As someone that spent untold hours documenting the private sector plot to exaggerate and exacerbate the shortage, I have to say, in the last 4 years I’ve never felt so heard.
But this isn’t about me. This is about the brave women and men in California, through CCRA President Brooke Ryan, finally ready to stand up and say enough is enough instead of watching the public sector use the excuse fed to them by the STTI Bloc to vaporize our jobs and the jobs that future students would hold.
As posted to Facebook:
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CCRA Urges Reversal of L.A. Superior Court’s Unlawful Electronic Recording Order
September 5, 2024
CCRA condemns a recent decision by Los Angeles Superior Court’s Presiding Judge to authorize electronic recording across a broad range of case types. CCRA argues that this move creates an unreliable record and is part of a broader issue of a manufactured reporter shortage created because of past layoffs and a flawed hiring process. CCRA is calling for the immediate reversal of the order and is prepared to collaborate with the reporters’ union to work with the court and with the Legislature to address this illegal action and improve reporter staffing.
The full letter that CCRA sent to Presiding Judge Samantha P. Jessner of the Los Angeles Superior Court is below:
September 5, 2024 Presiding Judge Samantha P. Jessner,
Los Angeles Superior Court,
600 S Commonwealth Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90005
Dear Judge Jessner,
The California Court Reporters Association (CCRA) is deeply troubled by the Los Angeles Superior Court’s Presiding Judge’s unlawful action today, authorizing electronic recording in a whole range of case types. This order, disseminated by the Court Executive Officer, is in violation of California law and will create chaos for litigants and continue to feed into a broken system inside the courts of disparity of justice between the haves and the have-nots.
Through this action, the Presiding Judge and the Court Executive Officer will create an expressway to unreliable electronic recording transcripts without proper steps to bring in a live, licensed court reporter.
The California Court Reporters Association requests that the Court immediately rescind this unlawful order and instead meet with the recognized labor union representing court reporters and we here at CCRA to discuss strategies to increase the placement and hiring of official court reporters.
L.A. Superior Court leaders have been warned repeatedly by their court reporter employees, unions, and by we here at CCRA that their hiring process and previous layoffs of hundreds of court reporters would eventually lead to their inability to provide litigants with a licensed court reporter and a verbatim transcript.
We wholeheartedly believe that this was the Court’s goal all along—to create a situation where they insist they must use recording machines because they can’t find any court reporters. The LA Superior Court has repeatedly and systematically rejected qualified, licensed, long-time reporter applicants in an effort to feed into their narrative of a “shortage.” Make no mistake: The “shortage” is manufactured, and LA Superior Court has been the most prominent player in that long game of attempting to phase out court reporters in favor of substandard electronic recording.
We here at the California Court Reporters Association are willing and ready to meet with LA Superior Court leadership at any time to help resolve this issue.
Sincerely, Brooke Ryan, CCRA President
(Images below)
There is NO SHORTAGE of court reporters in California. The superior courts have made it impossible to get a job as an official on purpose. Deposition firms can’t keep us busy and the CSR Board is testing 3 times a year and getting about 100 new CSRs out a year. The CSR board needs to go back to testing two times a year. The shortage is a BOGUS excuse made up by depo firms to use digital. I personally know a few reporters who have had to leave the profession and get regular jobs because you can’t live on two depos a week. Because depo firms are giving all day plaintiff jobs to digital reporters, that leaves the experts and PMK jobs (all hard jobs) to the rest of us with the CSR license.
If ever they want to come forward and preserve their stories, or write about their experiences, I’m here.
We’re being blacked out by the media. It’s down to us creating our own media that cannot be ignored.
Nice work, California. Nice work, Christopher Day. You are, as you know, fighting billions of dollars. Not billions to replace court reporters, of course. We’re just a small part of a much bigger movement to see a world driven by technology. I admire the fight, and I admire the fighters. I now live in the world of retired court reporters but I remain active in the profession. Best of luck as you move forward.
Thanks Al.
Truth be told, it depends on many things. If investors realize AI might be a massive bubble, they might start pulling out hard. That could cause an AI winter for the next decades.
If an AI winter occurs, our jobs will be here for a very long time. Maybe even if it does not.
Chris, you’re right. Always stay in the fight for what you want. An important key to success is knowing when to pivot.
That’s the eternal struggle isn’t it? Knowing when to stand ground versus diversify.
Plutocrats are doing the same thing to teachers, manufacturing a “shortage,” and using it as an excuse to deprofessionalize and gut unions.
I’ve been out of court reporting for too long. I didn’t know this fight was going on till I stumbled over here. Thanks for writing about it.
Truck drivers too!