Court Reporters
The Ministry of the Attorney General plans to create a private regulator to control all aspects of court transcription. This will not serve the administration of justice. Read this flyer to find out why. Download and post this flyer on union bulletin boards and circulate to your co-workers.
Court Reporters Update
The Ministry of the Attorney General announced on May 15 that it will create a “private regulator” that will control all aspects of court transcription.
From the little information we have and given this government’s track record, we expect:
- Loss of quality and continuity because the reporter in the courtroom will no longer prepare the transcript.
- Costly membership fees for court reporters. How much? Nobody’s saying.
- Extra fees charged to people ordering transcripts. How much? Nobody’s saying.
- Confusion over page rates. Will they go up? Down? The rate has been frozen for more than 20 years.
- No access to paper, binders, covers and binding equipment, resources currently available toreporters in some courthouses.
- No fair rotation and allocation of court transcript work
- No protection against favouritism
- No protection against arbitrary decisions
- No accountability or transparency
- Possible offshore outsourcing
Creating a private regulator will add millions of dollars to the administration of justice – costs that court reporters and litigants will have to cover. It will not guarantee accurate transcripts in a timely manner. How does this serve our justice system?
The ministry is outsourcing court transcription to deliberately avoid compliance with a legal ruling that says the production of transcripts is covered under the OPSEU collective agreement.
Protect the integrity of the record
Contact your MPP and your colleagues in the legal community. Tell them the administration of justice is not being served. To locate your MPP go to http://www.elections.on.ca/ and click: Find Your Electoral District.
