Executive director presents staffing, licensing and testing plan; commission raises interpreter oral-exam fee ceiling

Ron Morgan, executive director of the Judicial Branch Certification Commission, told commissioners May 2 that the commission’s caseload and licensing workload have increased and outlined a multi-part plan to address staffing, testing and outreach.

Morgan said the commission had 47 pending investigations before the meeting, up from 41 at the last quarter, and received 22 complaints in the previous month. “Complaints received between January–April of 2025 are up 80% compared to the same period in 2024,” he said, noting the majority of complaints were about process servers and that complaints regarding court reporters have also risen.

Staff provided licensing counts: more than 7,200 total licensees across professions, including roughly 2,300 court reporters, about 253 firms, 450 professional guardians, roughly 3,800 process servers, and about 484 court interpreters. Morgan said staff received 22 applications and issued 54 new licenses, certifications or registrations in the prior month and processed 222 renewals; over 1,200 applications were pending, with court interpreters and court reporters representing the largest pending groups because of testing requirements.

Morgan presented a plan focused on staff support and workforce development, regulatory priorities and technology and testing improvements. Key priorities he listed included maintaining staff retention and development, supporting the Judicial Council’s legislative priorities (including possible adoption of national court-reporter certifications in lieu of a Texas exam and regulating digital court recorders), improving interpreter training and pretesting orientation, leveraging advisory boards, streamlining agenda and backup materials, and automating testing processes where feasible.

On testing and technology, Morgan described difficulties with remote proctoring for guardianship exams (video flags that require staff review) and said staff are exploring remote testing sites at universities to reduce staff time spent reviewing video flags and to centralize testing. He said the commission hopes to work with the National Center for State Courts to improve written exams for interpreters and to convene the LCI advisory board over the summer to consider pretesting orientation and other supports for candidates.

Morgan also asked the commission to authorize raising the ceiling on the licensed court interpreter oral-exam fee to protect the commission against rising vendor costs. Staff said the current fee is $300 per oral exam, while vendor grading fees have been $380 for Spanish and $522 for other languages. In consultation with general counsel, staff proposed increasing the ceiling to $750 so the commission can adjust actual fees to reflect vendor costs without returning to the court each year. Commissioners moved, seconded and approved the proposed increase in the fee ceiling.

Morgan proposed an administrative change to backup materials for administrative dismissals: instead of providing full evidentiary packets on dismissed complaints, staff will provide the dismissal letter and aggregate reporting, reserving full evidence for cases that return for reconsideration or contested hearing. Scott Gibson concurred that preserving evidence for potential hearings supported the approach; the commission treated that as an administrative procedure rather than an item requiring a formal vote.

The commission also approved staff-recommended appointments to the Court Reporter Advisory Board (to be forwarded to the Supreme Court for final appointment): Whitney Olden Riley (captioner/court reporter seat), Kelly Hanna (freelance reporter seat), and Molly Pela (attorney seat). The commission set its next meeting for Friday, Aug. 10, 2025 (time to be confirmed).