LA court launches dashboard to track reporter crisis

Los Angeles County Superior Court has launched an online dashboard to highlight the extent of the court reporter shortage. The dashboard shows that 525,000 family law, probate and unlimited civil proceedings in Los Angeles County occurred without a verbatim record between January 2023 and June 2024.

This lack of official transcripts effectively eliminates many litigants' ability to appeal their cases, Presiding Judge Samantha P. Jessner said in a statement.

"The Dashboard makes it crystal clear - the worsening court reporter shortage combined with statutory restrictions on electronic recording has created a constitutional crisis, with thousands of litigants in family law, probate and unlimited civil proceedings leaving court each day without any official verbatim transcript of what transpired in their case, effectively eliminating their ability to appeal," Jessner said.

She added that "without collective action," the situation will get worse.

"We are hopeful that by providing transparency relating to the outcomes of the Court's recruitment and retention efforts, as well as statistics on the number of proceedings in which litigants leave court with no verbatim record of what happened, we can effectively sound the alarm on the need for an urgent solution to address this crisis immediately," she said.

The crisis stems from an ongoing shortage of court reporters and legal limitations on electronic recording. While California law mandates court reporters for felony criminal and juvenile proceedings, it restricts electronic recording to misdemeanor, limited civil, and infraction cases. This leaves family law, probate and unlimited civil cases without access to verbatim records when court reporters are unavailable.

Despite significant recruitment and retention efforts, including millions of dollars in incentives and a training program for court staff, the court has experienced a net loss of 117 court reporters since 2018. The problem extends beyond Los Angeles, with a recent Legislative Analyst's Office report noting that 44 California trial courts spent $20.3 million on similar efforts in 2022-23 with limited success.

The dashboard will be updated with new data quarterly.