BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
AB 2076 (Ma) - Court reporters: fees.
Amended: June 25, 2012 Policy Vote: Judiciary 4-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: August 16, 2012
Consultant: Jolie Onodera
SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
Bill Summary: AB 2076 would do the following:
Provide that a $30 fee be charged for each civil trial
court proceeding lasting less than one hour for the
reasonable cost of the services of an official court
reporter, and would require that these fees be retained by
the court in which the fee was collected.
Provide that the existing fees collected for civil trial
court proceedings lasting more than one hour be retained by
the court in which the fee was collected in lieu of
distribution to the Trial Court Trust Fund (TCTF).
Require the $30 from specified civil filing fees that
are currently distributed to the TCTF be retained by the
court in which the fee was collected while still requiring
the fees to be used for the services of an official court
reporter.
Delete existing legislative intent language that
currently authorizes the Judicial Council to allocate the
specified civil filing fees to the TCTF to replace
reductions in General Fund appropriations to the TCTF.
Specify that for courts that do not provide for court
reporters in civil proceedings, the $30 portion of civil
filing fees collected must revert to the TCTF and be
redistributed by the Judicial Council to trial courts that
do provide the services of court reporters.
Fiscal Impact: Ongoing redirection of $12.5 million in fee
revenues collected for civil proceedings from the TCTF (General
Fund) to the individual trial courts in which the fees are
collected. Courts that do not provide court reporter services
would likely experience a reduction in their base allocations,
resulting in potential cost pressure on the General Fund to
backfill the loss of funding. There are no estimated
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administrative costs or net increase in revenues for the $30 fee
to be charged for proceedings lasting less than one hour, as
that provision became existing law upon enactment of Chapter
41/2012 on June 27, 2012.
Background: Existing law provides that for each civil trial
court proceeding lasting more than one hour, a fee equal to
one-half day of services shall be charged to the parties, on a
pro rata basis, and that the fees collected shall be used only
to pay the cost for services of an official court reporter in
civil proceedings. Under existing law, the fees collected by the
trial courts for official court reporters must be distributed by
the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), with the
remainder going to the TCTF.
Existing law under the recently enacted Public Safety budget
trailer bill, SB 1021 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review)
Chapter 41/2012, among other provisions, provided that for each
civil trial court proceeding lasting less than one hour, a fee
of $30 is to be charged for the reasonable cost of the services
of an official court reporter.
Existing law additionally requires that $30 of each of several
specified civil filing fees distributed to the TCTF be used for
the services of an official court reporter in civil proceedings.
Existing law codifies the legislative intent for this $30 to
continue 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 TCTF. Moreover,
the portion of the distribution to the TCTF to be used for
services of a court reporter may only be used in trial courts
that use the services of an official court reporter in civil
proceedings.
The AOC annual report to the Legislature provides information on
court reporter fees collected and the associated expenditures
for court reporters in civil court proceedings for the same
period. In its most recent report dated February 2012, Judicial
Branch Report to the Legislature: Court Reporter Fees Collected
and Expenditures for Court Reporter Services in Superior Court
Civil Proceedings for Fiscal Year 2010-11, $34 million was
remitted to the TCTF, of which $12.5 million came from fees for
court reporter services for civil court proceedings lasting more
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than one hour, and $21.5 million is attributable to the $30 fee
for first paper filings and specified civil proceedings.
Estimated expenditures for court reporter services in superior
court civil proceedings over the same one year period were $82.8
million.
Proposed Law: This bill seeks to increase the fees used to pay
for the costs of official court reporters and allow local courts
to retain those fees and require that those fees only be used
for the provision of court reporters, as specified.
Specifically, this bill:
Provides that for each civil court proceeding lasting less
than one hour, a fee of $30 shall be charged for the
reasonable cost of the services of an official court reporter.
Specifies that any fees collected for proceedings lasting more
than one hour shall be retained by the court that collects the
fee to use for the services of official court reporters in
civil proceedings.
Codifies the intent of the Legislature to continue an
incentive to courts to use the services of an official court
reporter in civil proceedings.
Provides that the $30 of specified civil filing fees
distributed to the TCTF be instead retained by the court in
which the fee was collected and be used to provide services of
an official court reporter in civil proceedings.
Deletes the existing legislative intent language stating the
Judicial Council's authority to allocate the $30 portion of
civil filing fees to replace reductions in general fund
appropriations to the TCTF.
Provides that in trial courts where official court reporting
services are not provided in civil proceedings, the specified
civil filing fees are to revert to the TCTF for redistribution
by the Judicial Council to trial courts providing official
court reporting services in civil proceedings, on a pro rata
basis, and shall be used to provide the services of a court
reporter.
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 to be retained by the court in
which it was collected to offset the cost of the additional
reporter.
Related Legislation: SB 1021 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal
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Review) Chapter 41/2012, the Public Safety budget trailer bill,
among other provisions, provides for an additional official
court reporter fee of $30 to be charged for each civil trial
court proceeding lasting less than one hour.
Staff Comments: This bill would change the way in which fees for
court reporter services are distributed amongst the trial
courts. Currently, the fees for civil court proceedings lasting
more than one hour are collected and deposited into the TCTF and
subsequently distributed to all courts as part of each court's
base allocation. This bill would instead require the fees
collected to be retained by the individual courts that collect
the fees, resulting in a redirection of approximately $12.5
million in fee revenue from the TCTF to individual courts.
Courts that provide court reporter services would likely receive
increased funds to offset a portion of actual court reporter
service expenditures. Conversely, courts that do not provide
court reporter services would likely experience a reduction in
their base allocations, resulting in potential cost pressure on
the General Fund to backfill this loss of funding.
This bill would provide that for each civil court proceeding
lasting less than one hour, a fee of $30 shall be charged for
the reasonable cost of the services of an official court
reporter, and would require that the fee revenue be retained by
the court in which the fee was collected. This provision
conflicts with the recently enacted Public Safety budget trailer
bill which provided for the same $30 fee for proceedings lasting
less than one hour, but designates the fees collected to go to
the TCTF. As a result, there are no estimated administrative
costs or net increase in revenues anticipated, as the provision
became existing law upon enactment of Chapter 41/2012 on June
27, 2012, but a redirection of fee revenues from the TCTF to
individual courts will occur. As previously noted, any reduction
to individual court allocations resulting from the revised
distribution methodology could result in potential cost pressure
on the General Fund to backfill the loss of funding.
This bill would additionally provide for the redirection of the
$30 portion of each of several specified civil filing fees
distributed to the TCTF to be retained by the individual court
that collected it if that court provides court reporter
services. This will result in an ongoing redirection of
approximately $19 million in fee revenues from the TCTF to
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individual courts. For courts that do not provide court
reporters in civil proceedings, the fees collected
(approximately $2.5 million) would be deposited into the TCTF
and redistributed pro rata to those courts that do provide court
reporter services. Existing law codifies the legislative intent
for this $30 to continue 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
TCTF. Deletion of the Judicial Council's existing authority
would reduce the flexibility currently available to redirect
these fee revenues to replace reductions in General Fund
appropriations.
Recommended Amendment: Existing law specifies a fee be charged
for each civil trial court proceeding lasting over one hour and
less than one hour, however, there is no provision for a fee to
be charged for civil trial court proceedings lasting exactly one
hour. Staff recommends an amendment in Section 3 of the bill to
clarify this issue to provide the authority to the courts to
collect a fee for proceedings lasting exactly one hour.
Proposed Author Amendments: The proposed author amendments would
delete Section 4 of the bill that proposes to redirect a portion
of existing civil filing fee revenues from the TCTF to
individual courts.