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“BYOCR”(Bring Your Own Court Reporter)Perhaps the single most significanteffect of the statewidereductions to courtbudgets, as they apply tocivil, family and probate cases,is the inability of the courts tocontinue to maintain a courtreporter staff for those categoriesof cases.As the need of a record ofproceedings in many types ofmatters is, of course, important, theobvious step is to allow the partiesto provide their own reporters. Thatwould appear simple until one reviewsthe statutory provisions regardingcourt reporters and considersthe need that when the courtcertifies a record to a higher courtthe applicable provisions must beregarded. It thus became necessaryfor our civil, family and probatejudges to formulate a process thatallows for a ”certifiable” record.Using extensive work done by theLos Angeles Superior Court on thetopic, our judges have put togethera protocol that hopefully will accommodateall concerned. Ourplan is based upon theexpectation that forthe vast majorityof cases needingcourt reporting,the parties will stipulate as to theselection of the reporter. Things willwork most smoothly if, based uponcivility, a party asked to stipulatewill do so absent a bona fide reasonfor not doing so.The specific provisions for reportingby stipulation are contained onthe court’s website. 1 From the homepage, scroll to “Information andNotices” in the middleof the page and click onthe link “Use of PrivateCourt Reporters.” The link“Protocols” on that page willgive you a 13-page explanationof the issues and requirements.There is also a link for Local Rule 24,which covers court reporting. 2In a nutshell, the provisions ofthe Government Code are such thatby Hon. David B. Flinnby far the easiest approach is for theparties to a hearing or trial to stipulateas to the selection of a qualifiedreporter. New form CV-310 is usedand includes an agreement by thereporter to meet the court’s requirements.3 Reporters should be capableof providing ”Livenote” and tyinginto the judges’ bench computerseither by a Wi-Fi remote connectionor cable connection. This is especiallyimportant as it assists the courtin reviewing oral proceedings andtherefore being able to more quicklyrender decisions that are importantto the clients.Reporters will also be provideda welcome packet and must becomefamiliar with the court’s processfor timely uploading the rawstenographic notes into the court’sACORN storage site for safe storageand future reference.As it is important that our courtavoid favoritism, we do not makerecommendations on reporters to beused for private reporting.The court will protect partieswho desire reporting and cannotobtain a stipulation fromtheir opponent, although sofar our experience has beenthat this is a rare occurrence.Due to the GovernmentCode provisions, a reportermust then be chosen from the list of12MAY 2013