Court Reporting Legislative Summary

Several bills were introduced in the recently concluded session of the Louisiana Legislature of particular interest to certified court reporters in the state. 

As a result of HCR 104, the study commissioned in 2008 to study the shortage of court reporters in small, rural parishes and make recommendations regarding this shortage, it was felt that there is a need for the CSR board to be authorized to issue temporary licensing to alleviate this shortage.  The CSR Board asked VRLA/LCRA to assist it in providing lobbyist services to accomplish a change in state statutes that would allow the CSR Board to issue such permits/temporary licensure.  VRLA, along with LCRA,  felt this was the best alternative to the practice of allowing Judges to hire non certified persons, not under the CSR Board's jurisdiction and therefore supported the legislation and lent the assistance of our lobbyist. This legislation would have provided authority for the CSR Board to issue a temporary permit for an unlicensed person, suitable for the position, to work under the supervision of the Board, for a period of one year. This permit could be extended for one additional year, if the permit holder could show they were working toward certification.  This legislation, HB 599, was introduced by Representative Dorothy Hill, who graciously agreed to support our cause.  The bill was amended by legislators seeking to provide that courts using digital recording would be exempt from its provisions and that the Judge seeking to hire a permit holder could reject the candidate of the Board's choosing and hire his own candidate.  These amendments could not be effectively dealt with and ultimately the legislation was pulled from vote on the last day of the session.

HB 555 was introduced by Representative Chandler.  This is the same bill he introduced last year, seeking to allow Judges in parishes with less than 25,000 population to hire non certified persons as court reporters.  This bill was involuntarily deferred by the house committee, due to extensive opposition by VRLA and LCRA members, ending the bill's history for this session.

SB 39 was introduced by Senator LaFleur.  This bill is very similar to HB 555, without the parish population provision, but also seeking to allow Judges to hire non certified persons as court reporters.  This bill was also extensively opposed by VRLA and LCRA and was voluntarily deferred by Senator LaFleur.  The bill was not brought back to committee for vote during the session.

SB 143 was introduced by Senator Amedee and allowed for electronic signature of judicial warrants.  Amendments were introduced to also allow the electronic/digital signature of testimony transcripts.  The amendments ultimately were stripped from this bill, allowing the original bill to proceed to vote, but not allowing the electronic/digital signature of testimony transcripts.  VRLA supported this legislation also.