BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 648
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 648 (Jones-Sawyer)
As Amended September 6, 2013
Majority vote
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|ASSEMBLY: |49-24|(May 13, 2013) |SENATE: |25-11|(September 10, |
| | | | | |2013) |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Original Committee Reference: JUD.
SUMMARY : Establishes rules to implement the collection of the
existing $30 fee for court reporting services in proceedings
anticipated to last one hour or less. Specifically, this bill :
1)Provides that for each proceeding anticipated to last 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. Specifically, this fee is
charged for the reasonable cost of the court reporting
provided at the expense of the court by an official court
reporter.
2)Provides that if no fee has been charged, and a party
subsequently requests a court reporter, that party shall be
charged the fee if a reporter is to be provided by the court.
3)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.
4)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.
5)Requires the fee to be refunded as soon as practicable if no
court reporting services were provided.
6)Requires the fee to be waived for any person who has been
AB 648
Page 2
granted a fee waiver under Government Code Section 68631.
7)Requires the fee to be deposited into the Trial Court Trust
Fund and distributed back to the court from which the fee was
collected on a dollar-for-dollar basis.
The Senate amendments provide that if no fee is charged and a
party subsequently requests a court reporter, then that party
shall be charged the fee if reporting services are provided. In
addition, the amendments clarify that the $30 fee shall be
charged for each proceeding anticipated to last one hour or
less, and that the fee shall be refunded as soon as practicable
to the remitting party if no court reporting services were
provided.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
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
AB 648
Page 3
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
charged a $30 fee for the reasonable cost of the services of an
official court reporter for each proceeding anticipated to last
one hour or less, rather than receiving reporting services
essentially for free for the first hour.
The bill provides that for any proceeding anticipated to last
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.
The bill also provides that if no fee has been charged, and a
party subsequently requests a court reporter, that party shall
be charged the fee if a reporter is to be provided by the court.
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. This
clarifies 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
AB 648
Page 4
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.
This bill requires the fee to be refunded as soon as practicable
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.
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: 0002646