Court reporter crisis causing problems for thousands of self-represented LA County litigants

A severe shortage of court reporters in the Los Angeles Superior Court system is leaving thousands of self-represented civil litigants without verbatim records of their proceedings, making it virtually impossible to appeal their cases, according to a new tracking tool unveiled last week.

The Court Reporter Crisis Dashboard, which details efforts to fill more than 125 court reporter vacancies, indicated that more than 525,000 family law, probate and unlimited civil proceedings occurred in Superior Court without verbatim records from Jan. 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024. That raises due process concerns for people in child custody disputes, divorces, restraining orders, conservatorships and other proceedings.

In instances where electronic recording is not permitted and where court-employed reporters are not mandated, self-represented litigants face heavy financial burdens to hire a private court reporter and often can’t afford the $3,000 to $5,000 cost per day, said a statement from L.A. Superior Court Presiding Judge Samantha P. Jessner.

“Without collective action, this crisis will only continue to grow,” Jessner said. The purpose of the dashboard, she said, is to “sound the alarm” for an urgent solution to the court reporter shortage and restrictions on electronic recording.

California law mandates court reporters in all felony and juvenile proceedings and limits the use of electronic recordings as an accurate means of providing verbatim records to criminal misdemeanor, limited civil and infraction cases.

However, electronic recording is widely and successfully used elsewhere, including the California Courts of Appeal, which considers about 500 cases per year, the Los Angeles Superior Court said in a statement.

“The objective data does not lie,” said Los Angeles Superior Court Executive Officer/Clerk David Slayton. “This (court reporter  shortage) is a critical and worsening crisis that is severely impacting the court’s mission of providing fair and equal access to justice.”

The state Legislature has appropriated $30 million annually for trial courts to help increase the number of court reporters.

Extra funding hasn’t helped

Despite receiving nearly $10 million each year for recruitment and retainment, Los Angeles Superior Court lost 11 court reporters since it began offering financial incentives in early 2023. It has recorded a net loss of 117 court reporters over the past six years.

The shortage of court-employed reporters is a struggle throughout California.

Of 9,065 civil cases in San Bernardino County Superior Court from April to June, 8,455 went without a verbatim record. Additionally, of 11,451 family law hearings, 1,439 were completed without a transcript.

The county is “actively recruiting using legislative funds allocated to attempt to mitigate the impacts of the crisis,” San Bernardino County Superior Court Executive Officer Anabel Z. Romero said in a statement.

Statistics for court reporter shortages and their ensuing impact were not immediately available for courts in Orange and Riverside counties.

The state’s 44 trial courts spent $20.3 million on recruitment and retention efforts in 2022 and 2023 with “limited impact” in attracting new hires, states a California Legislative Analyst’s Office report released in March.

As of June, an additional 691 full-time court reporters were needed to meet the state’s minimum staffing requirements, the LAO estimated.

There were 4,752 California-licensed court reporters as of July 1, 2023. However, from 2013 to 2022, the total number of licensees declined by about 19% and the number of new license applications decreased by about 70%, according to the California Department of Consumer Affairs.

Hiring obstacles

It is uniquely difficult to become a court reporter in California, according to a January 2022 California Trial Court Consortium report.

“Most states that mandate certification have only one exam required for licensure, but California has three,” the report said. “All three exams regularly yield low pass rates, but far more students fail dictation — the most specialized test — than pass. Moreover, the number of applicants attempting and passing the dictation exam has fallen in recent years.”

California also does not make exceptions in its licensing requirements for certified court reporters who relocate from other states. In 2020, state lawmakers failed to pass legislation that would have required California to issue reciprocal licenses to court reporters in good standing from other certification-requiring states.

The state issued just 68 court reporter licenses in 2022 and 2023. Of the 326 individuals who applied to take the skills dictation portion of the past three certified shorthand reporter exams about 44% passed.

Another obstacle facing California’s courts is aging court reporters.

About 46% of active licenses were issued at least 30 years ago and about half of all court-employed reporters were eligible to retire as of Dec. 1, 2023, the LAO said.

Public vs. private

There also is a perception that compensation for court reporters in the private sector is greater than in the trial courts, with those hired by attorneys for depositions and the like able to charge as much as a “couple of thousand dollars” per day, the LAO said.

Still, there are drawbacks for private court reporters, chief among them that they aren’t paid if they don’t work. As independent contractors, private court reporters also do not receive some of the perks afforded to court-employed reporters, who earn a median salary plus benefits totaling $193,232.

“In contrast, while private court reporters are free to charge the rate they desire, they generally do not receive the same level of health, retirement and other benefits as court reporter employees,” LAO said in its report.