Court Reporter Board on governor's chopping block

[shelly storey]

please someone weigh in on this - the california website for proposed budget cuts is suggesting doing away with the board and instead, as I remember it, having it fall under the governance of the state bar. Seems like a conflict of interest to me - and also from what I understand, the board is self-funded and therefore this would result in no monetary benefit to the state, so what's up with that?

[Diane Hickman]

Here is a form letter you can copy & paste and send it to Arnold:

[DATE]



[YOUR NAME]
[DATE]
[CITY, STATE ZIP]


Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol, First Floor
Sacramento, California 95814

Attn: Ms. Susan Kennedy,
Chief-of-Staff

Dear Governor,

I am urging you not to pursue elimination of the California Court Reporters Board (CRB). Because the Court Reporters Board is funded solely by funds generated by its licensees, there is not cost savings to the state's General Fund by dismantling the board. Further, the board, as well as other consumer boards and commissions under the Department of Consumer Affairs, makes an annual contribution to help pay for the costs of running the department.

The state is actually losing money while eliminating a watchdog group over the court reporting industry that has proved itself to be very effective in resolving disputes, developing and administering examinations for new reporters, upholding professional standards, providing accreditation of court reporter schools to ensure a viable supply of qualified reporters to serve the needs of the judicial system, regulating consumer protections, and administering the Transcript Reimbursement Fund for indigent litigants; all functions of the CRB and all funded by license fees.

The state's judiciary and those citizens that must use it risk a reduced quality in the way the official record is made without any real justification for the change and without having some idea how a new system would work.

Please remove the elimination of the California Court Reporters Board from your proposal.

Sincerely,



[YOUR NAME]

[Patricia Babits]

They've tried to get rid of it more than once and haven't succeeded.