Court reporters reach new benefits, incentives agreement with San Diego Superior Court

The San Diego Superior Court and a local labor union have reached an agreement to provide court reporters a new incentives package, including retention and recruitment bonuses — a move some say could help alleviate an ongoing court reporter shortage.

Court executive officers say the new incentives — made possible by two budget appropriations bills signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021 and 2022 respectively — will help San Diego’s juvenile and criminal courts fill 19 vacant court reporter positions.

An additional 29 court reporters — the employees who create verbatim records of the dialogue in legal proceedings — will need to be hired to cover family law cases, officials said. In November 2021, the court eliminated court reporters in family law cases in order to move staff over to assignments in mandated criminal felony and juvenile proceedings.

Michael Roddy, executive officer for the San Diego Superior Court, said in a statement last month that he hopes the new incentives will increase interest in the court-reporting careers and increase public access to services in family, probate and civil cases.

“We recognize how important a verbatim record of a proceeding can be in ensuring access to justice and we appreciate the demanding level of concentration and effort it takes our court reporters to provide this important public service,” Roddy said.

Service Employees International Union Local 221, the labor union that represents employees who work in San Diego Superior Court, said in a statement earlier this month that applications had already increased since the incentives package was announced.

“We are proud to have fought for and won appropriate increases for experienced members and incoming hires, but we are most excited to have preserved funding for court reporters and the vital role they play to protect equal access to justice,” said Jennifer Esquivel, a court reporter and board member with SEIU Local 221.

Esquivel noted that the new incentives did not increase base pay for employees. She said increasing wages would have provided a better incentive for court reporter recruitment and retention.

But Esquivel praised the new package for including signing bonuses for full-time and part-time court reporter employees, recruitment bonuses, retention bonus, new part-time positions, a technology stipend and tuition/professional conference reimbursement.

“Like law enforcement agencies and the County of San Diego, court staffing had fallen behind what was required to provide fair and equal access to public services,” said Esquivel. “This new agreement will assist the court in reaching the staffing levels necessary to provide our vital services with our new hires and the retention of our current court reporter staff.”

The number of court reporters available to work in the courts has been declining throughout the state for years, leaving court officials scrambling to fill vacancies or forego having official transcripts for certain proceedings. The number of people who took the court reporter certification test in California dropped from 339 in 2018 to 178 in 2021, court officials said.

Five years ago there were approximately 90 reporters in the San Diego Superior Court system, which needed more than 140 to cover most cases, officials said. Before the new agreement, there were 67, and the local Superior Court system did not provide reporters for most family law matters.