Los Angeles Court Staff to Be Trained in Reporting, Interpreting

Los Angeles County Superior Court will provide certain employees with training to become court reporters and court interpreters starting in July 2024, as part of a push to address persistent vacancies that threaten access to justice, according to a Tuesday news release.

About one quarter of positions in Los Angeles County for court reporters, the officials who create and maintain verbatim records, are empty. As a result, Los Angeles County Superior Court has stopped providing reporters in family law and probate matters. But court officials and attorneys say that without records by court reporters—whose services in the private sector can cost litigants up to $4,000 per day—it’s almost impossible to appeal a case.

Recent efforts to ratchet up six-figure starting salaries and tempt new recruits with bonuses in the high five-figures aren’t working quickly enough. In the latest iteration of the pipeline expansion project, Los Angeles County Superior Court employees who have worked there for a year or longer and enroll in the virtual year-long, full scholarship programs will be able to train during their regular work days, between three and six hours each week, according to the news release.

Graduates of the programs who obtain certification in either court reporting or court interpreting will get jobs at the court but must work there for at least three more years.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Executive Officer David Slayton told Bloomberg Law in August 2023 that if vacancy rates don’t turn around within 18 months, the court will need to break the law and electronically record felony and juvenile proceedings, where court reporters are legally required.

Court reporters told Bloomberg Law that the lack of public court reporters in California jurisdictions is a systemic problem, spurred in part by the Los Angeles County Superior Court laying off about 250 of them in the early 2010s. Many of those reporters moved to the more lucrative and flexible private sector.

The court interpreters program will first focus on Spanish interpreting. The program will train in voice writing, which has a faster training time and is connected to higher certification exam pass rates than stenographic typing. Each program will accept up to 30 trainees.

Southern California School of Interpretation will train court interpreters, and Poway Adult School will train court reporters, according to the news release.