BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2076
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 10, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY
Mike Feuer, Chair
AB 2076 (Ma) - As Amended: April 9, 2012
SUBJECT : COURT REPORTERS: FEES
KEY ISSUE : IN ORDER TO ENCOURAGE COURTS TO COLLECT FEES TO FUND
COURT REPORTERS, SHOULD TRIAL COURTS BE ALLOWED TO RETAIN THE
FEES THEY COLLECT FOR OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS AND SHOULD SUCH
FEES BE COLLECTED FOR ALL HEARINGS LASTING MORE THAN A STILL TO
BE DETERMINED PERIOD OF TIME?
FISCAL EFFECT : As currently in print this bill is keyed fiscal.
SYNOPSIS
Very substantial budget cuts have forced California courts to
close courtrooms and lay off staff, including court reporters.
As a result, courts in many counties no longer provide official
court reporters for some civil proceedings. This bill,
supported by court reporters' associations and labor groups,
seeks to increase the availability of official court reporters
in civil actions by increasing the fees used to pay those
reporters and better incentivizing local courts to collect those
fees by allowing them to retain those fees and not share pro
rata with all courts. The Judicial Council is creating a
subcommittee of the Trial Court Budget Working Group to study
whether allowing local courts to retain court reporter fees will
better incent their collection and help ensure there are court
reporters in civil courtrooms and, also, to work through the
intricacies of how such a proposal would be implemented. The
Judicial Council has agreed to continue working with the author
as this bill proceeds through the legislative process and as its
subcommittee develops appropriate recommendations.
SUMMARY : Expands civil court reporter fees and requires that
the fees be retained for use in the courts that collect them.
Specifically, this bill :
1)States the intent of the Legislature that allowing local
courts to retain civil court reporter fees will incentivize
the consistent and efficient collection of mandated civil
AB 2076
Page 2
court reporters fees and will continue to incent courts to use
official court reporters in civil proceedings.
2)Provides that fees collected for civil court reporters must be
retained by the court in which the fee is collected.
3)Provides that for each civil trial court proceeding lasting
more than __ minutes, a fee equal to the actual cost of
providing the services of an official court reporter shall be
charged, on a pro rata basis, to the parties.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes the Trial Court Trust Fund as specified.
(Government Code Section 68085. 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. 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.)
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
AB 2076
Page 3
distributed to the court to offset the cost of the additional
reporter. (Section 69953.5.)
COMMENTS : As a result of the recession and the state budget
crisis, the courts' budget has been reduced by over $650 million
annually. These very substantial reductions have resulted in
closed courtrooms, reduced clerks' offices hours and self-help
programs and court staff layoffs, including layoffs of court
reporters in civil proceedings. As a result, many civil
courtrooms are now operating without official court reporters.
Lack of court-provided reporting services frustrates the goals
of California's system of justice by preventing litigants from
appealing decisions, keeping parties from drafting orders
effectively, and preventing those attempting to recount what
actually happened during proceedings - including jurors
deliberating on the case - from being able to do so.
Additionally, the Commission on Judicial Performance has voiced
concern that lack of an official record makes it much harder to
prove judicial misconduct and, thus, impairs the Commission's
ability to protect the public from rogue judges.
This bill seeks to increase the use of official court reporters
in courts by allowing courts to keep and use the fees that they
collect for court reporters locally. It is believed that
allowing courts to keep the fees will incentivize them to
collect more fees and use them to help increase the use of
official court reporters in civil courtrooms. In addition, in
order to help increase the funds available to pay for court
reporters, this bill looks to charge court reporter fees for
proceedings possibly lasting less than one hour.
In support of the bill, the author writes:
There has been growing concern over the inconsistent
collection of court reporter fees across counties, and
whether the fees have been adequately re-appropriated to
local trial courts.
Due to the difficult budget climate, trial courts are facing
mounting challenges on how to absorb the costs associated
with providing court reporting services for trials that last
less than an hour.
While many cases may be brief, the fees collected for the
numerous court proceedings a court reporter covers
AB 2076
Page 4
throughout a day is insufficient to cover the costs for
court reporting services.
Court reporters' presence helps to prevent mumbled
statements, reduce confusion over testimonies, and provide a
well-documented court record for proceedings where exact
well-documented court record is critical, especially after a
legal hearing is over.
AB 2076 will allow the local trial court to retain the
dollars collected by the local trial court to allow courts
to continue to offer important judicial services.
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.
Fees to help cover the cost of maintaining official court
reporter in civil courtrooms come 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. According to the
most recent Judicial Council report, 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 estimates that courts spent nearly $83 million on court
reporters in civil proceedings last year, more than double what
is collected from the specified fees.
The Author and Sponsors Believe This Bill Will Help Decrease the
Number of Civil Proceedings That Occur Today Without a Court
Reporter Present and Without a Record : This bill should help
increase the fees available to fund official court reporters
and, as a result, the number of civil proceedings with court
reporters, in two ways. First, by allowing local courts to keep
AB 2076
Page 5
the fees they charge and collect, courts will directly benefit
from collecting the fees and improving collection efforts, thus
providing an incentive to collect more. This, in turn, should
increase the funds available to the local courts to pay for
court reporters. There are a number of locally collected fees
that are now retained by the courts that collect them (or
returned dollar for dollar to those courts from the Trial Court
Trust Fund), and this bill would follow those models.
Second, by seeking to revise when parties start accruing fees
for court reporters, this bill also hopes to increase available
funds. Currently, parties are only required to pay for court
reporters if the proceeding lasts more than one hour. If it
does, the parties, on a pro rata basis, are charged a fee equal
to one-half day reporting. If the proceeding lasts less than an
hour, the parties are not charged any fee for the court
reporter. This bill seeks to charge the fee even when
proceedings last less than an hour. However, at some point for
short hearings, particularly during law and motion calendars, it
is not cost effective for the courts to track, charge and
collect fees from parties. Moreover, since this bill proposes
to only charge for actual time, as opposed to the current
statutorily specified half-day rate for hearings over an hour,
it is not clear if this proposal will result in increased funds
available to pay for court reporters. The author, the sponsors
and interested stakeholders have agreed to continue to work
together to determine the correct time period for charging
parties for court reports in order to ensure that the bill
actually helps increase funds available for court reporters. As
a result, this bill now appropriately leaves the minimum amount
of time when fees will be charged blank.
Judicial Council Subcommittee Now Studying the Issue : The
Judicial Council is creating a subcommittee of the Trial Court
Budget Working Group to study whether allowing local courts to
retain court reporter fees will better incentive the collection
of those and help ensure that there are court reporters in civil
courtrooms and, also, to work through the intricacies of how
such a proposal would be implemented. The Judicial Council has
agreed to continue working with the author as this bill proceeds
through the legislative process and as its subcommittee develops
appropriate recommendations.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
AB 2076
Page 6
Support
California Court Reporters Association (sponsor)
California Official Court Reporters Association (sponsor)
Alameda County Official Court Reporters Association
Fresno Superior Court Reporters
Laborers' Local 777 & 792
Los Angeles County Court Reporters Association
Northern California Court Reporters Association
Professional and Technical Engineers, IFPTE Local 21
San Diego County Court Employees Association
San Diego Superior Court Reporters Association
Service Employees International Union
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Leora Gershenzon / JUD. / (916) 319-2334