Nevada Court Reporters Association

View information regarding SB 34 on the legislative website:  http://www.leg.state.nv.us/75th2009/Reports/History.cfm?ID=61

New forum topic:  SB 34 - Will it affect you?

SB 34 was signed by the Governor and became law on May 22, 2009.

SB 34, a bill introduced by the Supreme Court on behalf of Nevada Judges of Limited Jurisdiction, is currently making its way through the legislative process

NRS 171.198 currently requires a certified court reporter to report preliminary hearings held in justice court.  The bill, which is an attempt to amend NRS 171.198, authorizes a magistrate, when presiding over a preliminary hearing in justice court in a case where the death penalty is not sought, to choose whether to employ a certified court reporter or appoint a person to use sound recording equipment to record certain testimony and proceedings of the court.

Judge Tatro, Carson City, Judge Dahl, Las Vegas, and Judge Higgins, proponents of the bill, have appeared at the legislative hearings.  The strongest point made by the judges is that they view this as a clean-up bill, that the language in 171.198 was just overlooked when 3.380 was included in the NRS in 1995 allowing the use of sound recording in District Court and all the judges want is parity with what is allowed in District Court.

The judges unanimously affirmed their respect and appreciation for court reporters but cited such issues as budgetary considerations, illness of a court reporter and inability to get court reporter coverage as additional reasons for the passage of SB 34.

It was clear from the last hearing in front of the Assembly Judiciary Committee which way the wind was blowing.  Committee questions and comments included the fact that the legislative hearings are sound recorded, thus implying that that seemed to work well, a comment that if “sound recording” had difficulty in picking up the proceedings that a microphone could be placed where the court reporter normally sits, thus, eliminating that problem, a comment that shouldn’t the courts be using the “best technology.”

Mary Cameron, the chair of the Nevada Certified Court Reporters Board, and Barbara Johnson,  along with our respective lobbyists, Barbara Campbell-Smith and Joseph Guild, did a great job in presenting the position of the licensing board and the association.

In continuing discussions with all parties involved, it is our belief at this point that the proposed language in SB 34 will be amended to require that a certified court reporter report all cases that are death penalty eligible.  There is also an agreement, confirmed by Chief Justice Hardesty that a commission will be appointed to study all aspects of court transcripts, including quality, timing and cost, and that included in this study group will be representative court reporters.

The licensing board and the association have accepted Judge Hardesty’s invitation and have committed to working with this committee to specifically study these issues with the hopes of returning to the Legislature in 2011 with specific recommendations relating to all forms of creating and producing the record.

These next two years all certified court reporters will need to work diligently to educate not only the judiciary, but the public, as to what the “best technology” is. 

For those of you who wrote letters and voted, thanks for your quick response.  Even though they may not have been enough to turn the tide this time, each time we have contact with legislators it reminds them of who we are and that we have legitimate issues that need to be fairly addressed.  And the more contact we have, the more likely they are to remember us and perhaps get some idea of what we do.

Click here to read the text of SB 34.

Click here to read the February 17 minutes of the Senate Judiciary Committee discussion regarding SB 34.

Click here to read the February 26 minutes of the Senate Judiciary Committee discussion regarding SB 34 (beginning on page 7.)

Further information will be posted as it becomes available.

Feel free to contact the NVCRA board with any comments you have or any information you believe would assist us in our opposition to this legislation.