California Court Reporters Association Mission Statement:

The mission of the California Court Reporters Association is to advance the profession of verbatim shorthand reporting by promoting professional reporting excellence through education, research, and the use of state-of-the-art technology; establishing and maintaining professional standards of practice; and advocating before legislative and regulatory bodies on issues which impact the judicial system and others served by the court reporting profession of California.

LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITIES:

• 2008 – AB 2844 (Portantino) Introduced legislation to amend CCP 273 to include the language “For purposes of this section, a ‘rough draft transcript’ includes the instant visual display of testimony.”  Successfully passed Senate and Assembly, vetoed by the Governor .
• 2008 – AB 2189 Supported this bill that would require mandatory continuing education for court reporters.

• 2007 – AB 1211 (Price)  Introduced and passed legislation (in co-sponsorship with DRA) to amend the CCP 2025.510(h)(1) to provide for the obligation to timely pay the deposition officer  for products or services and it shall be the responsibility of the requesting attorney or a party representing himself or herself.
• 2007 – AB 582 (Evans) Actively supported SEIU on their sponsorship of this bill which provides for a raise in transcript fees for the official court reporter.
• 2007 – AJR 38 (Levine) Sponsored this measure which urges the Congress of the United States to enact legislation that would provide competitive grants for training court reporters and closed captioners. 
• 2007 – SB 823 (Perata) Successfully opposed this bill which would have affected adversely private court reporting schools – mandating that students enrolled graduate within a two-year period, among other mandates.
• 2006 – AB 1293 (Oropeza) Successfully passed this legislation which expands the definition of indigent litigant as it applies to the qualification of same for transcript funding from the Transcript Reimbursement Fund.
• 2006 – SB 1476 (Figueroa) Successfully amended the language to extend the life of the Court Reporters Board to 1/1/2010, making its sunsetting consistent with the Transcript Reimbursement Fund’s sunsetting.
• 2006 – SB 56 (Dunn) Monitored this bill and worked with its author to insure that the appointment of 56 new judgeships would include adequate funding for courtroom staff, including court reporters.
• 2005 – AB 1293 (Oropeza) Introduced language that would protect the privacy of the transcript by encryption, password protection and electronic signature of the deposition transcript sent over the Internet to the deponent for reading, correcting and signing.  This was the first step toward protecting our deposition transcript copies in this digital and electronic age, in addition to protecting the integrity of the transcript in the paperless environment.
• 2005 – AB 185 (Huff) Supported legislation regarding the Legislative Captioning Act of 2005, which would provide the Joint Rules Committee would provide closed-captioned and live-captioned broadcasts of a joint committee hearing.
• 2005 – AB 1174 (Tran) Opposed and defeated this bill which would provide that administrative proceedings may be reported by electronic recording.
• 2005 – SB 229 (Figueroa)  Supported successful legislation to extend the sunset date of the Court Reporters Board.
• 2001 – SB 801 (McPherson) Introduced legislation that would clarify that the audiosync file when used by a deposition officer was the exclusive property of the deposition reporter.

ADDITIONAL LEGISLATIVE EFFORTS:
Introduction and passage of the following laws as affects court and deposition reporters:

• Anti-contracting legislation that required full disclosure of all products and services being provided by the deposition officer to all parties, attorneys and the party financing all or part of the litigation. 
• Anti-contracting legislation that disallowed the service or product consisting of the deposition officer’s notations or comments regarding the demeanor of any witness, attorney, or party present at the deposition to any third party financing all or part of the action, party or party’s attorney.  In addition, no collection of identifying information about the witness as a service or product could be provided to same.
• Anti-contracting legislation that, upon request by any party or attorney attending a deposition, the other party or attorney shall enter in the record all services and products made available by the deposition reporter or firm to such party or party’s attorney or any third party who is financing all or part of the action.
• Legislation that provides when a transcript is prepared as a rough draft transcript in a deposition, that rough draft may not be used or cited or transcribed as the certified transcript of the deposition, nor can it be used to rebut or contradict the certified transcript of the deposition proceedings.
• Legislation providing that the rough draft transcript prepared by the official court reporter shall not be certified and cannot be used, cited or transcribed as the official certified transcript of the proceedings, nor can it be used to rebut or contradict the official certified transcript of proceedings.
• Legislation that provides that being a Notary Public is no longer necessary to swear in the deponent; a licensed CSR can swear in the deponent.
• Transcript Reimbursement Fund was established to provide accessibility of the indigent litigant to court and deposition transcripts. 
• Legislation providing additional fees for one-person dailies.
• Legislation for additional fees for transcripts on disks.
• Legislation of official transcript copy rates.
• Legislation to exempt transcribers from being classified as employees by the EDD, Employment Development Department.
• Legislation to create the Court Reporters Board of California, your licensing agency.
• Legislative requirement that original transcript must be on paper.
• De-legislation of freelance court reporter rates set per folio by legislation.
• Preparation of many reports supporting the use of court reporters’ opposition to Electronic Recording.
• Sponsored legislation and prepared data in support of increasing folio rates.
• Sponsored legislation to allow retention of stenographic notes in electronic format.
• Sponsored legislation to close the loophole that allowed non-CSR's to report the official record.
• In 1996 successfully opposed legislation that would allow for the use of Electronic Reporting in depositions without a stipulation by counsel.

PROTECTING THE PROFESSION:

• CCRA has a full-time lobbyist introducing and tracking legislation affecting the profession.
• CCRA in 2008 successfully fought and won an attempt to replace official court reporters in California courts.
• CCRA in 2008 testified before the Assembly and Senate Budget Subcommittee against digital recording in California courts.
• CCRA in 2007 partnered with the California Women Lawyers Association – working to education their members on our technology, among other things.
• CCRA in 2007 successfully opposed the business practices of Trial Smith Transcript repositories regarding uploading officials’ trial transcripts in violation of Government Code Section 69954(d).
• CCRA in 2007 instituted a Pilot Project on transcript repositories for Official Reporters.
• CCRA in 2007 proposed to the National Committee of State Associations and were successful in the passage of two resolutions – Creating a long-range strategic plan on the technological future of our profession and creating a Certified Technology Reporter certification.
• CCRA in 2007 submitted a proposal to the Administrative Office of the Courts to realtime Web stream their business meetings on a pro bono basis. 
• CCRA’s lobbyist is the only lobbyist working for both official and freelance reporters.
• CCRA has defeated every legislative bill introduced to replace reporters with E.R.
• CCRA has a legislative advisor also tracking legislation affecting the profession.
• CCRA has a Judicial Procedures Committee tracking changes in the Rules of Court and other issues as relates to court reporters.
• CCRA has a Deposition Advisory Committee, advising its board on current issues affecting the deposition reporter.
• CCRA has a Past Presidents Advisory Committee, a resource to the board and officers for historical perspectives on current issues and topics.
• CCRA representation on the Reporting of the Record Task Force.
• CCRA representation on the Uniform Civil Filing Fees Committee in 2007.
• CCRA has an Action Team ready to respond to issues affecting the profession.
• CCRA can provide you negotiating tools and information for negotiating your next contract with your management.
• CCRA is the NCRA state affiliate association.
• CCRA board members and members alike have membership on NCRA committees.
• CCRA board members have served the profession at a national level – presidents, officers and board members of the National Court Reporters Association.

PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION:

• CCRA has a monthly Online educational publication e-mailed to its members.
• CCRA continues to offer its Annual Convention in October.
• 2006 - Developed an Online CCR Tips & Tricks Seminar.
• 2006 – CCRA held its Freelance Business Symposium.
• 2005 – Hired a consultant to investigate and address the E-Future as it pertains to deposition reporters.
• 2005 - CCRA, at its Annual Convention in Del Mar, presented its first E-Future seminar to deposition reporters and firm owners.
• 1995 – CCRA’s first Technology Summit – addressing the future of technology in our profession as it relates to both deposition and official reporters.
• 1992 – CCRA held the first ever Realtime Retreat.
• 2003 - Developed a Student Seminar Track at the annual convention.
• 2004 – Presented a Captioning track at is annual convention.
• 2007 – CCRA offers the first-ever in the county “On-the-Spot” Digital Signature Booth in conjunction with their annual convention in Los Angeles.

BENEFITS TO MEMBERS:

• CCRA has a Legislative Council, consisting of a representative from each local association, to proposed legislation to the CCRA board and officers.
• Annual Convention each October.
• Monthly Online Newsletter.
• Freelance Compendium, citing all applicable code sections.
• Official Compendium, citing all applicable codes and rules.
• Website, containing all information relating to the reporting profession.
• “Ask A Reporter” – an online link to a reporter to ask your pertinent questions.
• “Tell CCRA” – an online link to your board and officers to obtain information or pass on information.
• Speed Contest.
• Classified Ads online and in the monthly newsletter.
• Firm owner listings throughout the state.
• Weekly legislative updates online.
• CCRA Alerts – alerting you issues.
• Important links – linking you from the Website to useful resources.
• Health Benefits.
• Low airfare on Hawaiian Airlines.
• CCRA Store.
• CCRA Visa-sponsored Credit Card.
• Career Day Kit.
• Pengad member benefit.

STUDENT MEMBER BENEFITS:

• Each One – Reach One Mentoring Program.
• Student Scholarship Program - $500 - $1,000.
• Student Seminar Track at Annual Convention.
• Sponsor a Student Membership to CCRA.
• Sponsor a Student to Annual Convention.
• CCRA to School/teacher relations, donating paper and machines and compendiums.