Coalition calls on courts to adopt practical, professional solutions to a shortage the Judicial Council has characterized as a “constitutional crisis” by expanding authorized methods of verbatim capture without displacing the trained professionals who have always been central to an accurate record.

Today, the California Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that cuts to the core of equal access to justice in the state. The Coalition to Capture the Record urges the justices to recognize what the Judicial Council’s own data make unmistakably clear: The court reporter shortage is not a problem on its way to being solved but is a “constitutional crisis” that is growing.

The Coalition to Capture the Record supports a straightforward and professional solution: authorize digital and voice reporting as legitimate methods of creating a verbatim record in cases where a certified stenographic reporter is unavailable.

The urgency is not abstract. The Judicial Council’s own data, updated March 2026, show that over 2 million family law, probate, and civil hearings have proceeded without a verbatim record since April 2023 — 72 percent of all such proceedings statewide. California courts need 458 additional full-time reporters to meet current demand. Despite aggressive recruitment incentives deployed by over 91 percent of trial courts, the net workforce gain over two and a half years is fewer than 13 full-time equivalent reporters. The pipeline isn’t closing the gap in time for the litigants who need a record today.

We heard today’s argument that expanding methods of capture would create a “second-class record” for those who cannot afford a private court reporter. We respectfully disagree. For most low-income litigants, the alternative is not a stenographic one. It is no record at all. A complete, accurate record produced by a highly trained, certified digital or voice reporter is not a lesser substitute. It is the foundation of due process the current system is failing to provide.

The California Supreme Court has said that the absence of a verbatim record will “frequently be fatal” to a litigant’s right to appeal. That standard cannot coexist with a statute that leaves nearly three in four affected hearings unrecorded. The solution is not to choose between court reporters and technology. It is to ensure that when a stenographic reporter is unavailable, a qualified professional — whether a trained and certified voice writer or digital court reporter— is authorized to step in and create one.

About the Coalition to Capture the Record
The Coalition to Capture the Record advocates for expanding access to digital reporting services—supplementing, not replacing, traditional stenography methods—and ushering in a new era of accessibility and collaboration in the justice system with a diversified pool of highly trained court reporting professionals to create the verbatim record. To learn more about Coalition to Capture the Record and get involved, visit www.capturetherecord.com.