Finney County to pilot AI-assisted court transcription; state covers first year, commissioners raise cost-shift concerns

Manasas Navarro, court administrator for the 20 Fifth Judicial District, told the Finney County Commission that the Kansas Office of Judicial Administration expanded a speech-to-text pilot that will generate first-draft transcripts from the court’s VIQ audio recordings.

The pilot will be funded by the state for the first year, Navarro said, and the county was allowed six licenses so each courtroom’s VIQ recorder can produce a draft transcript. After the first year, the vendor charge would be $4,800 per license annually — about $28,800 for six courtrooms — which Navarro said the county and local judges would evaluate before continuing past the state-funded period.

Navarro said VIQ’s speech-to-text output will serve as a “first draft.” Court reporters and transcriptionists will review the draft against recordings, edit as needed and certify final transcripts for public or litigant requests. He said the technology is trained on legal recordings and that local court staff expressed cautious optimism that it could speed transcript preparation.

Commissioners asked several operational questions. One commissioner clarified that each courtroom’s VIQ recorder requires its own license, which is why Navarro requested six licenses to cover all courtrooms. The chair and other commissioners raised a policy concern about whether ongoing license costs would shift from the state to counties under court unification. Navarro said a state budget request to cover the licenses had not been approved, which left counties to decide whether to continue after the free first year. The chair urged commissioners to contact state legislators and the district’s judicial leadership to seek budget relief in the next state budget cycle.

Navarro and the commissioners said the county will monitor the pilot’s usefulness and timeliness and decide whether to continue the licenses once the state-funded year ends.

The commission did not take a formal vote on the pilot during the meeting; Navarro’s presentation was informational and the commission directed staff to monitor implementation and to communicate budget concerns to state officials.

Ending: Commissioners said they would collect feedback about the pilot’s performance during the first year and consider the long-term licensing cost as part of next year’s budget discussions.