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Posted on April 30th, 2012 by admin
If you’re not a subscriber to the Court Reporters Board newsletter, you may want to check out the most recent issue. There’s one article in particular we think will be drawing a lot of comment by both officials and freelancers.
Click on the link which will take you the CRB’s website, and then under the “What’s New” link, click on “CRB Today – Board Newsletter, Spring 2012.”
You’ll find the article entitled, “Pitfalls of Privatizing Court Reporters on page 3.
The following is a quote from the article.
“With several of the courts across the state no longer providing court reporters in civil courtrooms, attorneys and litigants are being forced to make their own arrangements to bring in a court reporter. Freelancers should beware of rushing into a California state court without knowing applicable statutes.“
Posted on April 26th, 2012 by admin
COCRA has received word that the official reporters in Sonoma County have been sent a letter stating that the word count multiplier, which was to be imposed May 1st, has been placed on hold at this time.
A group consisting of officials and their union rep met with the two administrators of Sonoma Superior Court this past Monday in order to discuss the word count multiplier. Apparently the meeting was a cordial and informative one in which the officials laid out for the administrators all of the problems that would arise should the WCM be implemented.
The officials must have been very convincing in their arguments as evidenced by the letter sent to them today.
We will be updating this story as we get more info and those of you attending the Summit for Officials on May 5th will be able to hear a full report from the official reporters representing Sonoma.
Posted on April 24th, 2012 by admin
AB2305 (Klehs): The Solution that Hit a Brick Wall
What happened to COCRA’s page-rate bill in 2006?
The following information is from a bill that COCRA introduced back in 2006. If AB 2305 had passed, statewide billing for court transcripts would have become standardized and more user-friendly.
Here are the highlights:
*Transcript billing by the page
*Universal transcript format
*Prohibition on loaning transcripts
Wait, there’s more!
*Originals: $3.57/page
*Copy: .63/page
*18% premium for civil
*50% premium for all daily service
The Brick Wall: An agreement between the Legislature and the Bar to a three-year moratorium on civil fee increases . The Bar successfully argued that new transcript rates were subject to the fee moratorium; therefore, the AB2305 was pulled until the moratorium was over.
Would AB2305 have been the solution to our current word count woes? YES!! COCRA still believes page rate is the answer. The civil fee moratorium is over. Now is the time for serious reform.
Bring back AB2305, The Transcript Reform Act!
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on April 13th, 2012 by admin
Government Code Section 27360.5 is surely no silver bullet, but it may keep the wolves at bay. This is the statute enacted in 1963 that defines a folio in just one sentence. Yes, it’s been on the books all along as the basis and the origin of the folio conversion method of payment for official transcripts. And, yes, it may help in your local negotiations as this problem arises, but it’s not the be all and end all of this debate.
“GC 27360.5. As used in this code, the word “folio” means 100 words. Each figure, character, symbol, and initial, excluding punctuation marks, shall be regarded as a word for the purpose of computing fees by a recorder.”
Word-count software measures and counts words in a variety different ways. The usage of the specified word-count software program offered by the AOC excludes hyphenated words, numbers, and other characters, in effect counting fewer words than actually exist on a page. All CAT programs count words or folios differently. This GC statute declares the manner in which words will be counted to constitute a folio – it always has.
Uniformity in payment cannot be achieved using various word-count systems, and the answer is not in a standardized word-count software either and brings up payment issues regarding importing and exporting and additional work required. The transcript format remains the lurking evil. Until the format is standardized and a statewide page rate established, all counties will continue to pay at various rates throughout the state. Period.
It is COCRA’s firm belief that a standardized format and uniformity with a specific page rate – which is easily understood by the public, litigants, the courts, and the reporters — is the only way to restore the public’s confidence in the fact that our court system is charging them fairly and equally and also to assure reporters that they are being compensated fairly based on the work they perform.
Posted on April 3rd, 2012 by admin
COCRA has received word that emails are going out to various superior courts from a court in Southern California asking those counties questions about the word count multiplier. COCRA knows of at least two counties that have had this email sent to them, but we wouldn’t be surprised if this email has found its way into the inbox of many more.
We laid out the questions in the email below.
1. Do you calculate transcript costs using the word count or folio rate method?
2. If transcript cost is calculated using folio rate, how many folios per page?
3. How many lines per page do your reporters court use?
4. If transcript cost is calculated using word count, what percentage of savings have you realized by switching from folio rate to word count method?
5. If you switched to word count method, what was the response from court reporters? What approach did you take to implement this change? What are some lessons learned from the experience?
6. If you are using word count to calculate transcript costs, are you auditing transcript claims submitted by the reporters to verify correct calculations?
7. If you are using the word count method to calculate transcript costs, on average, how much time per claim does it take to calculate costs?
8. If you are using the word count method, what application do you use (i.e. Microsoft Word, reporter’s individual software, or other)?
Early in February COCRA started hearing a rumos that there was a task force comprised of court CEOs that was working on a plan to implement a uniform response and/or procedure regarding the word count multiplier. The rumor is starting to look more and more like truth what with the rapid spread of the word count multiplier in the past two weeks and this email being sent out to courts.
Posted on March 28th, 2012 by admin
As part of COCRA’s ongoing efforts to protect the livelihoods of official court reporters, the following letter was sent today to Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye and Interim Administrative Directors of the Courts Jody Patel and Curt Soderland.
In the letter, COCRA takes a very firm position against the implementation of the word count multiplier that has spread from county to county without consulting the unions who represent official court reporters.
We encourage all official reporters who receive this letter to pass it on to your fellow officials.
Wednesday, March 28th, 2012
Honorable Tani Cantil-Sakauye
Chief Justice of California
Supreme Court
350 McAllister Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
Jody Patel
Interim Administrative Director of the Courts for California
455 Golden Gate Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94102-3688
Curt Soderland
Interim Administrative Director of the Courts for California
455 Golden Gate Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94102-3688
Dear Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Ms. Patel, Mr. Soderland:
The California Official Court Reporters Association (COCRA) is a professional association representing official reporters who work in the trial courts of California. COCRA is receiving complaints from a growing number of official reporters throughout the state that trial courts are unilaterally altering long-established, negotiated transcript rates. This unilateral action by the trial courts undercuts the trial courts’ obligation, confirmed by a recent PERB decision, to meet and confer with official reporters about transcript rates.
Further, the courts’ action forces transcript compensation “down” to levels which are unsustainable for official reporters due to a 22-year freeze on transcript rates and ongoing costs associated with realtime technology. COCRA therefore requests the AOC to direct the trial courts to cease their unilateral action with respect to transcript rates and to restore the formerly agreed-upon rates.
Statewide transcript compensation reform by way of converting folio-based rates to a standard page-based page rate is far overdue. In 2003, The Reporting of the Record Task Force (RRTF) found that a standardized transcript format and costs would improve the public’s confidence in the courts.
In 2006, COCRA introduced AB 2305 in compliance with the RRTF’s recommendations. AB 2305 also provided a reasonable adjustment to transcript rates which had been unchanged for 15 years. AB 2305 was defeated by a “fee moratorium” between the courts and the bar that was in effect at the time. Today, transcript rates have remained unchanged for 22 years and the same folio-page rates continue in existence statewide.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on March 28th, 2012 by admin
The official reporters of Fresno Superior Court were given notice today that as of May 1st, Fresno Superior Court would be switching from a folio-based rate to a word-count rate in order to calculate compensation for transcripts.
Below is a portion taken from the notice explaining when and how the word count would be implemented.
“…court administration has decided to discontinue use of the folio standard to charge parties and the court for transcripts. Instead, effective May 1, 2012, the court’s new method for calculating the amount court reporters may charge for transcripts will be the “word count” method, which is consistent with the requirements of Government Code section 69950. As part of the transcript preparation, each reporter must include on the reporter certification page the number of words contained in the transcript.
This new method will be used for all transcripts requested by any party or the court after May 1, 2012, including criminal, civil, family law, juvenile, and probate. The court will apply this new method prospectively for transcripts requested or ordered on or after May 1, 2012. However, as independent contractors for the express purpose of preparing transcripts, court reporters should use their own best judgment as to whether to provide recalculations of transcript costs for parties making such requests with respect to previously ordered transcripts. In addition, if a reporter is preparing a lengthy transcript over time and has already billed a party for a portion of a transcript at the folio standard rate, the new rate should be used at least for the portion of the transcript that is prepared on or after May 1, 2012 although court reporters may want to consider recalculating the entire cost of the transcript to reflect the new word count method.”
COCRA will be advising our members in Fresno to refer to the PERB’s decision in Santa Cruz regarding the implementation of word count which stated that the court could not implement the word count multiplier without first consulting with the unions representing the affected official reporters.
We encourage all official reporters, especially those represented by SEIU, to contact their SEIU reps about this issue.
COCRA is currently evaluating what steps we can take on a legislative and local level to address this issue. We will keep COCRA members and all California official reporters informed of any action we take that touches on this subject.
Posted on March 25th, 2012 by admin
The San Francisco Official Court Reporters Assn (SFOCRA) overwhelmingly approved a motion to donate $5000 to COCRA’s general fund to assist in COCRA’s efforts in membership retention and renewal, as well as underwriting seminars and conferences.
SFOCRA Vice President Deborah Neville issued the following statement about the donation.
“We make this donation to COCRA confident in the knowledge that COCRA, an association created over a decade ago “For Officials, By Officials,” truly represents the official reporters in California’s superior courts who work incredibly hard every day to provide a true, accurate, and impartial verbatim record of court proceedings. SFOCRA believes in COCRA because COCRA believes in official reporters.”
COCRA thanks the official reporter members of SFOCRA who made this donation even after having suffered greatly in the past six months with layoffs and removal of official reporters from civil. COCRA will continue to work tirelessly on their behalf and on behalf of all official reporters in California.
Posted on March 24th, 2012 by admin
The Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) issued a notice earlier this month requesting a response from the Santa Cruz County Superior Court in regards to a grievance filed on behalf of the official reporters by SEIU Local 521.
In January of 2011, Santa Cruz Superior Court (SCSC) informed the official reporters in that court that they would not follow the long practiced procedure of using folio rates to calculate payment for transcripts. Instead, SCSC informed its reporters that they would be calculating payment with a word count multiplier. The word count multiplier is a system that was first implemented in Marin Superior Court in which official reporters are compensated for every 100 words instead of folios per page.
SEIU Local 521 requested to meet with the court in order to negotiate the implementation of the word count. The request to meet and confer was denied by the court.
In its filing Santa Cruz stated that the SCSC “failed and refused to meet and confer in good faith in violation of Government Code section 71634.2 and committed an unfair practice under Government Code section 71639.1 (c) and PERB Regulation 32606 (c).”
The PERB filing also found that in refusing to meet with the union, the court “interfered with the rights of bargaining unit employees to be represented by Charging Party in violation of Government Code sections 71631 and 71635.1 and is an unfair practice under Government Code section 71639.1 (c) and PERB Regulation 32606 (a).”
There is no word yet as to when SCSC plans to meet with the official reporters in Santa Cruz to discuss the implementation of the word count multiplier, but COCRA will definitely provide any updates on this issue if any arise.
Posted on March 24th, 2012 by admin
COCRA received word late Friday afternoon that Ventura Superior Court is preparing for layoffs with a proposed 20-30 employees to be laid off July 1st, followed by another 20 layoffs effective some time in December of this year. The proposed budget plan for Ventura courts also include a plan to shut down the East County Courthouse in Simi Valley.
However, according to an article in the March 5th online edition of the Ventura County Star, the proposed layoffs and courthouse closure are dependent on Governor Brown’s May budget revise.
Ventura County Superior Court Presiding Judge Vincent O’Neill said he regrets the inconvenience and hopes the public understands why plans to close the East County Courthouse are necessary.
“We are still hoping that we won’t have to,” the judge said.
O’Neill said Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed budget will be revised in May, and he is hopeful there will be some budget relief between now and then. However, the judge said courts throughout the state have to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
The budget must be approved by June 15, O’Neill said.
“There is a lot of lobbying going on like crazy” in Sacramento, he said.
COCRA has not received a firm account of whether court reporters will be affected by the layoffs and COCRA will be providing further updated information as we receive it.
Posted in: Campaign for Officials, Officials in Civil Courts, Reporter Layoffs
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