The Governator Continues His Assault On Court Reporting Profession

Posted in: Electronic Recording, Furloughs

Ever since Governor Schwarzenegger laid out his proposal to replace court reporters with ER  court reporters all over the state have probably been asking the same question.  What does the governor have against court reporters?  And it’s a question that keeps getting asked when you hear the Governator pushing his proposal in interviews and speeches.

He did it again last week in a speech in which he laid out his grand vision of how Californians could save themselves from budgetary Armageddon if they’d just implement his ideas.  And low and behold, what was one of his brilliant ideas?

Now, in so many areas of government there are opportunities like this for reform and for changing things around without having to stay with the status quo. All we have to do is just go out and seize those opportunities. I am proposing to implement electronic reporting in our courts. This would save tens of millions of dollars.

Considering the Governator’s obsession with getting rid of court reporters you’d think he’d at least take the time to investigate what the heck he’s talking about.  But no.  In the time honored tradition of many a short-sighted politician before him, the Governator makes vague claims to saving “tens of millions of dollars” with the implementation of ER regardless of the fact that time after time ER comes up short and the alleged savings are as tangible as a mirage in the desert.

Who knows why the Governator is insistent on pushing ER.  Maybe he thinks there’s something high-tech about electronic recording.  But if that’s the case, he and his minions have completely ignored the fact that court reporting technology has progressed at warp speed in the past years to the point that court reporters are now able to provide an instantaneous and verbatim record that transforms those who use our services into ardent believers.  Something that cannot be said about the Governator.  Maybe what he needs is a one-on-one session with our best real-time writers to show him what he’s missing.  And I can guarantee once he’s given us a try, he won’t want to go back.

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