the presence of a court reporter currently plays in the actual protection of a civil litigant’s legal rights and in providing such a litigant equal access to appellate justice in California.”  Although Jameson requires superior courts to make court reporters available to indigent litigants who have had their court fees waived, it doesn’t help those litigants pay for transcripts.  There is a statutorily created Transcript Reimbursement Fund, which is both chronically underfunded and can provide assistance to only a limited type of indigent litigant.  The newest bill apparently does nothing to make the Fund a better remedy.

SB 991 also seems to retain a questionable method for calculating a transcript’s cost, whatever the rate.  A fee is assessed based on a set price per 100 transcribed words.  But, instead of requiring court reporters to do a simple computer word count on a transcript, the current statute allows determination of the fee according to an “estimate or assumption as to the number of words or folios on a typical transcript page.”  Appellate attorneys have found that these “estimate[s] or assumption[s],” which are not disclosed, lead to fees significantly higher than would be charged based on actual word counts.  The new bill deletes the “estimate or assumption” provision, but adds this:  “A trial court practice and policy as to the number of words or folios on a typical transcript page shall not be unilaterally changed by a trial court.”

Related, regarding earlier failed legislation:

After Supreme Court requires that court reporters be provided at no cost to indigent litigants, Legislature is poised to make substantially more expensive the transcripts that reporters prepare

Lawyer groups oppose bill to raise reporter’s transcript fees

Reporter’s transcript bill amended to accelerate cost increase