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Court transcribers press Judiciary Committee to raise $3-per-page rate set in 1988
Summary
Approved court transcribers and court advocates asked the Joint Committee on the Judiciary to update General Laws chapter 221, §88 by increasing the original transcript page rate from $3 to $4.50 and by adopting periodic cost-of-living increases after more than three decades without an adjustment.
A group of approved court transcribers, trial-court representatives and defenders urged the Joint Committee on the Judiciary to report H.16‑49/S.11‑68 favorably, asking the committee to modernize the payment scheme that compensates transcribers who prepare official court transcripts.
Witnesses told the committee the current original-page rate of $3 was set in 1988 and has not been adjusted for inflation. Several transcribers described the job as time-consuming and research-intensive; witnesses said preparing a transcript can require roughly three hours of production for each hour of audio plus additional research, formatting and indexing. Paula Pietrela, a former official court reporter who now works as an approved court transcriber, described the statute as the mechanism that “pays professionals whether stenographers, voice reporters, or digital transcribers to produce accurate and secure transcripts,” and asked that the bill’s automatic five‑year CPI adjustment be retained.
Representatives of the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS) and trial-court supporters told the committee that delays in obtaining transcripts harm indigent litigants, increase jail time for people waiting for hearings, and slow case resolution. William Shea, CPCS director of audit and oversight, said the pool of approved transcribers remains small (roughly 71) while demand and the time needed to produce transcripts have increased, causing backlogs and delayed justice for clients.
Several approved transcribers described the practical effects of the current rate: reduced recruitment of new transcribers, unpaid hours spent researching names and technical terminology, and reliance on home offices to manage software, hardware and security for court audio files. Witnesses urged increasing the original page rate to $4.50 per page and adopting either an automatic CPI adjustment or an indexed periodic increase to avoid repeated multi-year legislative fights.
Committee members asked about average production time and the composition of the transcriber pool. No formal committee vote occurred during the hearing; witnesses requested a favorable report and urged lawmakers to include an adjusted rate and cost-of-living mechanism in legislation.
