Transcript Reimbursement Fund Pro Per Pilot Project Update

Source: Court Reporter Board of California Spring Newsletter 2012



The new year kicked off the second half of the two-year (California) Transcript Reimbursement Fund (TRF) Pro Per Pilot Project. With 73 requests remaining from 2011, staff immediately began processing applications with the new $30,000 allotment for the year.

There were 216 requests approved between January 1, 2011, and February 29, 2012. A total of 45 applications have been denied for being criminal cases or because the litigant retained an attorney or were returned as incomplete because of missing signatures, fee waivers, estimates or other information.

Every effort is made to remedy deficient applications when clarification is needed or the estimates have not been provided; however, this greatly increases the processing time for all applications since the fund is limited and requests are processed on a first-come, first-served basis.

As part of the addition of Business and Professions Code 8030.5, the Board was mandated to further publicize the availability of the TRF to qualified legal services projects, qualified support centers, and pro bono attorneys. These efforts were to be made utilizing existing resources and include outreach to the State Bar Association of California, the California Commission on Access to Justice, and the Legal Aid Association of California. With the restriction of travel and other expenditures, the Board was limited on the type of outreach available. An informational brochure was created and has been distributed at conventions, such as the State Bar Annual Meeting, the Beyond the Bench Family Law Conference, and the Northern California Pro Bono Regional Meeting. In addition to the mandated outreach, the California Court Reporters Association published an article in its CCRA Online newsletter in December 2011.

To date, approximately 114 vulnerable litigants have been assisted by the pro per pilot project who may not have been able to pursue their cases or appeals without the assistance of the TRF. And although demand clearly exceeds resources for the pro per fund, the TRF overall is being better utilized than in prior years and continues to be fiscally sound.


As required by the Business & Professions Code, the Board submitted a report to the Senate and Assembly Judiciary Committees on March 1, 2012, regarding the TRF and pro per pilot project. The subject is also of special interest to the Legislature in their oversight of the Board as a whole in the sunset review process. The Board awaits a decision from the Legislature on whether or not the pro per pilot project will be extended after January 1, 2013.

Deadbeat Lawyer's Case: Dead on Appeal

Hot off CCRA's press is news that the appeal of a deadbeat lawyer is dead. The decision was filed and certified for publication on April 20, 2012. This represents a major victory in what could have had a devastating effect upon any court reporter or agency trying to collect fees.


CCRA's President Early Langley assisted appellate lawyers Philip Landsman, Robert F. Cohen and Frances L. Diaz by writing an amicus curiae letter on behalf of the plaintiff court reporting firm, Personal Court Reporters, Inc., and all the court reporters in the state of California.

The deadbeat lawyer tried to make this case into a violation of free speech. In the Second Appellate District, Division Four, the court found that the causes of action do not arise from his free speech. Instead, they found that his nonpayment of overdue invoices was really at issue.

This illustrates the point that no matter what legislation may exist to get a deadbeat lawyer to pay his bills, there will always be someone out there who will find a way to avoid paying. And in this case, the lawyer went all the way, at a cost of thousands of dollars to the court reporting firm.

To view the published opinion, visit http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/B229358.PDF

Court Reporter Sues Criminal Lawyer for Defamation Over Altered-Transcript Claim

submitted by Martha Hutchings

A Pennsylvania lawyer has so far been unsuccessful in his efforts to obtain an audiotape and other original materials that he contends would help prove his claim that transcripts of his client's Washington County murder trial were altered. So attorney Noah Geary is now pursuing an appeal of adverse superior court rulings with the state's highest court.

Meanwhile, he is facing a defamation case filed by the stenographer who, he alleged, made changes at the direction of the judge who presided over the murder trial, according to the Observer-Reporter.

Geary has previously contended that court reporter Toni DiNardo herself told him that President Judge Debbie O'Dell Seneca ordered her to alter the transcript of a sentencing hearing for his client, Gerald Szakal, as an earlier Observer-Reporter editorial details.

She says in her defamation suit that she has suffered damage to her professional reputation and emotional distress because of Geary's false and malicious claims, which she alleges he made without appropriate investigation. DiNardo lives in Pittsburgh and has filed suit in Allegheny County.

Geary contends objections and motions for a mistrial he made during Szakal's murder trial were either omitted or moved to a different point in the proceeding in the transcript, according to the Valley Independent.

Important White Paper Release: Secure Delivery of Transcripts Using Wireless and Internet

White Paper Released by NCRA's Wireless Task Force. 
The Wireless Task Force is pleased to announce that its white paper, titled The Secure Delivery of Transcripts Using Wireless and Internet-Based Realtime Methods, has been officially completed.
  
"This white paper is going to become the benchmark to judges, court administrators, IT professionals, and litigants, demonstrating that wireless and Bluetooth realtime are 100 percent secure," said Wireless Task Force Chair SueLynn Morgan. "We have found that the majority of federal and state courts have not yet broached the issue, and the task force wanted to be proactive and provide some certainty to the multitude of court reporters who provide a much-needed service in their courtrooms on a daily basis."

Federal Government Rolls Out a New Official Language of Sorts: Plain English

WASHINGTON
By CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press Calvin Woodward, Associated Press
Thu May 19, 6:47 am ET

That's right: Pursuant to regulations promulgated thereunder and commencing in accordance with a statute signed herein by President Barack Obama, the government shall be precluded from writing the pompous gibberish heretofore evidenced, to the extent practicable.

That sentence contains 11 new language no-nos.

Obama signed the Plain Writing Act last fall after decades of effort by a cadre of passionate grammarians in the civil service to jettison the jargon.

It takes full effect in October, when federal agencies must start writing plainly in all new or substantially revised documents produced for the public. The government will still be allowed to write nonsensically to itself.

Ahead then, if the law works,