Whether you are a court reporter interested in COCRA membership, news, student recruitment, or you're interested in learning more about exciting career opportunities, we hope you find the resources you're looking for. Happy navigating!
UPDATE 3-17-10: Please click on the comments section to read the comments posted by Brandy Carrier who is currently an official in Marin County Superior Court.
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After issuing layoffs last month for court staff which included four official reporters, Marin Superior Court administration struck out again against officials when it sent a letter to the remaining officials informing them that as of March 15th, 2010, they would no longer be directly assigned to a judge as has been the past custom and practice.
Instead, the new letter informed the officials they would all be separated from their judges and assigned to a new pool of reporters.
The following is taken from the letter by Marin County Executive Director Kim Turner to the officials in Marin Superior explaining the court’s reasoning for putting officials into a pool system.
On March 15, 2010, the Court will implement a pooling system for the assignment of court reporters. Pooling has been proven to be a cost effective way to manage court reporting resources and to contain costs. While this will be a significant change for the Court and for all reporters, it is, without question, an effective fiscal strategy, given our recent budget constraints. Many courts that have changed from direct assignment to pooling have seen significant cost savings and have been better able to ensure that all reporters have the opportunity for transcript work and varied assignments.
Additionally, the Marin Superior Court administration encourages attorneys and parties to hire a freelance reporter in court proceedings for which a staff official reporter is not available due to their reassignment under the new system. Many courtrooms will not be staffed by officials at all.
We want officials to know that Marin Superior may not be acting out of a vacuum, as COCRA has been aware for some time now that various superior court administrators and personnel have been consulting each other asking about what courts are not mandated by law to be staffed.
It is our understanding that SEIU is currently working on responding to the recent decision to lay off officials and the court’s decision to pool its officials. We will keep you apprised of any further updates.
If you would like to read the letter that Marin County Executive Director Kim Turner sent to the officials announcing the pooling system, you may do so by clicking here to download the document or click on “Read the rest of this entry” link below to read the text of the letter embedded in this blog post.
ATLANTA – It was five years ago Thursday that Brian Nichols opened fire in the Fulton County courthouse, touching off a bloody rampage that ended with the deaths of four people.
It was on that day that rape suspect Brian Nichols overpowered a sheriff’s deputy — grabbed her gun, shooting and killing Judge Rowland Barnes, court reporter Julia Brandau and Sergeant Hoyt Teasley at the courthouse and immigration agent David Wilhelm as he fled.
Nichols was captured in Gwinnett County a day later and convicted of his crimes and sentenced to life in jail.
Five years later portraits of the three people killed in the courthouse hang in the lobby. Thursday, those paintings were joined by another tribute.
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. — A group of homeowners in one Colorado Springs neighborhood is upset with El Paso County’s court system after a recording device inside the courthouse failed to capture a trial, forcing the homeowners to reconstruct it more than a year later.
Cherry Creek Springs’ Homeowners Association originally filed a lawsuit in July 2007 against eight of their homeowners over budget issues.
The two parties went to trial in the fall of 2008 in front of Judge Thomas Kane who, after four days, sided in favor of the defendants.
Soon after his decision, the HOA decided to file and appeal.
But, when the courts went back for the transcripts from the trial, none could be found.
“A former Muscogee County Superior Court court reporter’s lack of certification while working for Judge Robert Johnston is now raising questions about transcripts she submitted to the clerk of court.
Sharon D. Dilleshaw worked for Johnston for nearly 10 years before resigning in early 2009 after it was discovered she had worked the previous nine months without being certified, as required by state law.
In a hearing last week, Columbus criminal defense attorney Bill Mason told Johnston he had attempted unsuccessfully in May 2008 to get an accurate transcript from Dilleshaw of a case he is appealing. At the time, Dilleshaw’s license was suspended.
Johnston resigned last month after a meeting with an investigator for the Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission, which investigates complaints about judges and their fitness to serve. His last day on the bench is Monday.
No one can say how many trial and court hearing transcripts Dilleshaw produced while she worked without certification. Superior Court Clerk Linda Pierce said she could not easily provide the number, and invoices Dilleshaw submitted to the city’s Finance Department for payment were not specific”
A report on the reliability and costs of digital recording technology to replace court reporters in Iowa courtrooms is out, along with a letter from the majority of the study committee that says while the technology is fine, they value court reporters.
Ten of the 18 members of the Digital Audio/Visual Recording Technology Committee signed a letter saying they don’t think the technology should replace live court reporters. Bobbi Alpers, chief judge of the judicial district that includes Cedar, Clinton, Jackson, Muscatine and Scott counties, was one of them.
The technology is commonly referred to as DART.
“It is not feasible simply to install DART equipment as a replacement for certified stenographic court reporters,” the letter sent to Iowa Chief Justice Marsha Ternus early this month said. Court reporters, the letter said, are an invaluable asset to the state’s judicial system.
“We have seen firsthand on a daily basis the reliability and high quality of court reporting in the state,” the letter said.
Marin County Superior Court has laid off six employees to help close a budget gap of approximately $2 million, the court’s top manager confirmed Monday.
The layoffs included four court reporters, a research attorney and an information technology specialist, said Kim Turner, executive director of the court. Now there are 10 reporters, four attorneys and eight IT specialists, Turner said.
The workers were laid off Friday without prior warning. Under the terms of their union contract, they will receive a week’s severance pay, plus whatever vacation and paid time off they have accrued.
Turner said she does not expect additional layoffs this fiscal year, which ends June 30, but the projections for next year are grim. The court employs about 170 people, including 10 full judges and five assistant judges.
Click here to continue reading.
Naturally, if you are visiting Anaheim, you’ll want to take advantage of visiting the Disneyland Resort. We have made special arrangements for your to purchase specially-priced Disneyland® Resort Theme Park tickets prior to your arrival. Special ticket prices are not available once you arrive at the Resort. Tickets are valid, 05/19/2010 through 06/02/2010. Ticket Store closes at 9pm PST on May 18, 2010 so don’t delay.
Print At Home: You can print your ticket(s) and bring them with you to the Main Entrance. It costs you nothing to print at home. Visit http://www.disneyconventionear.com/ZMCE119 OR visit, www.cocra.org, About COCRA, Spring Conference, click on “What Will You Celebrate” logo.
Anaheim Marriott
700 West Convention Way
Anaheim, CA
2010 Conference Schedule Highlights
Bad Grammar/Good Punctuation
with Margie Wakemann Wells
State of the State
with Michelle Castro, SEIU Senior Government Relations Advocate
Presumed Innocent
with Court Reporters Board Representative Yvonne Fenner
Ergonomic Considerations in Seated Work Activities
with Rani Lueder, CPE
Discovering the Treasures of the Digital Realm
with Candis Bradshaw
It has come to COCRA’s attention that in December of 2009, a recommendation was made to the WVC Academic Senate that several programs be discontinued, including the court reporting program.
One hundred percent of WVC students sitting for the California Certified Shorthand Reporters examination in the last five years have passed the rigorous Department of Consumer Affairs exam and went on to become successful members of our court reporting team.
Please support WVC by sending your letter/email out immediately.
Two of our favorite court reporters have made it easy for you. Below is the contact information you will need and two sample letters; one from Carol Karen of San Francisco Superior Court, CSR 8189, RDR, CRR, and the other from Patricia Dowling of San Francisco Superior Court, CSR 5388.
Please act today! The court reporting industry is a vital and vibrant part of our California judiciary. We need schools like WVC to teach promising men and women the necessary skills to keep California court reporting at its best!
Well, court reporting may not have made it into the top 10 or even top 20 in a new survey of the 200 jobs rated best to worst put out by careercast.com, but court reporters have plenty to cheer about when they see that according to the survey court reporters ranked number 22 beating many other professions like astronomers, economists, and even physicists! How do you like them apples?
The website came up with the scoring for the jobs in the survey in the following manner.
How does Jobs Rated determine which professions rank better than others? Data on each job is broken down into five key categories: Physical Demands, Work Environment, Income, Stress and Hiring Outlook. Jobs receive a score in each individual category, and when these are added together, the career with the best overall score is ranked 1st, while the one with the worst overall score is ranked 200th.
If you’d like to see the survey yourself, you can click here for the page.
The Daily Journal is reporting that while thousands of court employees, including court reporters, suffered court closures and furloughs, the AOC gave salary increases and other “perks” to its employees. The article quotes William Vickery, administrative director of the courts, as saying the increases were needed so that the AOC could “hold onto people we felt were valuable employees.”
According to the article:
Between February 2008 and July 2009, the AOC elevated nearly 80 employees, and raised their pay as much as 31 percent, brushing aside its own self-imposed freeze on promotions, according to payroll records from the State Controller’s Office.
The records show that while the agency imposed once-monthly furlough days on employees with one hand, it has increased salaries so much with the other that, coupled with new hires, its payroll costs grew 6 percent from July 2008 to July 2009, for a total of nearly $4.2 million per year.
The article also listed the names of managers and directors who benefited from the salary increases.
Two managers in the agency’s Office of Court Construction and Management, who were not promoted, received 14 percent raises between July 2008 and July 2009, on top of 3.5 merit salary adjustments they’d received earlier in 2008. Another manager in that office received a 9 percent raise.
The raises do not take into account the 5 percent pay cut employees are taking as a result of the furlough.
Carrizosa said the three employees received raises when the new director, Lee Willoughby, took over and gave them added responsibilities.
“The raises reflect his restructuring of the office and changes of assignments and related equity adjustments,” Carrizosa wrote.
AOC’s three regional administrative directors who report to Vickrey, Sheila Calabro, Christine Patton, and Jody Patel also saw big pay bumps, each receiving 10 percent increases in that 2008-2009 time period, bringing their base salaries to $198,708 a year.
According to Carrizosa, those pay raises included that 3.5 percent merit increase. The additional compensation was, “based on the need to remain competitive with other courts.
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