BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 648
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 648 (Jones-Sawyer)
As Amended April 29, 2013
Majority vote
JUDICIARY 8-1
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|Ayes:|Wieckowski, Alejo, Chau, | | |
| |Dickinson, Garcia, | | |
| |Gorell, Muratsuchi, Stone | | |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Maienschein | | |
| | | | |
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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 $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
AB 648
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Fund and, upon appropriation by the Legislature, distributed
back to the courts in which the fees were collected on a
dollar for dollar basis.
FISCAL EFFECT : None
COMMENTS : Last year, the Legislature approved and the Governor
signed SB 1021 (Budget and Fiscal Review Committee), Chapter 41,
Statutes of 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 on how to implement this fee. This bill represents the
efforts of the author to provide much-needed guidance on how to
implement this new fee for proceedings lasting one hour or less.
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.
In 1998, the Trial Court Funding Act (AB 233 (Escutia and
Pringle), Chapter 850, Statutes of 1997) 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, parties in civil proceedings are now
AB 648
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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.
The 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.
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.
The 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 recent
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
collected pursuant to existing law governing the collection of
fees for proceedings lasting more than one hour.
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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, 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.
Analysis Prepared by : Anthony Lew / JUD. / (916) 319-2334
FN: 0000292