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Posted on February 16th, 2011 by admin
Pursuant to the Bylaws of the California Official Court Reporters Association, Regional Representative Nominations are being sought for the following Regions:
Bay Area/Northern Coastal Region. Counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San Mateo, Solano, Sonoma, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz;
Northern/Central Region. Counties: Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, El Dorado, Fresno, Glenn, Kings, Lassen, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Modoc, Mono, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Tulare, Tuolumne, Trinity, Yolo, Yuba;
Southern Region. Counties: Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Ventura.
To be eligible for election as a Regional Representative, a member must work as an official court reporter in the respective Regional District, be an Official member of COCRA in good standing for ninety (90) days prior to nomination and must not be employed by any court in a management position in that district.
Elected Regional Representatives will serve a one-year term.
All applications/nominations must be in writing, signed and dated by the applicant/nominator, and must be received at the COCRA office by March 9, 2011. Submit your nomination by mail to COCRA, One Capitol Mall, Suite 320, Sacramento, CA 95814 or by fax to (916) 444-7462.
Posted on February 11th, 2011 by admin
COCRA is happy to announce the winners of our recent membership drive. Congratulations to our winners and thank you to all of you who decided to renew your membership early or become new members of COCRA.
THIRD PRIZE WINNER
MARY STOLL of LA CRESCENTA
$200
Amazon Gift Certificate
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SECOND PRIZE WINNER
MARCIA HUNTER of LOS GATOS
$300
Best Buy Gift Card
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FIRST PRIZE WINNER
JULIE COPELAND of STOCKTON
$500
Target Gift Card
Posted on January 26th, 2011 by admin
The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) released a report today offering suggestions as to how the judicial branch could absorb Governor Brown’s proposed $200 million permanent cut to the judicial budget. The LAO suggested that the judicial branch could easily cover the $200 million cut by implementing savings measures that would total $356 million.
And although the report made viable recommendations, such as freeing up $150 million in operating cash from the AOC’s court construction fund, the LAO continued to push its position of replacing official reporters with ER for a claimed savings of $13 million.
From the LAO’s report:
“After factoring in the estimated one-time costs for audio and video equipment and adjusting the results of the above study for inflation, we estimate that the state could save about $13 million in 2011-12. Upon full implementation, the estimated savings could exceed $100 million on an annual basis.”
Of course, COCRA utterly and completely refutes these figures, and COCRA will be challenging the LAO’s numbers and position on electronic recording, just as we have always done.
Another item in the report of interest to officials is a discrepancy in terms of how much the courts are collecting in civil fees for official reporters in civil court. The LAO claims that last year the courts spent $80 million for court reporters in civil courts. However, the courts only collected $30 million in fees. If the courts are mandated by law to collect fees in civil proceedings for the official reporter, why is there a $50 million shortfall?
Again, from the LAO’s report:
“According to AOC, the existence of such a shortfall could be due to a variety of reasons. For example, courts may be waiving these fees for indigent individuals under certain circumstances….the data suggest that some courts may not be collecting or imposing court reporting fees.”
Although there may be a shortfall for the use of court reporters in civil courts, the fact is that it may be the courts themselves that are responsible for the shortfall either by waiving the fees or not ensuring that the fees are collected in a proper manner.
You can read the LAO’s report for yourself by clicking here, and for more updates from Sacramento, be sure to check our website or become a fan of our COCRA Facebook page. If you want to help, you can make a donation to our legislative fund, renew your membership, or join us as a new member here.
Posted on January 13th, 2011 by admin
Governor Brown recently released his proposed budget for the 2011-2012 fiscal year, and your COCRA team, along with our legislative advocate Shane Gusman, has been reviewing the proposed budget to see what effects, both positive and negative, it may present for court reporters in California ’s superior courts.
The first and most noticeable element, which is always on our profession’s mind, is that there is no mention of electronic recording in this budget. Of course, this seems a monumental victory at first glance, until you look at the bigger picture involving the governor’s proposed cut of $200 million dollars to the courts’ budget.
Keep in mind that this $200 million cut in the budget is not temporary. The proposed cuts will be permanent, in addition to the $93 million permanent cut from last fiscal year. These proposed cuts are extremely serious.
In referring to the proposed budget cut, California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye was quoted in the Daily Journal as saying, “It’s deep, it’s grave, and it’s alarming to us.” Curtis Child of the AOC was also quoted in the same article as saying, “I don’t think there is any way we will avoid limiting levels of services at trial courts.” The Chief Justice is so alarmed that she will be convening the Judicial Council this week to discuss how the courts will absorb this cut.
What does all this mean for officials? It means any and all proposals that may save the courts money is back on the table. Everything from court closures to — you guessed it –electronic recording. The latter may be especially true when you consider that the same finance staff that previously worked for Governor Schwarzenegger and proposed electronic recording is currently advising Governor Brown, and the Legislative Analyst’s budget overview released yesterday also contained specific reference to electronic recording as a cost-saving measure yet again.
What this also means is that we must continue to be diligent in our efforts in Sacramento. In the following months, COCRA will be working with our Legislative Analysts at Broad & Gusman, as well as with others who represent court reporter interests, to watch over the budget proceedings and to protect and promote our profession. Subcommittee hearings will begin soon to examine these issues, and these next sixty days are critical.
We may also be contacting you, our COCRA members, so that you may get involved by writing letters, making calls, getting to know your new Assembly and Senate members in your district, or making appearances to speak on behalf of your profession. Please keep us informed with any changes occurring in your local jurisdictions.
You can also get involved by making a donation to our legislative fund, renewing your COCRA membership, and getting your fellow officials to join COCRA as well. Your donations and membership fees help us to help you.
Posted on November 10th, 2010 by admin
From the Miami Herald.
For two decades, Miami-Dade criminal court stenographer Vanester Collier has dutifully recorded and transcribed everything from the mundane arraignment hearing to the televised murder trial.
But now Collier is refusing to transcribe the trial of a Miami man convicted of murder because state administrators, armed with a little-noticed rate change passed by lawmakers, have cut her pay for the work by nearly 30 percent.
Click here to read more.
Posted on November 10th, 2010 by admin
From an article in the New Mexico Business Weekly.
The court reporting business is booming, thanks to federal laws that require closed captioning of TV shows and, now, captioning of all shows that TV stations stream on the Internet.
“A cottage profession has grown up over broadcast captioning. That area has opened up a great host of opportunities for those who enter the profession,” says Jim Cudahy, spokesman for the Washington, D.C. area-based National Court Reporters Association, a trade organization that counts as members 21,000 of the nation’s 50,000 to 60,000 court reporters.
“Court reporters themselves are pioneers with regard to bringing technology into the courtroom and other settings, and every day they are finding new applications for taking speech and turning it into words on paper or in an electronic file.”
Click here to continue reading.
Posted on November 10th, 2010 by admin
From the New York Law Journal.
The Unified Court System will be introducing electronic recording devices into the New York City Criminal Court as a response to the number of court reporters taking early retirement and the challenge of replacing them, Judge Lawrence Marks, the system’s director of operations, confirmed yesterday.
About 70 court reporters, most of them in Supreme Court, have taken early retirement, Judge Marks said. The Supreme Court reporter vacancies will be filled from several sources, but a significant number will come through the promotion of reporters assigned to Criminal Court, he said.
The net result is that the Criminal Court will be short about 15 court reporters when all of the early retirees exit, as they are required to do, on Nov. 23.
Click here to continue reading.
Posted on October 6th, 2010 by admin
COCRA has received the following email from NCRA regarding the RPR.
NCRA Extends RPR Skills Deadline Until Tuesday, October 12th
Dear State Leaders,
Please spread the word — For the first time, NCRA is making the RPR exam available to non-member stenographic reporters! This means that stenographic reporters do not have to join NCRA to register for the exam.
NCRA recognizes the importance of the RPR certification setting the standard not only for the profession, but for individual reporters. If membership with NCRA has ever been an obstacle holding you or someone you know back from taking the RPR exam, now is the time to reconsider it. Please remember, however, that the cost of the RPR exam will be less expensive for members and with membership arrives all of the advantages that will benefit reporters for years to come.
For more information, please see www.ncraonline.org/certification/testing. Remember, registration closes October 12th
Posted on October 6th, 2010 by admin
COCRA’s legislative advocates in Sacramento have confirmed that Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget saving measure to replace official reporters with electronic recording will not be included in the newly agreed upon budget between the governor and the Legislature.
As many of you know, Governor Schwarzenegger is no fan of court reporters and has targeted the elimination of officials as one of his solutions to solving the state’s budget shortage for the past two years.
COCRA extends its thanks to the many people and organizations that have worked tirelessly to ensure the defeat of the governor’s latest ER proposal, including COCRA’s crack team of legislative advocates Barry Broad and Shane Gusman; COCRA’s own team of board members and legislative volunteers; CCRA and DRA; local county associations; SEIU, IFPTE, AFSCME, and all other unions representing officials; as well as NCRA.
Last, and certainly not least, COCRA thanks its members who donated their time and money to the cause. Without you, our COCRA members, we could not achieve this victory. Supporting COCRA is protecting and promoting your profession.
Sincerely,
Your COCRA Team
Posted on October 1st, 2010 by admin
Thank you to those who attended the COCRA 2010 Fall Seminar.
As a follow-up to the session titled, COCRA’s Official Court Reporter’s Manual, we are providing you with the PowerPoint presentation. Simply click here to access a copy of the presentation. This presentation will be available for download until the end of October.
The COCRA Team
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