The chief justice and her supporters had been lobbying and rallying against the bill claiming that passage of the bill would be a detriment to smaller court systems and that the legislature was interfering in the management decisions of another branch of government.

Supporters of the bill, which include the Alliance of California Judges, unions, and state court employees, claimed that AB 1208 was necessary in order to assert more local control over the financial decisions of the Judicial Council. Bill supporters also decried financial decisions of the JC that have led, for example, to funding millions of dollars for the much derided CCMS court software program while trial courts have laid off hundreds of workers.

Although the AB 1208 supporters may be cheering the vote by the Assembly, they know full well that the battle is not over. The bill will now make its way to the Senate for a process that will be most certainly heated and vocal from both sides. In a prepared statement, Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye signaled she was ready for the next phase of the battle. “People who know the facts know that this is no victory for Californians, for our state courts or for equal access to justice.”

Your COCRA team has been monitoring AB 1208 with the help of its Legislative Advisor Shane Gusman. We will keep COCRA members apprised of any new developments as the bill enters the Senate.

The screenshot below is of COCRA’s sponsored link. You may view the live link by clicking here which will take you to the BASF website.

Keep in mind that COCRA’s link will pop up on the majority of the pages on BASF’s register. It is COCRA’s hope that this will draw the attention of attorneys who have matters in civil courts towards the officials listed on COCRA’s Registry of Officials.

You may view the Registry by clicking here.

What’s going on? The answer is not simple.

The California Legislature provides public funding for official court reporters in court matters most intrinsic to an orderly and safe society: criminal, civil conservancy, family and juvenile. Back in 1992, the California Legislature, recognizing the efficiencies derived from using in-house court reporters, enacted a user fee system to encourage the courts also to provide official court reporters in all other matters [not covered by GC69952], including civil. The user fee system was designed to offset the costs of the service provided to the litigants who pay the fee and to guarantee accessibility and availability of a verbatim record.

However, over the past 20 years, the user fee system has become a political football in the battle of the state budget. Over the years, it’s been diluted to a point where there is little evidence that it does anything to directly offset the costs to each trial court for the reporting service provided. It’s actually becoming an excuse for local courts to put the onus on the litigants with money and a lawyer to privately retain and drag a CSR into court. More problems flow from there, not the least of which is the increasingly imbalanced access to justice between litigants of means and litigants without means. This growing mess is not what the Legislature intended, and it’s certainly not consistent with the mission of the courts.

COCRA is inviting other stakeholders to participate in our efforts to fix this broken fee structure and to stop the privatization of the official reporters’ jobs. Follow our progress and check back with us here on our website for updates and information on how you can help.

Aside from the negative effects to the public and the judicial system, this has resulted in the layoff of many officials.

The California Official Court Reporters Assn. would like to help. COCRA is in the process of developing a separate page on our website which will contain a registry of those officials who have been recently laid off. This registry will contain the names and contact info for those officials. It is our intent to begin advertising that page in various legal outlets to promote the experience and expertise that these officials bring to counsels seeking a reporter for a civil proceeding.

If you would like to add your name to our registry, please contact us by clicking here. We will send you a brief form to fill out that will give us information that we need to post to the registry.  It is COCRA’s hope to focus as much attention as we can to all of you who have been or may get laid off.

Please be sure to visit our site often for updates, or to follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

We drew names in our early registration drawing today and we are pleased as punch to announce the following winners.

First Prize/iPod Touch
Janet Pond

Second Prize/iPod Nano
Christine Jones

Third Prize/iPod Shuffle
Jennifer Burnett

Fourth Prize/ Free Seminar Registration
Renee’ Smith

Congratulations to our winners! We hope to see you all again at our 2012 Spring Seminar in San Francisco.

Margie has created a website for those court reporters who, “care about grammar and punctuation, because you want to learn more, because you love a lively debate about where to put that comma or what that number form should be!”

COCRA highly encourages officials to check out Margie’s reference guide Court Reporting: Bad Grammar/Good Punctuation. The book is a blessing for officials who struggle on a daily basis to correctly punctuate “attorney speak.”

The description of the book below is taken from Margie’s own website.

Court Reporting: Bad Grammar/Good Punctuation is the story of punctuation. Read in its entirety along with the exercises that parallel it in the Workbook, this is an advanced course in punctuation for the court reporter, the court reporting instructor, the court reporting student, or anyone who wants to truly understand punctuation.

It is the definitive text on the rules for punctuation; a discussion/explanation of the rules; and the thing that sets it apart from other texts on punctuation is that it includes those special things we need to know about applying the rules to the court reporting transcript.

For those interested in purchasing a copy of this great book, please click here.

Immediately following the annual DRA convention in Monterey in February 2012, the CCRR exam will be increased from 180 to 200 words per minute, in accordance with the recent change in the national realtime exam, and in order to keep abreast with the increased challenges facing realtime reporters in today’s age.

There are only two opportunities left this year to take the CCRR at 180 wpm. The first is September 24th in San Diego at DRA’s Fall Seminar, and your second and last chance in 2011 is at COCRA’s own Fall Seminar. Reporters will get one more chance to take the CCRR at 180 in February, 2012, at DRA’s annual convention in Monterey.

To register for the CCRR click here.

And don’t forget that the CCRR will also be hosted at COCRA’s Fall Seminar in San Francisco, October 1st.

Smith Moore & Associates

Smith Moore & Associates is a full-service association management firm located in downtown Sacramento, California, within walking distance of the State Capitol. Since its inception in 2006, Smith Moore & Associates has grown from one client to 15 clients; and from two staff members to 15 employees. The vision of Smith Moore & Associates is simple: to be the premier association management company on the West Coast.

To achieve this vision, Smith Moore & Associates and its principal are dedicated to a singular focus of association management. Smith Moore & Associates focuses on the administration and strategic management of its clients, while working jointly with each client’s legislative advocates and associated counsel.

Smith Moore & Associates provides high-quality management services that are tailored to the specific needs of its clients. This approach ensures that the volunteer leadership can focus on the vision of the organization, while being confident the day-to-day operations are implemented effectively and efficiently.

Melissa Dixon
Account Manager

Melissa Dixon, CAE,is the Director of Operations and an Account Manager at Smith Moore & Associates. Melissa has fourteen years of experience in administrative and management services to trade associations. Melissa also manages California Association of Business Brokers (CABB), the California Association of Code Enforcement Officers (CACEO), the California Official Court Reporters Association (COCRA), the California Society for Municipal Finance Officers (CSMFO), the Fire Districts Association of California Employment Benefits Authority (FDAC EBA), the Mosquito Research Foundation (MRF), the Sacramento Valley Association of Building Officials (SVABO), and Springbrook National User Group (SNUG).

Melissa specializes in database management, budget development, meeting/event planning, human resources, and writing and editing publications. She works closely with the boards and committees of her clients in the development of governance documents, bylaws, policies, procedures, and credentialing and accreditation programs.

Melissa graduated from California State University, Sacramento, where she received a bachelor’s degree in English and earned from Walden University her MBA with a concentration in non-profit administration. Melissa received the prestigious Certified Association Executive (CAE) designation from the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) in 2010.

Please refer to our earlier writings about this matter posted here and here.

July 26,2011
Honorable Jerry Brown
Governor
State Capitol, First Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814
RE: AB 110 (Blumenfeld)-Request for Veto

Dear Governor Brown,

I am writing on behalf of the California Official Court Reporters Association (COCRA) and the Professional and Technical Engineers, Local 21, IFPTE, AFL-CIO (PTE), to request that you veto AB 110 (Blumenthal) when it reaches your desk.

AB 110 includes language which eliminates sentencing transcripts for inmates incarcerated in prisons operated by the California Department of Corrections. This language was slipped into a trailer bill at the last minute and was never the subject of any policy debate. Had we had the opportunity to testify on this issue, we would have opposed the proposal.

The sentencing transcripts help in the classification of inmates upon their arrival at prison and insure that the inmates are not inappropriately mixed with other inmates who might cause them harm. In addition, the transcripts form a record that protects inmates from serving longer sentences than they deserve, thus depriving them of their constitutional rights.

While this proposal is supposed to save money, we think any savings gained will be more than offset by the additional litigation that will be generated by the lack of a sufficient written record of sentencing matters.

For the above reasons, COCRA and IFPTE urge you to veto AB 110.

Laptop not required for this session although it is HIGHLY recommended that attendees bring their laptops.

Free wireless connection is provided.

SCHEDULED TO APPEAR :
1. Advantage Software- Steve Kosmata; Official Court Reporter and Eclipse User
2. Stenograph- Terri Wilson; Stenograph Trainer
3. ProCAT- Deby Owens; ProCAT Trainer