Hi everyone.  This is Janice Scott and Stacy Gaskill and we’re present in Sacramento right now and we’ll be live blogging from the capitol.  We’re keeping an eye on the fate of the Court Reporters Board and we’re also tracking any other legislative moves that might affect court reporters.

5:13 FINAL UPDATE: Final vote 7-2 in favor of keeping the CR Board…congratulations to the CR Board and all CSRs in CA.

And thanks to everyone who followed our blog!

Signing out live from Sacramento.

5:10 UPDATE: A final vote is coming now…stay tuned.

4:30 UPDATE: The committee didn’t have enough for a quorum, which is six votes, but our lobbyist believes that all will vote as recommended; that is, keep the CR Board and the TRF fund.

Of note, Chair Negrete was impressed by the testimony and appreciates the help the TRF provides indigent litigants.

4:12  UPDATE Kay Reindle representing “education” and is speaking of the importance of the work that the CRB does in terms of court reporting education.

4:09  UPDATE: Toni Pulone of DRA is speaking now urging committee to reject the proposal.

4:08  UPDATE: Janice Scott of COCRA is now speaking on behalf of the CRB speaking about the certification process that the CRB oversees.

3:50  UPDATE:  Discussion about the Court Reporters Board has begun.

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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.

We just could not let the Governator’s  rude and uninformed comments about court reporters go unanswered.  So Patricia Dowling, COCRA Steering Committee Member, drew up COCRA’s official response and sent it in to the reporter who conducted the interview with the Governator.

We thought it was a brilliant response and I’m sure after you read it, you’ll agree as well.  Make the jump to read Ms. Dowling’s letter.

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Thanks to our state leaders’ hard work, ER expansion is rejected.

You, our members, truly cannot understand how close all official reporters in California came to losing our ability to continue to provide access to justice in the above-mentioned courtrooms.

A person’s life can change based on what is said in court or in a deposition. Because we are certified by the State of California -Department of Consumer Affairs, and we continue to educate ourselves, parties to a case are confident they are getting the best, most cost-effective method of the record.

Our association has and continues to compile data proving ER costs millions of dollars to parties and the states in which ER is utilized; retrials, dismissals, civil penalties, and other mishaps all cost citizens both emotionally, financially, and physically.

Thanks to all of the great support from the assembly members and senators who listened, learned, and made a decision based on fact; ER is simply not a cost-effective method to producing an accurate record.

COCRA is sending thank-you letters to members of both committees who voted to reject the ER proposal. We urge you, our members, to do the same. Their names and addresses are listed below.

And remember their efforts in future elections. They supported us based on facts. We want them to remember those facts and be in their positions in the legislature when this issue is raised in the future.

COCRA sends a huge “official” thank you to SEIU, AFSCME, IFPTE, DRA, and CCRA! Our unions and fellow associations were there alongside COCRA every step of the incredibly grueling stairway to succeeding in defeating ER…once again.

Thank you,
THE COCRA TEAM

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BREAKING NEWS: Late Wednesday afternoon a majority of the Budget Committee voted to reject the LAO’s proposal to replace official reporters with electronic recording.   The Budget Committee also did not adopt the trailer bill language mentioned by Assemblymember Noreen Evans during today’s proceedings.  It may, however, be addressed in Monday’s proceedings.

Assemblymember Noreen Evans (Santa Rosa), Chair of the Committee, stated that ER is “highly inappropriate” in complex civil cases and even more so in criminal. She stated that she had worked in the courts as a lawyer for 25 years.  She questioned how it could be worth it to implement an entirely new statewide system of keeping the record for a savings of 13 million.

Drew Soderborg, the LAO representative speaking on the issue, cited the 1990 Demonstration Project’s findings, but that they did an inflation adjustment.  Assemblymember Evans asked Mr. Soderborg whether he had seen the data about ER having been used briefly in other states and then discontinued.  Mr. Soderborg stated they have different data showing ER has been used successfully in other states and the Federal Judiciary.  The LAO also stated that the National Center for State Courts cites where ER is used.   Senator Denise Ducheny (San Diego) stated that all the savings achieved would be in the areas most dangerous to implement i.e. criminal cases and complex litigation.

The committee voted 3-2 on the Assembly side and 3-1 on the Senate side to reject the LAO proposal.

Please check back for more updates on this breaking news.

The Conference Committee on the Budget has taken no action on the Governor’s proposal regarding the Electronic Recording issue at this time. Testimony was taken last Tuesday during the Public Safety portion of the hearings which also related to the Court Budget and Electronic Recording where parties were allowed 60 seconds to present testimony. Testimony was also submitted in writing along with documentation, including sample ER transcripts and well-sourced reports on the issue of ER vs. Court Reporters.

Now that the public hearings have been closed, the Committee meets in open session to discuss and make decisions on every issue or cut within the proposed budget, without public comment or participation. Though many items for discussion have been scheduled, there is no firm date at this point for the hearings regarding the cuts to the courts or the pending ER issue. Our COCRA team continues to monitor this and will send you notification as soon as it is scheduled.

The next step: Once a hearing is held and decision made by the Conference Committee, legislative staff will include language within a budget trailer bill, which will include all of the budget revisions. That bill is then heard and voted on by the general membership of the Legislature. This is why it is important that court reporters make sure your Senators and Assembly Members from your local area know about these issues and that you expect their support!

COCRA’s lobbyist Shane Gusman continues to meet with legislative staff and answer questions and provide information in favor of court reporters. Shane reports that Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg’s office has taken the position that, because this is a budget revision related to budget cuts and not an entirely new budget, that only a majority vote will be required to pass, rather than the two-thirds vote necessary to pass the original budget. This could significantly alter the time frame.

The Budget Conference Committee hopes to have a revised budget to submit to the Legislature by next Monday, June 15th.

Get those letters out today! Find contact information for your local legislative representatives here.