COURT REPORTERS WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30, 1943 UNITED STATES SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 11:15 a. m., in the committee room of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Capitol, Senator Harley M. Kilgore (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Kilgore (presiding), McCarran and Ferguson. Senator KILGORE: The committee will please come to order. We have for consideration this morning S. 620, a bill to authorize the appointment of court reporters in the district courts of the United States, to fix their duties, to provide for their compensation, and for other purposes. (S. 620 is as follows:) [S. 620, 78th Cong., 1st sess.] A BILL To authorize the appointment of court reporters in the district courts of the United States, to fix their duties, to provide for their compensation, and for other purposes Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Judicial Code (Act of March 3, 1911, 36 Stat. 1089, as amended) is hereby amended by inserting after section 5 thereof a new section 5a, entitled "Court Reporters", as follows: "SEC. 5a. COURT REPORTERS. "(a) APPOINTMENT. Each district court of the United States, including the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia, shall appoint one or more court reporters for the district court in the manner provided for the appointment of the clerks of said courts. The persons to be so appointed shall possess the qualifications necessary for the satisfactory performance of the duties specified in subdivision (b) of this section, to be determined by standards which shall be formulated from time to time by the judicial conference, and shall take an oath to perform faithfully such duties. The number of reporters to be so appointed shall be determined by the Judicial Conference of Senior Circuit Judges (hereinafter referred to as the judicial conference). The court, with the approval of the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (hereinafter referred to as the Director) may appoint additional reporters for temporary service not exceeding three months, when there is more reporting work in the district than can be promptly performed by the authorized number of reporters and the urgency is so great as to render it impracticable to obtain the approval of the judicial conference. If the court and the judicial conference are of the opinion that in any district it is in the public interest that the duties of reporter should be combined with those of any other employee of the court, the judicial conference may authorize such a combination of positions and fix the salary therefor, as provided by subsection (c) hereof, any provision of law to the contrary notwithstanding. “(b) DUTIES.-One of the reporters so appointed for each district court shall attend at each session of the court and at every other proceeding that may be designated by rule of procedure or order of court or by one of the judges of the court, and shall record verbatim by shorthand or by mechanical means (1) all proceedings in criminal cases had in open court, whether in connection with plea, 1 trial, or sentence; (2) all proceedings in all other cases had in open court unless the parties shall specifically agree to the contrary; and (3) such other proceedings as a judge of the court may direct or as may be required by rule of procedure or order of the court or as may be requested by any party to the proceeding. The reporter shall attach his official certificate to the original shorthand notes or other original records so taken and promptly file them with the clerk of the court, who shall preserve them in the public records of the court for not less than ten years. Upon the request of any party to any proceeding which has been so recorded or of a judge of the court, the reporter shall promptly transcribe the original records of the requested parts of the proceedings and attach thereto his official certificate, and shall then deliver the transcript to the party or judge making the request. He shall also transcribe and certify such other parts of the record of proceedings as may be required by rule of procedure or order of court. The reporter shall promptly deliver to the clerk for the records of the court a certified copy of any transcript that he may make of any part of the record of any proceeding. No transcripts of the proceedings of the court shall be considered as official except those made from the records taken by the reporter so appointed. The said original notes or other original records and the said copy of transcript shall be open to inspection in the office of the clerk as provided by law with respect to books containing the docket or minute of judgments, or decrees thereof. "(c) COMPENSATION. Each reporter so appointed shall receive an annual salary, to be fixed from time to time by the judicial conference and to be paid in the same manner and at the same time that the salary of the clerk of the court is paid. In fixing such salary the judicial conference shall take into account in each instance the amount of time the reporter is required to be in attendance upon the court engaged in the performance of his duties. Such salary shall not exceed $3,000 per annum, except that if the amount of time any reporter is required to attend upon the court in the performance of his duties exceeds thirty weeks annually, as determined by the judicial conference, the salary may in the discretion of the judicial conference be fixed in that instance at an amount not exceeding $5,000 per annum. The reporter shall also receive his traveling expenses and expenses incurred for subsistence within the limitations prescribed by law for clerks of district courts while necessarily absent on official business from the place of his regular employment. Necessary equipment and supplies for recording the proceedings shall be furnished to the reporter by the Adminis trative Office of the United States Courts. All other supplies shall be furnished by the reporter at his own expense. In addition, the reporter may charge and collect from parties, including the United States, who request transcripts, such fees therefor and no other, as may be prescribed from time to time by the court subject to the approval of the judicial conference. The fees for transcripts furnished to a judge for his personal use shall be paid by the United States out of money appropriated for that purpose. No fee shall be charged or taxed for any copy of a transcript delivered to the clerk for the records of the court as required by subdivision (b) of this section. Fees for transcripts furnished in criminal or habeas corpus proceedings to persons allowed to sue, defend, or appeal in forma pauperis shall be paid by the United States out of money appropriated for that purpose; and the fees for transcripts furnished in other than criminal or habeas corpus proceedings to persons permitted to appeal in forma pauperis shall also be paid by the United States if the trial judge shall certify that the appeal is not frivolous but presents a substantial question. Except as to transcripts that are to be paid for by the United States, the reporter may require any party requesting a transcript to prepay the estimated fee therefor in advance of delivery of the transcript. The "(d) ADMINISTRATION.-The judicial conference shall supervise and direct the administration of this section. Subject to this section and pertinent laws, it shall be the duty of the court to supervise and direct the reporter in the performance of his duties, including dealings with parties requesting transcripts. Director shall prescribe records which shall be maintained and reports which shall be filed by the reporter. Such records shall be inspected and audited in the same manner as the records and accounts of the clerk and may include records showing (1) the quantity of transcripts prepared, (2) the fees charged and the fees collected for transcripts, (3) any expenses incurred by the reporter in connection with transcripts, (4) the amount of time the reporter is in attendance upon the court for the purpose of recording proceedings, and (5) such other information as the Director may determine. "(e) TAXATION OF FEES AS COSTS.-In the discretion of the court any part or all of the fees for transcripts may be taxed as costs in the case. Fees paid by the United States for transcripts furnished to persons allowed to appeal in civil cases in forma pauperis shall be taxed in favor of the United States as costs in the case.' SEC. 2. All laws or parts of laws inconsistent or repugnant to the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed. SEC. 3. There are hereby authorized to be appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, such sums as may be necessary to carry the provisions of this Act into effect. Senator KILGORE. Is Mr. Fabricant of New York present? Senator KILGORE. For the benefit of the record, I wish you would please state your full name. STATEMENT OF LOUIS FABRICANT, ATTORNEY IN CHIEF, LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF NEW YORK, AND PRESIDENT, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LEGAL AID ORGANIZATIONS Mr. FABRICANT. My name is Louis Fabricant. I am attorney in chief of the Legal Aid Society of New York and I am also, at the moment, the president of the National Association of Legal Aid Organizations. Senator KILGORE. Mr. Fabricant, I believe you wrote a letter to the committee in which you stated your interest in the bill we are considering today and on which we are now conducting this hearing. I wish you would go ahead, without questions, and bring out the points you wish to make. Mr. FABRICANT. I did not write a letter myself. Senator KILGORE. There was a letter which came in from the Legal Aid Society, I think. Mr. FABRICANT. Yes, from Mr. Tweed, president of the Legal Aid Society of New York, and I think there should be a letter from Judge Learned Hand of the Circuit Court of Appeals of New York. Our interest, as an association of legal-aid organizations and my own interest as attorney in chief in New York, is in that part of the proposed bill which makes it possible to have available a record of the proceedings in criminal trials for poor persons who are charged with crime and who are convicted and who may have no opportunity at all for presenting any proper legal points on appeal. There have been a number of instances of that sort in and around New York. I know one recently came to the United States Supreme Court in which the Court wrestled with the problem of how to create a record. Another case that has come to my attention was one in which the attorney, who felt there was adequate reason for appeal, did the best he could to provide a record, doing the typing himself for the purpose of submitting something that would be acceptable to the circuit court of appeals. From my own experience as an attorney, in charge of what we used to call the Voluntary Defenders Committee of New York some 25 years ago, organized at that time for the purpose of defending poor and indigent criminals, persons accused of crime, our most serious difficulty was in obtaining a record of what had taken place. Occasionally, you get some man who is either innocent and ought to have his case appealed or where there is a really substantial and meritorious question that ought to be presented to an appellate court. This bill, I think, has great merit for it has a provision for making the record of |