REDDING, Calif. — A new California Supreme Court ruling changes what happens when a court reporter is unavailable, allowing courts to use electronic recordings to ensure some low-income civil litigants can obtain a verbatim record for an appeal.
Certified court reporters create word-for-word transcripts of court proceedings, which can be critical when a litigant wants to appeal a decision. Without a transcript, it can be difficult to show an appeals court that a judge made an error.
California, however, has a major shortage of court reporters. The people most affected are often those in civil, family law and probate cases, including domestic violence, child custody, divorce and housing disputes.
In a unanimous opinion released Monday in Family Violence Appellate Project, et. al v. Superior Court, the California Supreme Court ruled that when a court reporter is unavailable, courts may use electronic recordings to provide qualifying low-income civil litigants with a verbatim record for an appeal. The ruling does not eliminate court reporters. Instead, electronic recording can serve as a backup when a reporter is unavailable, ensuring litigants have a record of their case rather than none at all.
Shasta County Superior Court said it is also dealing with the court reporter shortage and is updating its procedures in response to the ruling.
“The Superior Court of California, County of Shasta is committed to ensuring access to justice,” the court said in a statement to KRCR. “The Court is continuously recruiting for court reporting staff and values the crucial work our court reporters do in courts here and throughout the state. Our commitment to recruiting and retaining court reporters has not changed. However, we also recognize that often the need for a verbatim record exceeds our ability to staff courtrooms with court reporters. The Court is currently updating our procedures in light of the new direction from the California Supreme Court.”
The Supreme Court did not set a deadline for local courts to change their procedures, but Shasta County is already working on it.
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