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5d ago

California High Court Lets Courts Record Civil Hearings When Reporters Are Unavailable

The ruling is meant to protect low-income litigants’ ability to appeal by ordering courts to make recordings and provide transcripts when certified reporters cannot be supplied.

Nai Kinsbursky, left, and Maggie McDougall, right, type on stenotypes during a speed building class at the Downey Adult School on June 29 in Los Angeles. The California Supreme Court on Monday ruled that courts must audio record proceedings that lack a stenographer. (Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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Overview

  • The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that courts must allow electronic recording of civil proceedings when a certified court reporter is not available and the parties cannot afford to hire one, and it ordered courts to produce transcripts from those recordings.
  • The decision does not change rules for criminal trials and leaves some categories of civil hearings still required to have a human court reporter.
  • Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero’s opinion said court reporters are unavailable for more than one million hearings each year and cited county data showing Los Angeles had more than 323,000 hearings without a full transcript in 2023 while Santa Clara and San Mateo reported 50,000-plus each.
  • Unions and court-reporter associations criticized the ruling, saying electronic recordings can miss words and could undermine efforts to rebuild the court-reporter workforce.
  • Access-to-justice groups welcomed the change as a practical fix for people who cannot pay about $3,000 a day for private stenographers, but courts still face unresolved challenges on equipment, transcript accuracy, staffing and how counties will roll out the new process.