Pilot Program Looks at On-line Transcripts

Vol. 36, Number 3—March 2004

Pilot Program Looks at On-line Transcripts

The Judicial Conference has determined that courts making electronic documents available to the public on the Internet also must make electronic transcripts of proceedings remotely available if such transcripts are otherwise prepared. Conference policy includes a process for redacting certain identifying information from these documents in order to protect individual privacy and security.

However, implementation of Conference policy has been deferred while a pilot program, begun in January 2004, collects information on the impact on court reporters who prepare the transcripts. At the conclusion of the pilot, the Conference will consider a report from the Conference Judicial Resources Committee on the effect of the policy on court reporter compensation.

The pilot project is set to run at least through May 2004. Five courts will participate in the project: the District Courts for the Southern District of Alabama; the District of Kansas; the District of Maine; the Eastern District of Missouri; and the District of Nebraska. Only transcripts in civil cases will be included.

The official transcript of a proceeding is made by a court reporter and a certified copy is filed with the clerk of court in the case file, if the transcript is ordered by the court, by a party to the case, or by a third party. The court reporter may charge and collect fees for this transcript from a party to the case or a third party. By statute and Conference policy, the transcript is available to the public in the court file. A transcript filed with the clerk may be copied by the public without further compensation to the reporter. However, court reporters may continue to charge for transcript copies ordered directly from the reporter, for example, when certified transcripts are ordered by attorneys.

With more courts making case files available electronically to the general public, the Conference adopted the policy in September 2003 requiring these courts to make electronic transcripts of proceedings remotely available if such transcripts are otherwise prepared.

The Conference policy applies to electronic transcripts made available on the Judiciary's Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system, an electronic public access service that allows users to obtain case and docket information from federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts.

Within five days of filing of the transcript by the court reporter, any party can ask that personal data identifiers be redacted. If redaction is requested within 21 calendar days of the filing of the transcript, or longer if the court orders, the parties submit to the court reporter a statement indicating where the personal data identifiers to be redacted appear in the transcript. Identifiers are Social Security numbers, financial account numbers, names of minor children, dates of birth, and home addresses of individuals.

The Conference is expected to address the issue of electronic availability of transcripts and the impact on court reporter compensation at its September 2004 session.