Everyone agrees the lack of court reporters is a crisis. Lawyers on both sides have urged the high court to establish a clear right to a verbatim record in civil hearings.<\/p>\n
The divergence is over whether the worker shortage is improving slowly or still getting worse, and what the Supreme Court should do about it.<\/p>\n
California\u2019s largest public sector union and the court reporters it represents warn the decision could allow the state\u2019s court systems to stop hiring stenographers.<\/p>\n
Court reporters say their duty to maintain an accurate record is a profound public trust that can only be performed by a human being, who can intervene to ensure everyone is heard and who bears responsibility if a transcript is missing or incomplete.<\/p>\n
Despite California\u2019s sluggish job market, hiring for court reporters remains brisk, bolstered by tens of millions in funding from Sacramento, a recent change in state law and aggressive recruitment by some of the country\u2019s largest court systems, including Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties.<\/p>\n
Lila Scott, a TV writer, is among those seeking to join the profession. Like a lot of Hollywood talent, she had been struggling to find steady work in recent years.<\/p>\n
The \u201cUnicorn Academy\u201d writer was trolling government job sites when she stumbled across a listing for court reporters in Los Angeles \u2014 and then another, and another.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, \u2018What the heck is this?\u2019\u201d Scott recalled as she set up for a class at Downey Adult School.<\/p>\n
Scott is now in training to become a \u201cvoice writer,\u201d a form of note-taking that relies on a device called a stenomask \u2014 something like a cross between a podcast mic and a nebulizer \u2014 to produce a transcript. Voice writers repeat every word spoken in court along with a sequence of formatting commands to voice recognition software.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou use your mom voice when you\u2019re dictating,\u201d said another Downey student, 40-year-old Wanda Port. \u201cThat stern mom voice, that\u2019s the one you use.\u201d<\/p>\n
Traditionally, court reporters have used 22-key steno machines to rapidly take down every word said by lawyers, judges and anyone else who speaks on the record during an official proceeding. The licensing process for these stenographers is significantly longer and more difficult than what voice writers undergo.<\/p>\n
A change in state law in 2024 allowed voice writers to become licensed as \u201ccertified shorthand reporters,\u201d opening a new pipeline for court staff.<\/p>\n
About half of the court reporters hired in California since 2024 have been voice writers, data show.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf the 300-plus students we have, it\u2019s about 50\/50,\u201d said Jennifer Shenbaum, who directs the Downey program.<\/p>\n
The current hiring blitz follows more than a decade of decline, after California\u2019s court systems shed about a third of their reporters amid a protracted budget crisis in 2012. Labor leaders say new licenses have jumped ninefold in recent years, and court reporting classrooms across the state are full.<\/p>\n
Diana Van Dyke, a Los Angeles County Superior Court reporter and a shop steward in Service Employees International Union Local 721, credits much of that growth to the expansion of paid internships, signing bonuses and other aggressive recruitment tactics funded by the Legislature and promoted by the union.<\/p>\n
![\"Students](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0ccedc7d0d1211dd1821b1997283b1b0.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Students training to become court reporters practice on stenotypes and stenomasks during a speed-building class at Downey Adult School. (Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
At Orange County\u2019s Cypress College, which offers court reporter training, job fliers boasting six-figure salaries paper the walls. A pamphlet from the Central District of California that touted \u201cfront-page Federal cases\u201d hung in the window of a court reporting classroom, where students practiced typing 200 words per minute.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the end of the third test I can\u2019t feel my fingers \u2014 but it\u2019s worth it!\u201d said Asia Mendez, a trainee-stenographer.<\/p>\n
While advocates for court reporters say humans can still do the job better than machines, the fact that many hearings occur without any official transcript at all has drawn concern from top state officials.<\/p>\n
Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta has called the situation \u201cuntenable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the rare case in which the current application of a statute violates procedural due process,\u201d Bonta\u2019s office said in a brief urging the state\u2019s high court to allow recordings.<\/p>\n
Read more: California courts sued over failure to ensure transcripts in millions of hearings<\/a><\/p>\n Such a ruling would be especially important for survivors of domestic violence, who often find the family court system weaponized against them, said Jennafer Dorfman Wagner, director of programs at the Family Violence Appellate Project, which brought the suit that is now before the California Supreme Court.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople who want to exert power and control over an ex-partner will find whatever foothold they can and use it,\u201d Wagner said.<\/p>\n Without a record of their proceedings, litigants can\u2019t prove what happened in the courtroom, or appeal if a judge denies a restraining order or approves a custody arrangement that leaves them vulnerable to further violence.<\/p>\n California\u2019s court systems have also thrown their weight behind the plaintiffs in the case.<\/p>\n \u201cCalifornia has long led in areas of access to justice and technology, but in this area, it lags far behind the rest of the country, and behind the federal courts that are in this state,\u201d said Mark Yohalem, an attorney representing the state\u2019s superior courts.<\/p>\n The justices, too, seemed eager to embrace electronic recording in cases where no court reporter is available and litigants cannot afford to pay for one on their own, repeatedly pressing lawyers on exactly how such a ruling might be written.<\/p>\n Although the decision would not affect criminal proceedings, the high court judges have expressed concern that court systems may use their ruling to roll back the broader recruitment push as a cost-cutting measure \u2014 a worry labor leaders share.<\/p>\n \u201cElectronic recording is cheaper,\u201d said Justice Joshua P. Groban. \u201cIt allows any court to just say, for example, that no more court reporters are needed.\u201d<\/p>\n When advocates for the Family Violence Appellate Project told Groban and the other justices hearing the case that such a move by the courts would amount to \u201cbad faith\u201d and should not weigh on their decision, the judge appeared skeptical.<\/p>\n \u201cEither bad faith or fiscal responsibility, depending on the budget that year,\u201d Groban said.<\/p>\n