BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 648
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 23, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY
Bob Wieckowski, Chair
AB 648 (Jones-Sawyer) - As Introduced: February 21, 2013
As Proposed to Be Amended
SUBJECT : COURT REPORTER SERVICES: FEE IMPLEMENTATION
KEY ISSUE : SHOULD CLEARER GUIDANCE BE GIVEN TO COURTS AND
LITIGANTS ABOUT HOW THE COURTS MAY IMPLEMENT THE NEW $30 COURT
REPORTING FEE, AUTHORIZED LAST YEAR, FOR PROCEEDINGS LASTING ONE
HOUR OR LESS?
FISCAL EFFECT : As currently in print this bill is keyed
non-fiscal.
SYNOPSIS
Last year, the Legislature approved and the Governor signed
legislation which created a new $30 fee to be charged to
litigants for court reporter services in civil proceedings
lasting less than one hour. According to the author, however,
the statute did not provide clear guidance on how to implement
this fee. This bill, sponsored by the Judicial Council, seeks
to establish a number of specific rules for the implementation
of the SB 1021 court reporting fee. Among other things, as
proposed to be amended this bill provides that for any
proceeding lasting one hour or less, the party that filed the
paper that resulted in the scheduling of the proceeding shall
pay the fee, and the fee shall be deposited with the clerk of
the court as specified by the court, but not later than the
conclusion of each day's court session. In addition, the bill
requires the collected fees to be deposited into the Trial Court
Trust Fund and distributed back to the courts in which the fees
were collected on a dollar for dollar basis. The proposed
amendments to the bill are the result of extensive collaborative
discussion among a variety of stakeholders, including court
executives and the Judicial Council, the plaintiff and defense
bars, court reporters, and legal aid advocates. There is no
known opposition to the bill as proposed to be amended, but the
Judicial Council and stakeholders have expressed a strong
commitment to continue to work on remaining issues, particularly
the parameters of a potential refund process.
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SUMMARY : Establishes rules to implement the collection of the
existing $30 fee for court reporting services in proceedings
lasting one hour or less. Specifically, this bill :
1)Provides that for each proceeding lasting one hour or less, a
single fee of thirty dollars ($30) shall be charged to the
party or parties, if filing jointly, that filed the paper that
resulted in the proceeding being scheduled.
2)Requires the fee to be deposited with the clerk of the court
as specified by the court, but not later than the conclusion
of each day's court session.
3)Provides that the fee shall be charged once for all
proceedings per case conducted within the same hour if the
total time taken by those proceedings is one hour or less, but
if the total time taken exceeds one hour, then the fee shall
be charged and collected pursuant to existing law governing
the collection of fees for proceedings lasting more than one
hour.
4)Requires the fee to be refunded if no court reporting services
were provided at the scheduled proceeding.
5)Requires the fee to be waived for any person who has been
granted a fee waiver under Government Code Section 68631.
6)Requires the fees to be deposited into the Trial Court Trust
Fund and, upon appropriation by the Legislature, distributed
back to the courts in which the fees were collected on a
dollar for dollar basis.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides that for each proceeding lasting less than one hour,
a fee of thirty dollars ($30) shall be charged for the
reasonable cost of the services of an official court reporter.
(Government Code Section 68086(a)(1)(A). All further
statutory references are to this code unless otherwise noted.)
2)Provides that for each civil trial court proceeding lasting
more than one hour, a fee equal to one-half day shall be
charged, on a pro rata basis, to the parties. (Section
68086(a)(1)(B).)
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3)Provides that $30 of each of several specified civil filing
fees be used for services of an official court reporter in
civil proceedings. Provides that this $30 is designed as an
incentive for courts to use official court reporters in civil
proceedings, but that nothing affects the Judicial Council's
authority to allocate these funds to replace reductions in
general fund appropriations to the Trial Court Trust Fund.
(Section 68086.1.)
4)Requires that, among other fees, the fees collected by the
trial courts for official court reporters be deposited in a
bank account established by the Administrative Office of the
Courts (AOC). Requires the AOC to distribute those deposits
as provided, with the remainder going to the Trial Court Trust
Fund. (Section 68085.1.)
5)Provides that whenever a daily transcript is ordered in a
civil case requiring the services of more than one court
reporter, the party requesting the daily transcript must pay
an additional specified rate and that such fee shall be
distributed to the court to offset the cost of the additional
reporter. (Section 69953.5.)
6)Requires the Judicial Council to report every year to the
Joint Legislative Budget Committee on specified fees collected
for court reporters and the total amount spent by the courts
for official court reporters. (Section 68086(c).)
COMMENTS : Last year, the Legislature approved and the Governor
signed SB 1021, Ch. 41, Stats. 2012, budget trailer legislation
which created a new $30 fee to be assessed against litigants for
court reporter services in civil proceedings lasting less than
one hour. According to the author:
The statute did not provide clear guidance, however,
on how to implement this fee. The Judicial Council's
Policy Coordination and Liaison Committee (PCLC) and
the Joint Legislation Working Group of the Trial Court
Presiding Judges and Court Executives Advisory
Committees (JLWG) therefore recommend addressing the
lack of specificity and resulting confusion to better
enable courts to collect revenue from this new source.
This proposal will streamline procedures and create
sufficient flexibility and guidance for the courts and
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for litigants on how this new fee will be assessed.
This bill, sponsored by the Judicial Council, seeks to establish
a number of specific rules for the implementation of the SB 1021
court reporting fee. These rules were the result of extensive
collaboration and discussion among a variety of stakeholders,
including court executives and the Judicial Council, the
plaintiff and defense bars, court reporters, and legal aid
advocates.
Background on Court Reporter Fees : In 1998, the Trial Court
Funding Act (AB 233 (Escutia and Pringle), Chap. 850, Stats.
199) required that all court reporters fees collected by the
trial courts be deposited into the Trial Court Trust Fund, where
nearly all court-collected fees are deposited. The court
reporter fees are then returned to the trial courts as part of
their annual allocation. The fees are distributed to the courts
on a pro rata basis and not based on dollars collected. Thus,
while not all trial courts are aggressively charging and
collecting the court reporter fees, all courts share equally
(based on their pro rata share) in those collections.
Before last year, fees to help cover the cost of maintaining
official court reporters in civil courtrooms came from two
sources. The initial civil filing fee includes $30 to cover the
cost of court reporters. In addition, parties in civil
proceedings are charged a fee for the services of an official
court reporter for all proceedings lasting longer than an hour.
With enactment of SB 1021 (Ch. 41, Stats 2012), parties in civil
proceedings are now charged a $30 fee for the reasonable cost of
the services of an official court reporter for each proceeding
lasting one hour or less, rather than receiving reporting
services essentially for free for the first hour.
According to recent Judicial Council data, courts collect $21.5
million for court reporters from first paper filing fees and an
additional $12.5 million from the fee for proceedings lasting
longer than an hour, for a total of $35 million. The Judicial
Council estimated that courts spent nearly $83 million on court
reporters in civil proceedings last year, more than double what
is collected from the specified fees.
According to Judicial Council, since the fee became effective in
late June 2012, the courts attempting to implement the fee have
been following guidelines developed by the Administrative Office
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of Courts. (See "Frequently Asked Questions: Senate Bill 1021
(2011-2012 Regular Session" worksheet, AOC, July 9, 2012.) This
bill represents the efforts of the author and Judicial Council
to provide much-needed guidance on how to implement this new fee
for proceedings lasting one hour or less.
Who pays the new fee: As proposed to be amended, this bill
provides that for any proceeding lasting one hour or less, the
party that filed the paper that resulted in the scheduling of
the proceeding shall pay the fee. If, however, three
individuals jointly filed the paper together, then the bill
clarifies that they should not be treated as three separate
parties and each charged $30. Instead, the bill contemplates
that only one $30 fee shall be charged to those individuals
joined on the same side who filed the paper that resulted in the
proceeding, and by extension, the party or parties on the
opposing side shall not also be charged the fee.
When the fee shall be paid : As proposed to be amended, this
bill requires persons paying the fee to deposit the fee with the
clerk of the court as specified by the court, but not later than
the conclusion of each day's court session. Although in most
cases it is expected the fee will be paid at the clerk's window
at the time of filing, this rule is intended to allow some
flexibility for later payment of the fee as long as it still
occurs by the end of the same day of the court session.
Limitations on charge of the fee . As proposed to be amended,
this bill provides that the $30 fee shall be charged once for
all proceedings per case conducted within the same hour if the
total time taken by those proceedings is one hour or less. The
proposed amendment is intended to clarify that payment of the
$30 fee is not charged multiple times to the party for each
individual proceeding that arises in the same case when all of
those proceedings may be disposed of within the same hour. In
cases where the court may be asked to rule on multiple
"proceedings" (for example, motions in limine) that each take no
more than a few minutes, the bill seeks to limit stacking of the
fee for multiple short proceedings with unreasonable results.
Otherwise, it is conceivable that one party is charged $30 for a
single motion that takes 25 minutes to dispose of, while another
party is charged $120 to hear four short motions in the same
case that altogether only takes the court a total of 10 minutes
to dispose of. The bill also provides that if the total time
taken exceeds one hour, then the fee shall be charged and
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collected pursuant to existing law governing the collection of
fees for proceedings lasting more than one hour.
Refunds and waivers of the fee. As proposed to be amended, this
bill requires the fee to be refunded if no court reporting
services were provided at the scheduled proceeding. This
reflects the simple principle that if no reporter services were
rendered, then no fee should be paid. In courts where court
reporters services are not or never have been provided, any
collection of this fee would of course be inappropriate.
Because in most cases it is expected the fee will be paid at the
clerk's window at the time of filing, prior to the provision of
any court reporter services, this provision will require the
court to develop a process for refunding the fee in those cases
where no services were ultimately provided-for example, where
the court reporter unexpectedly could not attend due to illness
or emergency. The Judicial Council and stakeholders have each
expressed a strong commitment to continue to work on developing
the parameters of a potential refund process as the bill moves
forward.
Finally, as proposed to be amended, this bill requires the fee
to be waived for low-income persons who have applied for and
been granted a fee waiver under Government Code Section 68631.
Support if amended to remove intent language. Both the Bar
Association of San Francisco- Family Law Section and the
Association of Certified Family Law Specialists (ACFLS)
submitted letters to the Committee taking a position of "Support
If Amended" to delete legislative intent language in subdivision
(g) of the bill, which they characterize as "extraneous" and
"creating ambiguity in the Code." The author proposes to delete
subdivision (g), but it is not known if either group supports
the bill in light of the other proposed amendments.
Prior Legislation: SB 1021 (Committee on Budget & Fiscal
Review), Ch. 41, Stats 2012, was the 2012 public safety budget
trailer bill that, among other things, established a $30 fee to
be charged for the reasonable cost of the services of an
official court reporter for each proceeding lasting less than
one hour.
AB 2076 (Ma) of 2012 would have increased the fees used to pay
for the costs of court reporters and allow local courts to
retain those fees, and required that those fees only be used for
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the provision of court reporters in civil proceedings, unless
the court does not provide for court reporters in civil
proceedings. The bill died in Senate Appropriations.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Judicial Council of California (sponsor)
Support if Amended (as introduced version)
Association of Certified Family Law Specialists
Bar Association of San Francisco- Family Law Section
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Anthony Lew / JUD. / (916) 319-2334