Benchslaps, Court Reporters / Stenographers, Screw-Ups, State Judges, Trials

Bench Berates Contemptuous Court Reporters Over Tardy Transcripts

If a court reporting service just didn't prepare transcripts in criminal cases for months on end, they might earn themselves a hearty benchslapping.

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Court reporters put up with a lot. Not only are they largely condescended to by the often middling attorneys they deal with every day, but they have to listen intently to everything lawyers say all the time. And when they’ve managed to turn around two days worth of testimony into a transcript by mid-morning the next day, they get a courteous nod and a “what took you so long?”

The job really is its own circle of hell. The sort of thing that might make somebody type “I hate my job” over and over and over again instead of keeping up with the proceedings.

But not every court reporter is a martyr deserving of veneration. If, for example, a court reporting service just didn’t prepare transcripts in criminal cases for months on end, they may earn themselves a hearty benchslapping…

In Miami-Dade County, Downtown Reporting, LLC is a court reporting service hired by the state of Florida to provide stenographic services to the criminal division of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit. Pretty sweet work for court reporters. Covering criminal trials is a steady stream of business, unlike banking entirely on hopping from one deposition to the next. But the problem is Downtown Reporting liked attending those trials, but not so much “preparing the transcripts” from those trials, which just landed them in hot water with the appellate court:

On June 20, 2014, this Court ordered Downtown Reporting, LLC, Michael Frost, the company’s Owner-Manager, and Charity Riviera-Garcia, Transcription Department Manager in the company’s Miami-Dade County office, to show cause why they should not be held in contempt for failure to comply with this Court’s orders, and for failure to cause the timely filing of transcripts in the following fourteen criminal appeals pending in this Court.

One would think a service approved by the state would be held to a higher standard of quality:

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According to Ms. Kelly Kearson, the Court Reporting Service Department of the Administrative Office of the Courts has no procedure in place to attempt to monitor the performance of the court reporting firms it hires to service in the criminal division of the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit.

Sorry, I’d forgotten I was dealing with Florida. As South Florida Lawyers Blog put it, “No oversight or review of any kind of a government contract? Welcome to Miami-Dade County!”

Court reporters are given about a month to get their transcripts ready, which should be enough time. And if it for some reason isn’t enough time, the opinion notes that the court is “generous” about extensions.

However, there comes a time when enough is enough. For the reasons next explained, this is one of those times.

Despite having a month and some flexibility, Downtown Reporting was woefully behind. The dates where the appellants filed designations in the 14 cases at issue ranged from September 30, 2013, to February 24, 2014 — and they weren’t done by June 20, 2014. Maybe they need to hire the Michael Jordan of court reporting, or at least see if they can get the LBJ of court reporting to bring his or her talents to South Beach.

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At this point, you’d expect Downtown Reporting to throw up its hands and begin to grovel. They made a different strategic decision:

Nevertheless, in a stunning display of disregard for the processes and orders of this Court, Downtown Reporting, on June 11, 2014, moved the Court for an extension of time to July 11, 2014, to file the transcripts in all nine cases on which it already had been given [a No Further Extensions Order] and in which the time for filing in all but four had expired. More remarkably, the motions were serially filed through the Court’s electronic portal over a period of just a few minutes. Each motion was signed and filed by the same individual, Downtown Reporting’s Miami-Dade County Transcription Department Manager, Charity Rivera-Garcia. Ms. Rivera-Garcia admitted to the Court at the hearing held on the show cause order that the July 11, 2014, date inserted in each motion had no relation to the reality of what was occurring at Downtown Reporting….

If anyone knows how to spell chutzpah, it’s a court reporter. As one might imagine, the court was not impressed.

The obligation to assure that criminal appeals in this District are expeditiously processed ultimately falls to this Court. The Court finds, based upon the record of this case, that the conduct of Downtown Reporting in these exemplar cases is, indeed contemptuous.

Stone cold slappage. Thankfully for Downtown Reporting, they finally took the hint and started turning in transcripts. It’s what saved them from a devastating sanction. So if you’re planning on taking a deposition in Miami any time soon, you may want to consider Downtown Reporting because I guarantee they’ll be on their best behavior for awhile.

(Flip to the next page to read the full ruling on the order to show cause.)

3d DCA Watch — Bring Me the Head of Downtown Reporting! [South Florida Lawyers Blog]
‘Michael Jordan’ of Court Reporting Suffers Upset Defeat [Law Blog / Wall Street Journal]

Earlier: Court Reporter Causes Chaos By Repeatedly Writing ‘I Hate My Job’ On Trial Transcripts

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