Federal court transcripts available after delay
on Sep 18, 2007 at 2:07 pm
The U.S. Judicial Conference, policymaking arm of the federal courts, voted on Tuesday to make transcripts of U.S. District Court and federal bankruptcy courts proceedings available online — after a 90-day delay. Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., heads the Conference, which meets semi-annually at the Court. The transcripts will be available through the PACER system, the Conference decided, and thus there will be a charge of 8 cents per page.
The delay in release was due to two considerations, according to Chief Judge Thomas F. Hogan, the head of the Conference’s Executive Committee, who spoke with reporters after the Conference session. First, it sometimes takes time to prepare transcripts, and second, because court reporters’ income is directly affected, some delay was deemed necessary to allow them to sell transcripts for a period of time, according to the judge.
The Courts of Appeals are not covered by this change in policy. Transcripts of those courts’ proceedings still will be available only through court reporters.
In another move to increase public access, the Conference decided to set up a pilot project to provide free access, through PACER, to court documents at about 15 federal depository libraries around the country. Those libraries have not yet been designated, according to Conference aides. This will be a joint test involving the Government Printing Office and the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts.
The Conference, in a separate action, decided to put a ceiling on federal judges’ authority to hire so-called “career law clerks” — those who serve four or more years. Judge Hogan said there had been a recent trend among some judges to hire more career law clerks, to take advantage of their greater experience. There are now some 291 career law clerks in chambers around the country. The Conference voted to restrict judges to one career law clerk. “Term” clerks generally serve for only one or two years.
The trend to hire clerks for longer periods reflects, according to Judge Hogan, a rising interest in experienced lawyers being willing to take clerkships, especially at the District Court level. More clerks are coming from law firms, the judge said, rather than straight from law school. Some who have taken law firm positions in order to pay for their legal educations are being attracted, later, to the continuing prestige of a clerkship, Judge Hogan said. On the District Court in Washington, D.C., he said, perhaps half of the law clerks have come from law practice.
A report on all of the Judicial Conference’s actions can be found in this news release.
