Riverside Superior Court is limiting their assignment of court reporters to cases mandated by law, as a statewide court-reporter shortage continues. Court-employed court reporters will be provided in Riverside Superior Court’s felony, juvenile, probate, writ of habeas corpus and civil restraining order hearings, the court announced Jan. 18.
The court will also provide reporters in family law hearings at the court’s discretion. Litigants who receive a fee waiver may still request an official court reporter.
Litigants in civil cases, small claims and infractions may still have a court reporter, but they must hire them themselves at a higher cost than the official court reporters.
The number of available qualified shorthand reporters in California has dropped since the early 1990s, according to a joint letter signed by the administrative leaders of each California Superior Court in 2022.
“As a chronic shortage of court reporters reaches crisis levels, the statutory framework for court reporting must adjust to the new realities of the reporting profession,” their letter reads.
As the number of licensed court reporters decreases, many choose the higher-pay private industry over working for a court.
In November, 53 of the 119 applicants for California’s Court Reporters Board passed the dictation examination, a pass rate of 45%. Court reporting schools brought 53 applicants, with 16 of those applicants passing the examination. Only five applicants from schools passed the examination for traditional court reporting. Eleven school-applicants passed the voice writer examination.
The remaining 66 applicants, with 37 passes, were existing court reporters licensed out of state.
South Coast College president and owner Jean Gonzalez previously told Follow Our Courts that California’s court reporting examination is the most intense in the United States of America. Reporters in the state are forced out elsewhere, she said.
California’s test requires people to transcribe a 10-minute conversation with four different speakers with 97.5% accuracy. Most states require transcription of only a five-minute conversation with two speakers at 95% accuracy. Some states, such as Virginia, do not require court reporters to take a test at all, Gonzalez said.
“People want to start making money, so what are they going to do? Leave the state,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez also attributed issues to the exam’s online-only format, initiated during the pandemic. One online proctor blamed her student for using a stenographer, court reporters’ mandatory notetaking machine, during the exam, she reported. Technical issues have caused her students to fail the exam, and its tri-annual offering forces them to wait too long before they can apply again, she said.
The court reporter shortage is a national issue that has been a long time coming.
A 2013 study sponsored by the National Court Reporters Association predicted a 2,320 shortfall in court reporters in California by 2018, and a 5,500 shortfall nationally. A 2017 report by the Futures Commission of the Judicial Council also said the national number of skilled court reporters is decreasing, and that court reporting schools have experienced smaller enrollment and graduation rates. A 2018 letter by the Judicial Council said 5,900 certified court reporters were licensed in California, and that the state would be short 2,750 by 2023.
