The California Court Reporting Crisis and How the System Undermines Its Own Professionals

For decades, California Certified Shorthand Reporters (CSRs) have been regarded as the gold standard in legal recordkeeping — professionals trained to produce accurate, legally compliant transcripts under some of the strictest standards in the nation. But today, those very professionals are being quietly edged out of their own market, forced into unsustainable in-person work while remote opportunities are siphoned off to out-of-state reporters — many of whom are unfamiliar with, or outright ignore, California’s formatting and transcript laws.

This isn’t just a labor imbalance. It’s a systemic failure that, if left unaddressed, threatens the integrity of legal records and the viability of court reporting as a career in California.

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The Out-of-State Problem is a Matter of Compliance

It’s becoming increasingly common for California jobs — even realtime and state jurisdiction work — to be covered by out-of-state reporters. In many cases, these reporters hold California licenses, but live and work remotely from other parts of the country. The issue isn’t their physical location, per se, but their compliance — or lack thereof — with California’s mandatory transcript formatting requirements.

California has very specific guidelines: from margins and font size to line counts and index formatting. These rules are codified in law and enforced by the California Court Reporters Board (CRB). Or at least, they’re supposed to be.

Yet more and more transcripts are showing up on dockets that blatantly violate these standards — some formatted illegally in multiple ways. Whether due to ignorance on the part of the reporter or reformatting by the agency, the end result is the same: the client receives a noncompliant record, and California CSRs are left fuming over the erosion of professional standards.

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The CRB’s Inaction is a Regulatory Gap with Real Consequences

In a profession where licensing is meant to safeguard the integrity of the judicial process, the failure of the CRB to enforce its own standards is especially alarming. When attorneys practice law in California without a license, they’re investigated, referred to the California Bar, and potentially prosecuted by the Department of Justice. There are teeth behind the law.

Not so with the CRB.

The Board has openly stated that it lacks jurisdiction over unlicensed reporters and that it has limited enforcement capacity even when complaints are filed against licensed ones. This regulatory paralysis has created a gaping hole in accountability. Unlicensed individuals — including digital or voice reporters without a CSR — may report jobs illegally, and licensed reporters can repeatedly submit noncompliant transcripts without meaningful consequence.

The result? A chilling message to California CSRs: Your hard-earned license means less every day.

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California CSRs Are Being Squeezed from Both Ends

This enforcement vacuum isn’t happening in a vacuum. While remote jobs are handed out to reporters who may not even live in California — and who may not follow California law — those of us who do live here are pushed into increasingly burdensome in-person coverage. Commutes of three to five hours a day are becoming routine. Jobs we wouldn’t normally accept are now the only ones offered. Meanwhile, we see remote coverage lists go out, often just minutes after being told no remote work is available.

This two-tiered system is not just inconvenient. It’s unsustainable.

We live in one of the most expensive states in the country. Our housing, fuel, insurance, and operating costs far outpace those of the out-of-state reporters now undercutting us on price. And while we’re held to rigorous standards — including passing one of the toughest skills exams in the nation — others can backdoor into the system via limited reciprocity or remote credentialing, without ever demonstrating their ability to meet California’s operational requirements.

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Solutions & What Needs to Change Now

1. Strengthen CRB Enforcement Authority
The CRB must be given enforcement capabilities equivalent to other professional boards. If unlicensed individuals are taking depositions in California or licensed reporters are submitting noncompliant work, there must be clear investigatory and disciplinary processes — and they must be enforced consistently. Legislative pressure and industry advocacy can help ensure this becomes a reality.

2. Require Full Skills Testing for All California Licenses
The practice of granting partial reciprocity — especially when it allows voice reporters to bypass the skills portion of the California CSR exam — undermines the integrity of the license. No matter how a reporter qualifies, they should be required to pass the same test and demonstrate the same proficiency in California-specific formatting, procedures, and realtime capability.

3. Audit Transcripts and Agencies
Agencies operating in California should be subject to random transcript audits to ensure compliance with CRB rules. If agencies are reformatting transcripts after delivery — thus introducing illegal formatting — that should be grounds for disciplinary action. Furthermore, agencies should be required to disclose which reporters worked on a given job and whether formatting was altered in-house.

4. Implement Transparency in Job Assignment
Agencies need to establish clear and equitable policies for job assignments. Remote work should not be exclusively routed to out-of-state reporters while in-state CSRs are pushed into time-consuming in-person work. Balanced scheduling — and even modest in-person commitments from fully remote reporters — could help distribute workloads more fairly.

5. Create a Reporter Advocacy Coalition
California reporters must band together to form or bolster existing coalitions that advocate for policy reform, regulatory enforcement, and fair labor practices. This coalition could coordinate lobbying efforts, organize outreach to the CRB and legislators, and promote awareness of these issues within the legal community.

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We Can’t Afford to Be Silent

This isn’t about pitting steno against voice, in-state against out-of-state, or seasoned reporters against newcomers. It’s about ensuring that the rules — and the value of the California CSR — actually mean something. If we continue down the current path, we won’t just lose jobs — we’ll lose credibility, consistency, and the ability to define our own profession.

And for those who say, “If you can’t beat them, join them”? That’s not a solution. It’s surrender. We shouldn’t be forced to leave California or abandon hard-earned standards just to survive.

The question isn’t whether the system is broken. It’s whether we’re ready to fix it.

The future of court reporting in California depends on it.