BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2076
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 2076 (Ma)
As Amended May 25, 2012
Majority vote
JUDICIARY 8-0 APPROPRIATIONS 12-5
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|Ayes:|Feuer, Atkins, Dickinson, |Ayes:|Fuentes, Blumenfield, |
| |Gorell, Huber, Monning, | |Bradford, Charles |
| |Wieckowski, Bonnie | |Calderon, Campos, Davis, |
| |Lowenthal | |Gatto, Ammiano, Hill, |
| | | |Lara, Mitchell, Solorio |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | |Nays:|Harkey, Donnelly, |
| | | |Nielsen, Norby, Wagner |
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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)Provides that fees collected for civil court reporters must be
retained by the court in which the fee is collected.
2)Provides that for each civil trial court proceeding lasting
less than an hour, the parties shall be charged $30 for the
reasonable cost of an official court reporter. For each civil
court proceedings lasting more than one hour, requires a fee
equal to the actual cost of providing court reporting services
to be charged per half-day of services, as defined, to the
parties on a pro rata basis. States the intent of the
Legislature is to continue an incentive to courts to use the
services of an official court reporter in civil proceedings.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes the Trial Court Trust Fund as specified.
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
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Budget Committee on specified fees collected for court
reporters and the total amount spent by the courts for
official court reporters.
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.
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.
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.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, unknown additional fee revenue statewide to fund
court reporter services in civil cases. Some courts might incur
costs to determine if civil litigants are eligible for waiver
from the fee.
COMMENTS : As a result of the recession and the state budget
crisis, the courts' budget has been reduced by over $650 million
annually, with more reductions proposed in the Governor's
Revised Budget. 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
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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 1998, the Trial Court Funding Act (AB 233 (Escutia and
Pringle), Chapter 850, Statutes of 1998) 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 $34 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.
This bill should help increase the fees available to fund
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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 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 by charging a fee of $30 for
those proceedings for the reasonable cost of an official court
reporter.
Analysis Prepared by : Leora Gershenzon / JUD. / (916)
319-2334
FN: 0003885