Courts: remote court reporting.

Existing law authorizes a superior court to appoint official court reporters and specifies the fees for court reporting services. Existing law prohibits courts from using remote court reporting, as defined, to produce the record of any court proceedings and from expending any funds to purchase equipment or software to facilitate the use of remote court reporting. This bill would, notwithstanding these provisions, authorize, beginning July 1, 2025, the Superior Courts of the Counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Los Angeles, Mendocino, Monterey, Orange, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Tulare, and Ventura to conduct pilot projects to study the potential use of remote court reporting to make the verbatim record of certain court proceedings. The bill would require, if the superior court elects to conduct a pilot project, the remote court reporting to be performed only by official reporters who meet specified qualifications and conditions. The bill would require the official reporters to be physically located in a court facility while performing the remote court reporting or, alternatively, authorize the superior court and the exclusive representative of the official reporters to meet and confer to reach agreement no later than June 30, 2025, to include additional offsite locations to test remote court reporting, as specified. The bill would authorize no more than 20 percent of full-time official court reporters, or for courts with fewer than 10 full-time official court reporters, 2 court reporters, in the participating county to participate in the pilot project. The bill would specify the requirements for participating superior courts to be equipped by June 30, 2025. The bill would authorize remote court proceedings to be used to report proceedings in limited civil, law and motion for unlimited civil cases, family law, child support, probate, juvenile dependency, juvenile delinquency, felony and misdemeanor criminal proceedings except preliminary hearings, trials, and death penalty cases, and would authorize transcripts created through remote court reporting to be used whenever a transcript of court proceedings is required. The bill would prohibit court reporters participating in the pilot project from being held responsible for failures in technology or equipment and, if technology or audibility issues inhibit the court reporter's ability to accurately capture and certify a verbatim record, the bill would require the court to temporarily suspend the proceeding until the issues can be resolved. The bill would prohibit a trial court from retaliating or threatening to retaliate against a court reporter who notifies the judicial officer that technology or audibility issues are impeding the creation and certification of the verbatim record of a proceeding. The bill would require each participating court to submit specified data and information to the Judicial Council on the results of the pilot project. The bill would require the Judicial Council to compile the results from each participating court and to prepare a report for the Legislature within 6 months of the conclusion of the pilot project. The bill would require the pilot projects to terminate no later than July 1, 2026, or earlier if a participating court determines that the use of remote court reporting is prejudicing the rights of litigants or the interests of justice.