Rule 4006. Employment and Duties of Court Reporting Personnel.
(A) The president judge or his or her designee shall select, appoint, and supervise court reporting personnel for the district. The number of court reporting personnel in any district shall be adequate to support the full and unrestricted operation of the courts.
(B) The president judge or his or her designee shall assign court reporting personnel in a manner as to
(1) cover all proceedings and timely produce all transcripts; and
(2) substantially equalize the workload of recording testimony, and of transcript production and generating fees.
(C) All court reporting personnel are officers of the court with a duty to comply with all court regulations and orders and to maintain the highest standards of professional and ethical conduct.
(D) No court reporting personnel shall work outside his or her official duties unless such work is permitted under the Code of Conduct For Employees of the Unified Judicial System (see Section VI (F)) and he or she is in substantial compliance with these rules regarding timeliness of transcripts as determined by the president judge.
(E) All court reporters must ensure that the court will have access and the ability to obtain the notes of testimony and all other record proceedings of the court in the event of the inability, unavailability, or unwillingness of the court reporter to do so within the time frame established by these rules.
Comment Court reporters should assure, in the event of unavailability or incapacity, that the court is able to access court reporter notes or work product so that all transcripts can be recovered. Each court reporter should provide certification every 6 months that at a minimum, the court reporter has provided one of the following methods or mechanisms for recovering transcripts:
(1) contracting with an available scopist capable of translating the court reporter’s notes;
(2) generating court reporter notes on a software program recognized by the court/district court administrator;
(3) providing the district court administrator with a current copy of the court reporter’s dictionary; and/or
(4) providing translated steno notes in ASCII format.
(F) Court reporters, court recorders and transcriptionists shall file a monthly report with the district court administrator of all ordered or requested transcripts for matters of appeal, in chronological order indicating the date of each order or request, the case name and number, whether the transcript requires rapid completion (e.g., a Children’s Fast Track appeal), the approximate length of the record to be transcribed, the status of the transcription, and the expected date of the filing of the transcript. A court reporter, court recorder or transcriptionist must coordinate with the district court administrator or his or her designee whenever courtroom coverage must be arranged in order to timely deliver the transcript.
(G) The president judge shall determine the internal procedure in his or her judicial district for tracking the timely fulfillment of all other requests and orders for transcript of court proceedings in matters not under appeal. It is the duty of each president judge or his or her designee to assure compliance with the timely delivery of all transcripts as required by these rules.
(H) The district court administrator shall prepare a summary statistical report of all cases under appeal including the number of transcripts requested, delivered and pending, as well as the age of all pending transcripts, which shall be forwarded to the Administrative Office quarterly on forms designed by the Court Administrator.
(I) All court reporting personnel and county administrative personnel are required to comply with all standing and special requests of the Administrative Office for information, including information on transcript cost and fee payments and data relative to transcript production, delivery, and delay.
Source The provisions of this Rule 4006 amended December 12, 2019, effective immediately, 49 Pa.B. 7570. Immediately preceding text appears at serial pages (392531) to (392532).
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