OCA outlines HB 16 digital court recording study; survey hits 1,000 responses

The Office of Court Administration on Friday briefed the Court Reporters Certification Advisory Board on a state-mandated study of digital court recording, saying the work will combine a multistate policy scan, a statewide inventory of current practice, stakeholder surveys and interviews, a cost analysis and a blinded accuracy comparison between digital-recording transcripts and traditional shorthand transcripts.

Ron Morgan, who is administratively assigned to the project, told the board the study was commissioned under HB 16 and that OCA contracted with the Public Policy Research Institute at Texas A&M to carry out the research. "The study should also include an analysis of the use of digital court recording in other states and jurisdictions and should end with recommendations on any necessary changes to statutes, rules, regulations, and standards regarding digital court recording in the state of Texas," Morgan said.

Morgan said the study team has formed a stakeholder workgroup that includes judges, organizations of court reporters, providers of digital-recording services and a public representative, and that the workgroup has reviewed outreach materials and the survey instrument. "We have 3 judges of courts of record, including the presiding judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals," Morgan told the board.

Survey and interviews

Morgan said the survey link was intentionally made shareable so organizations without direct email lists could distribute the instrument. "We have over 8,000 individuals who have received the survey and have the ability to complete it," he said. "Right now, roughly 1,000 people have responded to that survey with a very, very high completion rate of 70 to 80 percent of the people who have opened the survey have completed it." Morgan said the survey includes a question about what state the respondent works in so the research team can filter for Texas-based responses.

The study also includes one-on-one interviews. Morgan described the interview selection as profession-based and conducted "to the point of saturation," meaning researchers will interview until no new substantive themes emerge within each professional cohort rather than attempting to interview every survey respondent.

Accuracy assessment and methodology questions

Board members pressed Morgan on how accuracy testing would work. One member asked how the research team would measure accuracy without accepted testing guidelines; Morgan said Texas A&M will anonymize transcripts and provide them to blinded raters so raters cannot tell which method—human stenography, digital court recording or other—produced any particular transcript. "The folks at A and M have developed a process whereby they anonymize the transcripts and provide it to a number of people," Morgan said. "They make it such that the individuals who are doing the rating do not have a way to know the methodology."

Members also asked whether the same proceeding would be used across methods for comparison. Morgan said the research will draw from a variety of existing transcripts across criminal, civil and family cases to capture different pacing and contexts (for example, jury selection), rather than relying on a single proceeding.

Timeline and deliverables

Morgan described a near-term schedule in which the survey remains open for about 30 days from its launch (he said the survey went out on the 17th and anticipated the fielding period would run into mid-May), A&M would begin drafting a report in the coming month, and OCA would provide a final report and recommendations to state policymakers in the fall as required by the statute.

Public comment and membership update

During the moved-up public-comment period, Renee White asked that survey responses be limited to Texans with direct experience, saying she had seen posts suggesting broader distribution; Morgan reiterated that the survey collects respondents’ state and that shareable distribution was adopted to ensure stakeholder groups without direct email lists could participate. Gail Fiasco presented pass-rate statistics for certified shorthand reporter skills exams, saying pass rates and test participation rose after the testing moved online.

Board business

The board approved the minutes of its prior meeting with a one-word amendment inserted in Item 4. Members also received an advisory-board membership update: long-serving member Kim Bridal is retiring but will continue to handle complaint presentations until a successor is appointed. With no further comment, the chair adjourned the meeting.

What happens next

OCA and Texas A&M will continue data collection, begin targeted interviews, and draft the study report; Morgan said the goal is to provide findings and statute/rule recommendations to the Judicial Council and the Legislature later this year. Morgan encouraged stakeholders to submit additional data through the study contact listed in the survey materials or via the OCA study email address.

Votes at a glance

- Approval of minutes with insertion of one missing word: motion made, seconded and approved. - Motion to adjourn: made, seconded and approved.